# Pronouns and idiot fascists

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-and-idiot-fascists/970369>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 26, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-and-idiot-fascists/970369 "2022-08-26T01:57:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 305

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-and-idiot-fascists/970369/305 "2022-09-03T02:05:46Z")

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> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> […] they can’t see that it’s just the latest version of the same bullshit used against blacks, gays, etc. It should be obvious. Why isn’t it?

I keep wondering that myself. Hell, we’ve had [threads seriously arguing against gay rights little more than a decade ago right here on this board,](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/492382/165) using the same sort of arguments for their heteronormativity that the transphobes are using now for their cisnormativity. (No poster names quoted, to protect the not-so-innocent.)

> [@](#):
>
> The definition of marriage as “one man and one woman” is pretty foundational, and goes back to the common law. […]
> 
> Our society was founded on marital monogamy. Not bigamy, not polygamy, not gay marriage. These others are, or have been, right out. […]
> 
> Marriage is a relationship in which the sexual union, by no means the sole purpose of the relationship but an integral part, nonetheless, can and under natural circumstances will, result in offspring. […] Gay relationships do not and cannot produce offspring. They, by definition, are not equal in value to society. […]
> 
> It’s a definition based on biological relations, which is a common frame of reference. […] Words mean things. […]
> 
> A priviliege cannot be defined legislatively until it is defined lexicographically. And for the purposes of our country, we have for its entirety defined the word marriage as a union of one man and one woman. […]
> 
> I’m arguing that marriage is a right if you [meet] the requirements. Which gay relationships do not. […]
> 
> Gay people can form relationships of any scope, it merely is not the same as that of marriage. It cannot be.

Hell again, shortly after that we had [a thread seriously arguing against acknowledging adoptive parents by parental titles:](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adoption-why-say-mom-and-dad/525506/48)

> [@](#):
>
> Actually, the kind of adoption in which people take a completely unrelated child and make the child legally “theirs” is NOT pretty universal […] Throughout history, children were cared for and raised by people other than those who gave birth to them, but rarely was the biological history altered. […]
> 
> I don’t understand why their simple act of wanting to father a child or [gestate and] give birth somehow translates into the right to claim they have done those activities. […]
> 
> I have always considered gestating and giving birth the definition of female parent. Male parent is the one that provides the sperm. […]
> 
> My colleagues have considerable negative opinions about adoption. At best, they would consider this woman to have stolen a child […]
> 
> Several adopters seem to feel that because they support a child they should be called a parent. […]

I cannot fathom how transphobes really can’t hear themselves using exactly this same kind of arbitrarily rigid linguistic prescriptivism to make their case against trans rights.

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