I don’t know why I was born transgender, but I have no secret agenda. I want my child to live in a world where they are safe and free to be exactly who they are.

Fewer than 1 in 3 people report personally knowing someone who is transgender. Yet the American public is saturated with viral social media videos and political news stories, largely generated by a well-funded coalition of organizations long dedicated to making it as difficult as possible for LGBTQ+ people to go about their daily lives.

These organizations proudly advocate for the abuse of LGBTQ+ young people through the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, and they have celebrated their role in influencing Texas to “investigate” parents who’re doing their level best to support their transgender kids.

They’ve succeeded in generating national debates about excluding transgender kids from school sports, banning medically necessary health care and even prohibiting restroom usage – all under a guise of “protecting young people.” But these debates are largely missing the point.

Transgender people are our friends, family members and neighbors. They work in the cubicle next to us at the office, and they pray next to us in our houses of worship.

….

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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      There are so few that isolated communities can more easily demonize them and radicalize people against them as a social boogeyman and a distraction from the actual grifting and thieving and indoctrinating that is happening by clergy and politicians and billionaires. But people keep listening to what people say instead of watching what they do and allow themselves to be manipulated.

  • Emerald@lemmy.world
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    We should make a secret agenda. On Tuesday, all the trans people will meet up for taco night.

    • lath@lemmy.world
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      Up next, in the news: Mexicans targeted by secret trans agenda! Shadowy cabal using southern immigrants to push for government takeover! Does eating asparagus turn you gay? Are Chihuahuas a covert ploy to further the feminization of our country? These questions and more, answered just after the break! Stay tuned!

    • mrcleanup@lemmy.world
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      May I humbly suggest that we make it a taco OR hot dog night? I’d hate to force people into a choice that doesn’t work for them.

      • EmptySlime
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        8 months ago

        I have no objections. A taco is technically a hot dog after all.

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            8 months ago

            I prefer to think of it as… “Promoting healthy discourse among my peers.” Keeps the mind sharp.

          • EmptySlime
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            8 months ago

            Is a taco an open-faced sandwich? Or does an open-faced sandwich become a taco when you pick it up and fold it over to eat it?

    • kase@lemmy.world
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      It’s funny you should say this. There’s an orginazition in my home state called the Trans Advocacy Coalition of Oklahoma (TACO). It meets on tuesdays, of course.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      i vote the trans agenda be true individualistic freedom!

      I just want to do my own thing, fuck off and leave me alone for fucks sake. And while i’m at bitching about it, i see no reason that sentiment shouldn’t be extended to everyone else, we all deserve to be left alone sometimes.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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      Outspoken anti-Trans bigot and Nazi platformer Kellie-Jay “Posie Parker” Keen has stated just as such on multiple occasions. She’s talked a lot about “we can’t let them trans the children,” but when you press her (hell, even when you don’t) she will admit that she doesn’t think anyone should be allowed to transition at any age. She’s also said that anyone who has transitioned should be forced to detransition. So… she doesn’t like trans people and wants to torture them… other anti-Trans activists are shocked that she attracts Nazis and really want her to go away, but she’s their ideology taken to it’s conclusion.

      https://youtu.be/JBy93QX7ysE?si=g3krNkO-xML144Hs

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    nono, see you don’t understand, the secrete agenda is living.

    Don’t tell the government, they won’t like that.

    shitposting aside, i like how it says “fewer than 1 in 3” which is incredibly wide, but i’ll assume greater than .5 and less than 1 for sake of the argument. That means, assuming you have a handful of siblings, and parents, there is a none zero chance that someone in your family is trans.

    Let’s break it out further, at work, you probably interact with someone who is, especially if you work with customers/clients. Extended family? Almost certainly, online friends and acquaintances? You’d be stupid to think there isn’t a trans person somewhere in that group.

    i feel like that stat, and the next sentence “yet the american public” are in direct conflict, considering that statistically, it’s pretty likely that you know a trans person, and considering that for something to be a massive political hot button issue on one side of the aisle, it would have to be at least somewhat prominent.

    This shouldn’t be a surprise, this is how this shit works. People don’t like black people having freedom, suddenly the KKK exists. People don’t like women being able to own bank accounts, suddenly misogyny is now a thing. Queer people exist now, why are we acting surprised with that phrasing?

    Alright, enough of my autistic shenanigans, go have fun and enjoy something. It’s good for the soul.

        • Kedly@lemm.ee
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          Its KINDA high? You do realize the flipside to that stat is that 66% of people dont know a single person personally that is trans. So yeah, theres a non zero chance a family member is trans, non zero literally means something isnt impossible, but your first paragraph made it seem like you were interpreting that stat to say if you had 2 siblings that there was a good chance one of you was trans, which is false

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            that would be how percentages work yes.

            I do believe i mentioned that it was statistically possible, specifically, my point was that its very likely that you at least know someone who is. Though i probably did fuck up the bit about family lol.

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          It’s really not that high for knowing someone. It only takes about 7 degrees to link any two people in the world. One in three people knowing someone is almost 3 degrees of separation which is massive.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            still twice as common as that metric. Which is a pretty good starting point.

            even then, three degrees of separation is still relatively close to your mutual friend group.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    Plot twist: the Trans Agenda is very similar to the Gay Agenda… It was always just a Trapper Keeper. Turns out they just like to be organized.

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      trans people and our allies are fighting; that’s why the christian theocrats are freaking out and using us as the threat of the day to drum up their stupid, ignorant base.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      When we fight back, we get killed. (And then blamed for own deaths/have our deaths covered up - if you believe that Nex offed himself, you know nothing about how corrupt Oklahoma is)

      Edit: that was meant to read “didn’t off” himself. I said the opposite of what I meant.

      Nex did not kill himself, Owasso covered up the bullying and pretty much every state department is understaffed by under qualified toadies of Stitt.

      • kase@lemmy.world
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        Oklahoman here. I don’t know whether Nex died by suicide or not. But on a local level, the Owasso (and greater) community hasn’t given up the fight yet. Whether his injuries from the attack at school are what directly killed him or not, it doesn’t change the fact that he’d been a target of bullying for months and that he and his family were repeatedly ignored by the school and the police, and then he was beaten in the school bathroom by several classmates. Since his death, our politicians have doubled down on transphobic rhetoric, and our schools are still becoming more and more hostile towards LGBT+ youth. There’s a lot to talk about here, and local organizations have done a great job on covering these issues in press releases and the like. And there’s still more to come; we’re currently waiting on the release of the Medical Examiner’s full report (unless it’s been published already; I last checked about a week ago, and I just don’t have the emotional spoons today).

        Anyway, sorry for going into a whole rant. What I was going to say, in reply to your comment, is that our OCME (office of the chief medical examiner) hasn’t been nationally accredited since 2009. So, um. There’s that. ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

        • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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          Yes - I left out a word and changed the entire meaning of the sentence. I do not believe Nex killed himself. I believe that Owasso Public Schools and the Owasso police were complicit and are involved in covering up Nex’s death.

          I’m a transgender teacher in Oklahoma that quit teaching last year because I knew that if something happened to me, there would be no help and there would be an immediate flood of bullshit.

          The FBI exists because of Oklahoma’s refusal to investigate the murder of minorities…

          • kase@lemmy.world
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            No worries, I did understand what you meant, sorry if my tone made it sound like I was disagreeing. I think yours is a reasonable judgement. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. I’m trans here too and this state is a mess. Always has been.

            I respect anyone who chooses to leave, and I might leave one day. Still, there are good people here, and I care about this place, so I hope we can make things better.

            The FBI exists because of Oklahoma’s refusal to investigate the murder of minorities…

            You’re too right. It’s a tired tradition.

  • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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    In a capitalist system money is a weapon. You wonder why gay men have been so successful in shifting attitudes? It’s because they have money.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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      This is a fundamental misunderstanding of not just history in general, but specifically and especially queer history.

      You know the weapons that got us rights? It was horse archery, the doctrine of special forces, the 20th century incarnation of guerrilla warfare, and fucking bricks thrown very hard at cops by people with nothing to lose. This assimilationist bullshit is going to get people killed, and I might be one if them, so please fucking stop.

      • dandelion
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        Implying money is power isn’t urging assimilationism, why are you so quick to accuse them? Money is crucial to funding militant movements, these are not separate tactics.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          Historically, queer movements in particular have done without much money. The problem is with what money is and how its kind of opposed to a lot of the virtues of queerness, but that requires I be at least slightly eloquent to explain and I am not right now.

          • dandelion
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            hey no worries, maybe later if you’re feeling up for it we can chat more - I’m especially interested in any sources you have about the transfeminine horse archers, I’m having trouble finding anything about it from searching online.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        and fucking bricks thrown very hard at cops by people with nothing to lose

        I’m in no way discouraging such behavior. But if such acts aren’t followed up by financial backing historically they do not succeed.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          I’m pretty sure its people with aids physically shackling themselves to pharma execs that hot us prep, not your good-boy points. They literally wouldn’t let us spend our good boy points, even those who were personal friends with the president. Not that it would have done much good.

              • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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                Not many no.

                I’m not sure why you’re trying to fight this idea anyway. What makes trans rights immune from the huge influence money has in this country?

                • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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                  So a lot of people think of money as agency, and for a lot of people, in their scope, it sort of functions that way, but it breaks down a bit at the edges, and both edges are pertinent here, because both mechanisms apply and combine to create a big fat fuck you to queer people.

                  So, an economy is just a system of deciding who does what work and how the fruits of that work are distributed. Doesn’t need to have money or authority, but ours use both.

                  Money is a marker of worth (not necessarily an accurate one, for any definition of worth)as much as or more than a medium of exchange. Most things you buy with money, especially those that aren’t explicitly commodities, don’t require you to spend money so much as to have it. This is why a sharp outfit, the right accent, and good skin can get you into a ton of shit. In some places its more or less explicit or overlaps with other systems of entitlement, from the evangelical christian prosperity doctrine and credit scores in the american empire, to the concept of ‘new money’ and noble titles taking up lots of that function on terf island+wales.

                  Let’s start at the lower end. If you have money, but aren’t the kind of person who’s ‘allowed’ to have it, money can be a liability. If your societal markers are incongruous, it can make you a target, because youre seen as having done something ‘bad’ to get it. If a homeless guy walks into your store mumbling to an invisible person next to him and tries to spend a million dollars, even if he has it on him in cash, you’re not gonna let him. Even at the lower extreme, you probably need to pay 2k/mo rent because the bank doesn’t trust you to pay a 1k/mo mortgage. They don’t actually distrust you, it’s more a class solidarity thing.

                  So an undesirable with money may as well just not have it. Its useless, you can’t spend it ‘legitimately’ if you try. Nobody will let you. I’ve lived this.

                  At the higher end, you don’t actually spend money, and you get it more for things you are than things you do. At that point your worth is not diminished by consuming luxuries, because the luxuries, the whole economy, exist for your benefit, so you don’t have to spend money on them. The math is just an excuse, if anyone even bothers to crunch the numbers (its not like you check), its the image and class solidarity that matter.

                  And that’s where queer people (and other minorities) get fucked with moloch’s giant granite cocks and endless balls.

                  See, the wealthy aren’t unaccountable to the masses, and they have to keep the people they exploit (because they don’t actually make fix or discover anything ever; They get their money for being) from doing a ‘red terror’ and taking what’s theirs. They usually do this with culture war shit, and, at least since the fucking Victorians (the protestant Reformation? Emperor who-gives-a-fuck sacrificing rome’s only real virtue on a Christian altar to win a popularity contest?) that means talking shit on us.

                  And no amount of service to these institutions, real or social, no amount of worthiness, buys exception. That’s why I brought up Alan Turing (cut years off world war two, and did so staggeringly much for computer and information science. Caught sucking a dick behind a pub in a sting, fired from everything, put on non consensual hormone therapy, driven to suicide) and Rock Hudson (literally a personal 'friend’1 of the Reagans from their Hollywood days, asked his friend for permission to try an experimental treatment some people thought might work for HIV at… I forget the exact circumstances, but it was at a naval hospital or required a special visa or something, and he was snubbed. It wouldn’t have saved him, but reagan didn’t know that, and didn’t literally wave a hand to try and save his 'friend’¹).

                  So when you have money, your solidarity tends to be with your class peers, to fit in, and the easiest way to do that is selling out other queers. It supports the whole project of your status-which if you got there, probably matters more to you. Notice how all the rich gender and sexual miniroties (thiel, Jenner, etc) support really awful homophobic transphobic bullshit.

                  I could point to the work of researchers like Paul piff about why having money makes you a vicious sadistic piece of shit goblin, and they basically never do any good unless they hard defect early and probably die young (shit.) but I’m gonna come at this from the other direction.

                  When you try to use your status within a system to fight that system (and remember; that’s all money is. Money is good boy points. You can claim good boy points for producing ‘value’, but you’re not disagreeing that its good boy points-not immutable physical reality) that system, and point out errors in all the other big moneyed interests, they will choose to recognize you having money as the error.

                  You will find the more you push, the more your money becomes difficult to spend, or worth less than everyone elses. And then you’ll get a facial of solitude, filth, ugliness, ash cans and unobtainable dollars. And maaaybe a trip to wherever america puts its Auschwitz for your good intentions (and gay).

                  You can argue about life boats, but life boats are not liberation, and your life boat does nothing for my interests, so I might be in the crowd tearing it down out of spite. Plus, if youre already dealing with precarity and huntedness, why not just do crimes? They feel great, go really really well with gay, and let you shoot for real change, aside from all the rules that are supposed to stop that.

                  Sorry, still a little incoherent and rambling, wrote this from bed, haven’t had any stimulants yet. Tell me if it isn’t much good and I’ll rewrite it when I’m both awake and doing writerly chemistry, instead of just 1/2. If you think there’s anything here youre interested in. The topic probably deserves a better effort, but I wanted to spit something out as soon as I was remotely capable.

                  ¹fascist monsters don’t have friends, but I’m sure he thought they were friends.

                • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                  Absolutely not. My point is that wealthy LGBT people aren’t what changed the dialogue. Some of the rich gay men also turned out to be libertarian tech bros who didn’t seem to care much for the rest of the community.

                  I’m just saying wealth isn’t a big factor.

    • dandelion
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      8 months ago

      Yet Caitlyn Jenner isn’t exactly using her money to help the trans cause… It requires more than just money, there has to be a political movement and adherents to that movement who have the money and other relevant resources to effect change.

        • dandelion
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          Sorry, perhaps I positioned myself as more contradicting what you said when I meant for it to be more like a “yes, and” situation. I agree with your point about money, I was just thinking of all the other factors and got a little too excited XD

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          The first hormone treatment for trans women, that we know of, is from nomadic horse archers. The terror of the Eurasian steppe. We don’t own it, but we were there.

          The first use of special forces and high autonomy fire teams was not in world war one, it was the sacred band of Thebes, who were institutionally and officially fucking each other. No straights allowed. These guys, only like 200 of them in service at a time, absolutely changed the face of ancient warfare.

          T.E Lawrence, the guy the offensive ‘subby bdsm obsessed gay man who’s too kinky to torture’ stereotype was based on, invented the modern doctrine of guerilla warfare that firmly kicked the ottoman empire in the dick with basically no resources, then was used to successfully crush the most extravagantly bloated military that has ever existed not once but twice over the next century.

          But sure. Begging, and having a big armful of tickets after the counter closes down, is our strength. Ask all the old German fops how that went for them. Hell, ask rock Hudson or Alan Turing; I’ll wait.

          Nevermind the history of queer militancy in the western world. The people who got us our ‘rights’ birthed them out the barrel of a gun onto the counter of a dive bar in a fucking condemned building, and that gun was pointed at a cop, maybe supplied by somebody’s panther bf/gf.

          • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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            But sure. Begging is our strength

            I would never suggest anyone beg for their right to live. I have no idea how you got that idea from what I said.

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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              Money is begging. Its saying how much of a good boy you are. It will not save you, even if youre lucky enough to have it, even if the effects of widespread disinheritance and bigotry didn’t mean we statistically have less of it.

              • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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                Money is begging

                I’m not disagreeing with you but I’m having a really hard time grasping this perspective when literally nobody would consider gates, Bezos or musk to be “beggars”.

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                  Oh, so you think peter thiel will save us?

                  I think farther discussion here requires an explanation of what money fundamentally is that I’m far too high on all the wrong drugs to give eloquently, and I think you might have strong motivations to not hear anyway.

            • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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              It was a bit of a cultural zeitgeist in the 2010s. A lot happened with popular culture being more pro LGBT, and that translated into more people becoming LGBT.

              It makes sense. When more people are comfortable to come out of the closet, more people end up knowing gay people. And that leads to people realizing gay people are no different from everyone else, which leads to pro LGBT beliefs.

              What I find fascinating is that we’re seeing what the natural distribution of sexuality is for people. Based on Gen Z it looks like it’s much higher towards bi and gay than we previously thought.