i don’t really agree with that. The linked article above does mention trans men. The law, whether it explicitly mentions them or not, raises questions on what bathrooms trans men should use.
The goal of such laws is that unless people can ‘pass’ they will not use any public bathroom at all. They will either stay out of their homes for only short periods, or not leave their homes at all. Society at large will not have to spend nearly as much time dealing with seeing them in public.
Yes the goal of all of these laws is to remove transgender individuals from public life and make them confirm to traditional gender standards.
The “final” goal is to make it damn near impossible to operate in society if you are gay, lesbian or trans.
I’m more thinking about here, the US, and literally here where posting pics of transmen and asking which bathroom they should use is responded to with silence.
Oh, I agree completely. Certainly that is the world the groups behind this law want. I was speaking of this specific law only. In general, it never starts with death camps, gas chambers and crematory ovens. But far too often, that is where things end up.
I have absolutely no idea whey people keep bringing up LGB into subjects that only concern the T, like a tail wagging a dog.
LGB was always part of it, just hidden a bit better.
I don’t know how to respond to that. If you honestly do not understand it, you (and I mean this seriously and literally) need to study the state of the LGBTQ+ comunity in Weimar Germany and under the Nazis. You also need to study the history of the LGBTQ+ community in general.
Umm, because, with regard to this specific topic, there’s a history of folks wanting to ban gays and lesbians from their gender’s bathrooms/changing rooms.
This one particular aspect is just the wedge to let the rest of the nasty stuff take hold.
But we’re not supposed to mention that because it makes some people sad.
Nonetheless, actual historians also make the comparison.
Because these things never only concern the T. And the rhetoric claiming that it does, is specifically designed to weaken opposition by groups who are all intended targets.
A pre-emptive note- Before anybody says that making this comparison is disrespectful to Jews, I am a Jew. One of the many joys of finally decluttering was finding my box of yarmulkes, my tallis, and my Zeyde Herman’s tefilin. I also found a mezzuzah I shall mount on my doorpost as soon as I can find a few necessary items.
Also, six million Jews died in the holocaust. Five million more people from groups the Nazis hated died as well. This included ‘sexual defectives’ gay men, lesbians, and trans people. Actual research on trans patients was being done. The Nazis destroyed it all.
Yes, this is not about trans people being treated now like the Nazis treated Jews. It’s about trans people being treated now like the Nazis treated trans people.
We’re not remotely at the camp stage yet. And we still have time to stop it. But we’re seeing one small step at a time being taken in the wrong direction, and acknowledging what’s at the end of that road is the first step in the right one.
There’s a lot of overlap between LGB and T, in terms of both culture and the specific individuals. I know a lot of trans women who thought of themselves as gay men at first: making life difficult for trans people has a negative impact on everyone who might potentially transition in the future, and such people are disproportionately LGB. Anti-trans policies often target gender nonconformity, and gender-nonconforming people are also disproportionately LGB: the average butch lesbian is more likely to be mistaken for a man and harassed in public than the average woman.
Because when you come for one of us, you come for all of us.
The obvious quote:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a CommunistThen they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a SocialistThen they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionistThen they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a JewThen they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
History shows just how shortsighted the position of “They aren’t after me, so why should I care” is.
The original poem by Martin Niemöller:
"Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Juden einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte."
English translation:
" When the Nazis came for the communists,
I kept quiet; I wasn’t a communist.
When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a trade unionist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a social democrat.
When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to protest."
I don’t know what the hell happened. There was a Supreme Court judgement that sounded like it should only matter in very limited circumstances, and then suddenly they are banning trans people from toilets. I’m not a lawyer, but it makes no logical sense: the judgement was about whether ‘women’ in the Equalities Act included trans women with Gender Recognition certificates, but policies on toilets etc have always applied to all trans people, whether or not they have a GRC.
Seems crazy to me. Possibly someone will have to sue to get the guidance changed back to what it was, but in the meantime it’s very difficult and distressing for trans people in the UK.
The goal is persecution, so it make perfect logical sense. Bigots don’t care about the law, just about hurting people, and the only reason to be hostile to trans people is bigotry.
We can thank JK Rowling for astroturfing that campaign and priming the political pumps behind it. And of course once her group got the verdict they wanted, they immediately moved on to “We need to take action against immigrants because they’re a threat to women”. And who knows which group will be next? Because “We’re just poor frightened creatures” seems to work.
The irony is that this approach damages women far more in the long run than all the groups they purport to be afraid of, but then it’s not like it was ever about the welfare of women in the first place.