Hope to be an ally, learn from his bad example what not to do.
I would rather call it Djangonian music, named in homage to the Maestro.
Sure but that’s not what anyone calls it. Joscho Stephan who I have seen many times is probably the current living master of the genre and from Germany calls it that as do the Django Festival Allstars who are led by Samson Schmitt from France whom I have also seen multiple times. I cringe a bit when they explain the history and use that name.
Sure, because I just made it up a minute ago.
Let’s start the trend now.
Again, are you basing this on what he said while he was dying? About trans in sports? Because what he actually did does not show any evidence of that- Frank supported formal civil rights protections for transgender people. Frank was known for having testified in favor of transgender equal rights in Massachusetts in 2011 and he supported more federal protections. Frank argued many times that transgender equality was the next step in the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Did Frank ever do anything that showed he was transphobic?
I think giving a dying sick persons words too much weight is unfair.
What should we call Gypsy?
(Apparently there’s a movement afoot to call its subject “G. Rose Lee.”)
Maximalist thinking is “all or nothing.” If someone agrees with 99% of my favored positions but disagrees on 1%, then that someone is a bigoted genocidal piece of excrement.
I hope no one shared with Barney Frank that he was the target of such thinking, during those last days. He didn’t deserve it.
He’s getting a lot of well-earned tributes for his work on promoting LGBTQ rights, but also recognition for his efforts to rein in Wall Street excesses:
Apparently he has a book of advice for Democrats coming out in September:
{noting that @iiandyiiii also referenced this article}
I think there are quite a few potential, untapped trans allies across the political spectrum. Some of them need time to digest and come around. Some need personal exposure to friends, family, and coworkers in order to realize trans people are not the enemy. Trans issues and acceptance has only had mainstream awareness for a relatively short period of time.
We can nurture these potential allies and give them time to come around. Or, if we feel that the discrimination efforts are too severe, too dangerous, we can push forward with full force.
Since I am not directly affected, I defer to those that are for setting the course of action. My sense, from posters on this board at least, we cannot afford to wait.
Anyone ever notice that these half-cocked hypotheticals never establish how anyone is supposed to know that this theoretical Nebraska housewife is “uncomfortable” with trans people? We’re invited to imagine this poor imaginary woman just minding her own business when some “asshole” (presumably with blue hair) magically appears and just starts shrieking “bigot” at them. There’s never any sort of instigating incident, like there would be in real life - but then you have to tie a specific behavior to our sainted made-up housewife, and that starts getting messy because it’s hard to come up with an actual behavior a person can take that shows they’re “uncomfortable” with trans people that also doesn’t show them being an asshole about it.
Also, FYI, but there’s a word for someone who holds a grudge against an entire class of people based on a negative experience with one or two members of that class. Starts with a “b” and rhymes with “spigot.”
In my example, I was thinking more in terms of how she votes, not how she behaves. She may well have never met a trans person and only heard or seen about them on TV, but she’s going to have to vote one way or the other regardless.
I never said she was bigoted, just that she doesn’t know much and is uncomfortable with the idea. Which mind you, isn’t bigotry, it’s at worst ignorance.
So why call her a bigot if she doesn’t agree with you, and basically push her into the Republican side of things? Why not take a gentler approach? What’s it buy anyone to antagonize people about this, especially those on the fence or who are unsure?
If you replace trans with Black in this we’d still be living with segregation.
I assume that it’s more like this housewife in at home in Nebraska doing her thing and deciding who she will vote for when she hears someone associated with (or being painted as associated with) the Democratic Party calling people who hold opinions she holds, like that trans women have an unfair advantage in sports, a horrible bigot. She doesn’t need to hear this person call her a horrible bigot in person; hearing them say that a belief she holds is horribly bigoted is equivalent, by the transitive property.
How she votes on what? What specific anti-trans legislation are you imagining here? Put some actual stakes in your hypotheticals. What specific damage is this woman inflicting on trans people that we’re supposed to overlook because calling her a bigot is mean?
Fun fact: no she doesn’t. Nobody is required to register a vote on every issue on a ballot, or even vote at all. “I’ve never met a single trans person in my life, but I’m still going to vote to strip them of their legal rights,” is not the morally exculpating scenario you seem to think it is.
Yes, I’ve picked up on your reticence to call bigots what they actually are. That’s kind of the whole thing I’m pushing back on here?
Because it’s accurate. Because calling bigots out on their bigotry doesn’t “push” them anywhere, it just identifies where they already are. Because no civil rights advancement in history has ever succeeded by being polite. Because you’re insisting on a situation where every single person who supports trans rights must be unfailingly polite at all times, and if a single one of us slips up, our putative bigot is instantly resolved of any responsibility for their own beliefs and actions - it’s not their fault for supporting anti-trans legislation, it was those terrible trans activists who forced her into it.
No one hypothetically called this hypothetical person a “horrible bigot”.
Why do these examples always include such hyperbole?
I think a lot of people are just fragile little snowflakes. You can be as polite as you can be, but any suggestion that they might need to reconsider certain attitudes will be experienced as you calling them a horrible bigot.
Hannity or Tucker may convince this hypothetical Great Plains housewife that she’ll be called a bigot based on whatever nonsense minor concern she may have… and it won’t have anything to do with actual Democratic policies. If she gets her news from Hannity and co, there’s probably absolutely nothing any Democrat could ever do. The popular blather on this issue is pretty much 99.9% based on bullshit from liars. It won’t matter if various Democratic governors or Senators decide they want to be moderate or something – as long as they show even the barest hint of decency or compassion to trans people, and/or as long as a single Democrat in office (or on social media, even) pushes for a maximalist trans rights position, then the whole party will be deemed the trans rights party, and people who vote based on their distaste for trans people will never be open to a Democratic candidate.
If this hypothetical housewife isn’t a bigot, she’s not going to vote to prevent trans people from getting medical care. But she might vote for her local Republicans, who will join the national Republicans in bad legislation.
Of course, if she doesn’t know any trans people, she probably voting on other issues, and not on trans issues. So we should address her by pointing out how damaging the Republican tariffs are, and how bad their healthcare policies are. Because those are issues she’s probably thinking about.
Correct, in the example I provided, no one called them a horrible bigot. That was pretty clear in the example. What point are you trying to make by pointing that out?
Almost every time I’ve seen someone called on their assholish behavior by a stranger, now matter how obvious and egregious the example, the reaction has been anger and defensiveness. Some people are polite, and apologize and try to do better, but most aren’t. This is especially obvious when the issue is being inconsiderate: in other words, when people did wrong because they weren’t really thinking about other people sufficiently or at all.
The conclusion I draw from that is that, as a culture, we’re simply not inclined to learn or modify our behavior when approached by strangers, and / or that we lash out with aggression when we fell guilty.
So the only way to reach the Nebraska housewife is not to call her a bigot, not to point out that her actions are bigoted, but to address the whole thing indirectly, by explicitly humanizing trans people. Film and television are probably the most effective ways to do this; education will follow. This is kind of what happened with gay people: they were rarely and obliquely depicted in pop culture, then were minor characters, largely for laughs; then eventually main characters with nearly the full range of humanity.
In the meantime, yes, Nebraska Lou IS explicitly voting on anti-trans positions, if she’s voting Republican, which is a decent bet for our hypothetical voter. And anti-gay positions, and anti-women positions as well. This is a whole other level of educational outreach that is needed, but either the Democrats don’t want to, or it’s just not that important to them.