Category: Trans
Assume humanity, then ask about happiness
Trans people‘s say-so is evidence of our happiness. But no one should ask for evidence that trans people are people. Previously, I used Lydia Polgreen’s opinion as an example, and I identified and extracted these writing tips for you. Please note this key distinction.
No one needs ‘evidence’ that transition improves trans people’s humanity
Let’s distinguish scientific uncertainty from value judgment. Anti-trans prejudice doesn’t justify demanding evidence about trans people’s humanity. When we let go of prejudice, some common ‘questions’ dissolve.
Can an identity be true and not true?
On ‘constitutive tension’ in our concepts. Picking apart someone else’s identity? First ask: Why do you want to? What would be gained? And lost? What happens to your own identity in the process?
Gödel is sure Bach, and trans people are sure their gender
Reflections on the Pulitzer-winning ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach’ (1979). Their objection is an infinite regress. They’re laying a trap. If we needed rules about rules about rules, none of us could ever use language at all.
How do we know who we are?
Do we learn it from a crystal ball—or from our guts? How do others state with certainty that they know who they are? Do they have a crystal ball? Of course, we’re jealous. How can we know ourselves, too?
Do we choose to be who we are?
And what, by the way, is choice? If you can’t snap your fingers to change, how do you change? What do we ask people to do when we ask them to change? Why should anyone change?
How the far-right comes for trans people
Violent far-right U.S. groups are ‘hugely and deeply’ anti-transgender. Anti-transgender rhetoric isn’t “just asking questions!” or curiosity or nuance. It is hateful; it is organized; it foments organized violence.
Donald Trump casts aspersions on trans people in his NRA speech
He told the pro-gun group that transgender people are violent. It’s nothing to do with academic curiosity nor concern for anyone’s well-being. This is yet another way he encourages violence toward a minority group.
How Trump self-scored 36 points on LGBTQ rights — and why it’s a failing grade
The administration has done nothing whatsoever to support LGBTQ rights. The Trump administration has done nothing whatsoever in favor of LGBTQ rights. Don’t repeat its lie to the contrary. It causes pain and stress.
Republicans say: Make it hard to divorce again
The Party of Trump wants to stop your divorce. Independence? For whom? The Republican Party wants to end no-fault divorce. They want everyone to be married with children. This threatens everyone’s right to exit a bad marriage.
Transphobia is a bellybutton mirror
On the Tucker ’n’ Carlos Show, insights from Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelganger’. We have to stop copying historical patterns of hate and cruelty. I try to reflect the world in ways that are good and true, not through a pipik-mirror.
What does Tucker Carlson say about LGBT people?
If you know someone who doesn’t know, show them this. Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson opposes LGBT rights. Where is the inventory of his offensive remarks that demonstrates this? I have created it.