Blog
My identity is a ‘luxury belief’, and other reasons Trump won
NYT columnist David Brooks says Trump voters just wanted ‘respect’ - and that’s somehow at odds with me being gay. He asked us to shut up so that Republicans voters wouldn’t go on to elect Trump to forcibly shut us up. He’s got some ‘paradox of tolerance’ going on here.
The US has an election result. What will we do now?
The way forward is muddy. A few words I’ve collected from others. Words of wisdom from people who’ve spent a lot of time raging, grieving, hoping, organizing. Let’s reflect on how we’re affected and how we can make change.
I can’t write the anti-gay argument for him
No one wants to be called a ‘bigot’ or a ‘fascist’. But it’s not my job to give him alternate explanations for his reasons or feelings. If I say something is bigoted, I may not be judging someone’s character, at least not primarily; instead I may be asserting why I’m not jumping on board.
Baldness isn’t just physical
It’s also performative. Labels describe how we live. Even when they describe reality, they’re about perceptions and performances. How we live interprets who we are.
When labels don’t feel right
She had two moms, and she didn’t like the word ‘straight’. If we have a stake in a shared outcome, we might avoid declaring how we’re different and separate from others, especially to imply our superiority.
People have been mad about ‘cisgender’ since at least 2007
If someone wants a world where no one is marked as cis, they must simultaneously fight for a world where no one is marked as trans.
‘Cis’ or ‘biological’?
They’re both adjectives, but we have preferences. No, ‘cis’ doesn’t imply that trans people are better. ‘Cis’ implies that trans people are equal. People who object to this equalization are transphobes.
Biologicals first!
OK, said the pack of hungry tigers. A slogan like ‘Biological first!’ might not work out so well for them. If we’re tied up by hungry cartoon tigers, our best bet is to untie each other.
‘Labels are for cans,’ yet you do see ‘trans’
The ‘soup can logic’ of using ‘trans’ but not ‘cis’. When people aren’t comfortable observing that some people are cis, often their discomfort rests in a belief that trans people aren’t people but soup cans.