It’s bad, but reading Stone Butch Blues or reading about trans history will make you thankful for the contemporary situation anyway; cross-dressing laws have been repealed in most states, trans people aren’t inherently criminal the way they were in the 1970s. The current U.S. administration wishes to bring us back to a time like that, but the fact that they’re fighting to even stigmatize and criminalize trans people is a massive win for the gay rights / liberation movement compared to where things were at very recently.
If you wish to feel any comfort, it is helpful to remember that the GOP has a historically narrow majority, Trump didn’t even win a majority of the popular vote, and this was the first time the GOP has won the popular vote in 20 years … this is an unpopular party that only maintains power through slim majorities.
All incumbent parties lost elections this past year, so I think it’s just populist anger about inflation and economic concerns rather than anything like an ideological or cultural sea-change towards reaction.
The fact that one political party even advocates for LGBT+ rights is a massive improvement even in my lifetime (most of my life both parties have been against LGBT+ rights), and the fact that Dems have largely succeeded in not regressing on this is another major victory for us.
So sure, they’ll try to do their worst, but I am not sure it will be enough.
I truly hope what I see as optimism is just cold hard pragmatism. All of what you said is true, but we’re in uncharted waters now. We’re the nazi party but with nukes and a LOT of far ranging power.
I don’t want to live in country/world where my value is defined by my skin color and sexual orientation. I do not want to prosper because I am a straight white man, but due to what value I add to others. Likewise, I don’t want my trans brethren, along with all of the other ‘undesirables’, to suffer under the yoke of hatred.
Yeahhh, unfortunately I don’t have optimism - but I was trying to see some of the positive sides of things. It is objectively good that the culture has become so tolerant of trans people, even while the political backlash is so great.
I agree though about the potential for the current administration to end the U.S., but as one of those trans people it’s a coping strategy for me not to dwell on that and to stay focused on what is right in front of me.
It’s bad, but reading Stone Butch Blues or reading about trans history will make you thankful for the contemporary situation anyway; cross-dressing laws have been repealed in most states, trans people aren’t inherently criminal the way they were in the 1970s. The current U.S. administration wishes to bring us back to a time like that, but the fact that they’re fighting to even stigmatize and criminalize trans people is a massive win for the gay rights / liberation movement compared to where things were at very recently.
It’s all true and undoing decades of slow, grudging and downright painful progress is going to be a very large task for these monsters.
But, damned if they’re not going to do their worst.
If you wish to feel any comfort, it is helpful to remember that the GOP has a historically narrow majority, Trump didn’t even win a majority of the popular vote, and this was the first time the GOP has won the popular vote in 20 years … this is an unpopular party that only maintains power through slim majorities.
All incumbent parties lost elections this past year, so I think it’s just populist anger about inflation and economic concerns rather than anything like an ideological or cultural sea-change towards reaction.
Anti-trans legislation remains unpopular, and Trump has the lowest approval ratings entering office of any president on record.
The fact that one political party even advocates for LGBT+ rights is a massive improvement even in my lifetime (most of my life both parties have been against LGBT+ rights), and the fact that Dems have largely succeeded in not regressing on this is another major victory for us.
So sure, they’ll try to do their worst, but I am not sure it will be enough.
I truly hope what I see as optimism is just cold hard pragmatism. All of what you said is true, but we’re in uncharted waters now. We’re the nazi party but with nukes and a LOT of far ranging power.
I don’t want to live in country/world where my value is defined by my skin color and sexual orientation. I do not want to prosper because I am a straight white man, but due to what value I add to others. Likewise, I don’t want my trans brethren, along with all of the other ‘undesirables’, to suffer under the yoke of hatred.
Yeahhh, unfortunately I don’t have optimism - but I was trying to see some of the positive sides of things. It is objectively good that the culture has become so tolerant of trans people, even while the political backlash is so great.
I agree though about the potential for the current administration to end the U.S., but as one of those trans people it’s a coping strategy for me not to dwell on that and to stay focused on what is right in front of me.