So, uh...trans rights?
Now that I have Graham Linehan's full attention:
hello!
I realize that I may have done this before,
and I have.
But, that's in the past. So much so that I
even unlisted the video from my channel altogether.
I feel that I got things slightly wrong there.
You see, I thought that, to talk to the average
person, I could simply rely on listing current
events and then...appeal to morality, hoping
that the bleeding heart types might say "this
is wrong!!". This appeal to emotion, while
sometimes effective, is not going to convince
everybody, and it certainly won't convince
someone who is a bit more dug into their beliefs.
So, why am I back here? The issue of "trans
rights" was settled, right? After all, we're
out and about; we can be alive in this society.
We can work, we can contribute to the flaming
trash fire tribute to Moloch known as capitalism...we're
about as free as free could be, right? TRANS
RIGHTS!!!!
Well, yeah. It's true that, in a great number
of countries, transgender rights are a thing
and that we can, to varying levels and degrees
of certainty, live in...comfort? And it is
also true that, in a great number of other
countries, transgender people face varying
degrees of widespread discrimination, persecution,
etc. Both of these things are true at the
same time, and I fully recognize this indisputable
fact.
BUT.
If you're paying attention to the world around
you, and you're not being totally disingenuous,
you'll realize that, at least to some degree,
in these "safe countries," trans people are
still facing discrimination and, I would argue,
some form of persecution. If you're the type
of person to actively pay attention to such
matters, then you'll recognize that, despite
the gains previously made and currently being
made, trans people and their rights are still
a point of contention in today's world.
Now, if you are being totally disingenuous,
I don't believe that much in this video will
convince you to maybe look into things on
your own and perhaps take a different course
of perspective. Nevertheless, I invite you
to stick around, so that when you inevitably
write your comments, at least you can say
that you've watched the whole thing.
So, transphobia. I'm going to assume that
at least some people that are watching this
video have yet to hear of the term before,
as transgender issues are still somewhat shrouded
from the mainstream media (although that is
changing very quickly...). Let's cover our
bases here and figure out what we're even
talking about before we move forward.
A Transgender person is a person whose gender
identity differs from the identity they were
assigned at birth. They may seek medical transition,
or they may not.
A Cisgender person is someone whose gender
identity matches the identity they were assigned
at birth. If you were assigned female at birth,
and you're cis, then you're a cis female.
A TERF is a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.
This refers to a feminist with radical beliefs
whose worldview is not inclusive of transgender
people. Often times, they are outspoken exclusionists.
(note: none of the above three terms are slurs.
they are merely useful descriptors of what
a person is or isn't. That's it.)
Transphobia is the dislike of, fear of, discrimination
against, and prejudice against transgender
people.
A nonbinary person is someone whose gender
identity does not fall within the "traditional"
"Western" views of man and woman. They may
identify as transgender, or they may not.
(For the purposes of this video, when I say
"transgender," know that I am including nonbinary
people of all genders as well.)
Transition-related care is anything that could
aid in the transition of a transgender individual.
This can range from changing pronouns, work
uniform, and talk therapy, all the way to
gender-affirming surgeries, like phalloplasty
or facial feminization surgery.
Now that we have some bases covered, let's
begin.
So, you might be asking: Where did trans people
even come from? Did they make it all up? It's
a Tumblr thing. Where's the research? They
just want to feel special and gain oppression
points!
Well, as much as someone like myself might
have life relatively easy, I can still say
with confidence that nobody - on this Earth
- wishes for the discrimination, the violence,
and the general indignation that comes along
with oppression. So, that's one point right
there.
Okay, so where did trans people even come
from? It is even real?
Yeah! Simple answer: transgender people, as
we understand the term now, have pretty much
always existed. If we're just talking...people
living as "the other gender," regardless of
whether the person WAS a gender different
from what they were assigned at birth, then
there are plenty of examples of people doing
just that going as far back as ancient China!
Yes, I'm talking about Mulan here. I can also
point to Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (what kind
of name is that?) who, in a poem, wishes himself
to have been born as a woman. This was in
the late 1200s to early 1300s.
But, somewhat more recently, if we're looking
to see specific, undeniable examples of people
actually having a gender identity differing
from that of their assigned identity, we need
look no farther than the Public Universal
Friend, who identified as genderless, did
not go by gendered pronouns, did not dress
necessarily in a gendered manner, and asked
only to be referred to by Public Universal
Friend, the Friend, or P.U.F.. And people
respected the Friend's wishes! This was in
the late 1700s!
As for terms such as androgyne, genderfluid,
genderqueer, neutrois, etc., these terms are
all at least twenty to thirty years old, with
androgyne going back in literature to the
early 1800s, and genderqueer going back to
the 1990s. And, with respect to things such
as neopronouns and gender-neutral pronouns,
neutral pronouns were recorded as early as
1789, with the existence of the pronoun "ou",
and the pronoun "thon," which was created
in 1858. Neo-pronouns like "hir" and "ze"
were also first recorded being used in books
written in 1989 and 1996! Hell, even Leslie
Feinberg - author of Stone Butch Blues - referred
to hirself as, well, ze/hir, or she/zie.
So, as we can see, these aren't exactly...new
things.
Now, if we're talking about people who have
perceptions of gender outside of what "THE
WEST" would call "male" and "female," then
we have a whole range of societies to cover.
But, here, I would like to mention that many
Indigenous peoples - not just in North and
South America, but across the world - have
had longstanding views of gender outside of
what people today might understand. Please
understand that not every Indigenous group
has the same views of gender as any other
group. Indigenous people are not a monolith.
That being said: many groups have had (and
still have) terms such as "in the manner of
a woman," "one who changes," "gender transcendent"...
If you would like to know any more, I would
highly suggest you seek out Indigenous sources
on the topic of gender, and not just take
my word for it.
The research is out there, if you go looking
for it. And you can corroborate the sources,
their sample sizes, their methodology, the
amount of credible historical sources, so
that you can decide just how reliable the
literature in question is.
Alright, so the history seems to check out.
But what about the nature of sex as a whole?
Animals fall neatly into male or female! They
don't change! Sexual dimorphism!
Not quite. Many, many animals don't fall neatly
into "just" male or "just" female. Fun fact,
if you look at all life, like plants, mushrooms
have been documented to have as many as 36,000
separate sexes! And, because humans can be
born with "ambiguous genitalia" or primary/secondary
sex characteristics that do not concord with
what we think their chromosomes might dictate,
it has been argued that even humans do not
have two sexes - as Anne Fausto-Sterling (hope
I said that right...) argues in her 1993 paper
on the subject, being intersex is common enough
that humans technically have at least five
separate sexes!
Okay....but sex and gender and gender roles
are the same thing! If you're born a sex,
then that sex determines your gender, which
determines your gender roles! Any attempt
to change that is just going against nature.
Yeah, I'm gonna disagree with you on that
one. Also found in nature are examples of
animals acting "the wrong" way for the sex
that they're born as. Some animals will even
take on the physical responsibilities of what
WE would think of as "the other sex," such
as the classic example of male seahorses carrying
and giving birth to their offspring. When
the top female in a clownfish's school dies,
a male will literally change sex and take
her place at the top. (Really puts Finding
Nemo into a whole new perspective...). Humans,
too, don't really have a history of being
strictly ascribed to this role or that role
based upon their birth. While women could
be or might have been expected to be the mother
and stay at home, history clearly shows women
doing, well, exactly what the men have been
expected to do. Women have stepped forward
to attain education typically reserved for
men. Women have stepped forward to demand
things that they were denied. Women have stepped
forward to manual labour, to protect and provide
for their familes and their communities, to
fight in conflicts. And, yes, while harder
to find examples of, men in history have done
the exact opposite: stay home to care for
the family, cook, clean, etc. (An example
I can find is the Aka pygmy people in the
Western Congo Basin).
And, as far as the "sexual dimorphism" argument,
compared to many other mammals, humans of
different sexes are actually...pretty anatomically
similar to each other. Similar enough, anyways,
that people can be born that do not look like
the gender that they were assigned to be,
or they may even look androgynous. And we
haven't even brought up the fact that, even
among sexually dimorphic animals, you can
fall into the category of being intersex!
I might bring up the two-toned chicken and
lobsters that exist, that are literally one
sex on one side of their body, and one sex
down the other side of their body. Nature's
fuckin' metal.
Oh, and I didn't forget about what you said
about "going against nature." Remember what
I said about intersex people existing? Well,
in the same paper, Sterling brings up the
topic of intersex babies automatically being
classified as an "anomaly" and being "assigned"
the "correct" genitalia from birth.
"Recent advances in physiology and surgical
technology now enable physicians to catch
most intersexuals at the moment of birth.
Almost at once such infants are entered into
a program of hormonal and surgical management
so that they can slip quietly into society
as "normal" heterosexual males or females.
I emphasize that the motive is in no way conspiratorial.
The aims of the policy are genuinely humanitarian,
reflecting the wish that people be able to
"fit in" both physically and psychologically.
In the medical community, however, the assumptions
behind that wish - that there be only two
sexes, that heterosexuality alone is normal,
that there is one true model of psychological
health - have gone virtually unexamined."
She also states later on that "scientific
dogma has held fast to the assumption that
without medical care, 'hermaphrodites' are
doomed to a life of misery. Yet there are
few empirical studies to back up that assumption,
and some of the same research gathered to
build a case for medical treatment contradicts
it."
If you wish to look into forced reassignments
at birth, I would highly encourage you to
read the testimonials of people who have had
such procedures performed on them. But in
the meantime, I would argue that the forced
reassignment of people into one strict category
or another, when they don't fit neatly into
one or the other, is the unnatural course
of action here.
Okay, then if the history about trans people
exists going back hundreds of years, and if
nature isn't as binary as it seems, then why
does much of the scientific research about
trans people only start in the mid-20th century?
If trans people existed forever, then why
doesn't much research on them exist beforehand?
I can't speak for all of the world, but in
the 1910s, Magnus Hirschfield created the
word "transvestite" to describe transgender
people, opened the first clinic to serve them,
and even had a collection of literature about
all LGBT+ people that was compiled from across
Europe. This knowledge allowed people to learn
more about "non-standard" gender identities
and sexual orientations, learning that such
identity was, in fact, normal, being allowed
to present in a way that did not necessarily
concur with your assigned gender was okay,
and people who identified as such should be
accepted in society. This knowledge also helped
people who fell within the LGBT category to
be able to understand themselves better, to
be able to prove and justify their own existence,
and to be able to explore science that would
aid them in, say, being able to present the
way that they wanted to. The place where the
clinic was, and the literature was housed,
was called the Institute of Sex Research.
This Institute was largely responsible for
the advancement of LGBT visibility and acceptance
in the early 1900s.
The literature that was housed at the Institute...doesn't
exist anymore. We only began to match the
level of research previously done at the Institute
probably in the 1990s. Research that existed
almost ninety years ago.
I'll leave a picture here of what exactly
happened to that vast library of work.
Decades and decades of potential progress
was lost to a deliberate act of hatred, by
the Nazi government, none less. Who deemed
the knowledge and the societal progress that
followed it to be "un-German." And they're
not the only people who have tried to roll
back the rights, visibility, and societal
progress for transgender folks.
(Now, please know that I am NOT comparing
anything here to the previously mentioned
burning of the Institute for Sex Research's
works. As bad as legislatively rolling back
rights previously granted is, it will never
be as bad as destroying entire decades worth
of knowledge in a highly public and violent
act.)
I'd like to take a moment to focus specifically
on America and house/senate sessions being
held in separate states, just in the year
2020 alone. In this time - in the past six
months - forty three bills were introduced
with a specific intent to limit the rights
of transgender minors in some way, whether
that be by not allowing them to play on sports
teams in their school (unless they compete
as "their birth sex,"), not allowing them
to use facilities such as locker rooms and
bathrooms that coincide with their gender
identity, allowing education about gender
and sexuality to be removed from libraries,
or disallowing transition-related care, from
simply using the correct pronouns and employing
talk therapy all the way to refusing hormonal
blockers or hormone replacement therapy, even
going so far as to want to arrest parents
and/or doctors that obtain the care for the
child anyways. Even if the parent consents.
Even if the child was already receiving treatment.
Just as a quick aside to stave off any arguments:
Saying that "people born female" can't compete
with the strength of "people born male" when
history clearly shows examples of "people
born female" doing just that is a misogynistic
argument.
Likewise, saying that "trans women are looking
to gain an advantage over 'real women' and
invade their spaces," is a transmisogynistic
argument that has no basis in reality.
Hormones change more than just your appearance
- they change your body's physiology, too.
Bones can become more or less dense, muscle
mass can grow or decrease, the body's stamina
level can increase or decrease. Therefore,
if a trans woman is on estrogen, she is at
no advantage over cis women, as her physiology
has changed to be more or less the same as
a cis woman. The same is true the other way
around, too - trans men's physiology is more
or less the same as a cis male if he is on
testosterone.
There is little to no evidence to support
the statement that "people will impersonate
'the other sex' to gain access to gendered
spaces and assault people!"
In fact, in such situations, trans people
are almost always the recipients of harassment,
assault and violence.
Being asked to use the correct pronouns is
not "stifling your free speech." Likewise,
you won't go to "pronoun jail" or whatever
for not getting it right. (Proof of repeated
and intentful harassment is the issue there.)
No, nonbinary people aren't "taking legitimacy
away from REAL TRANSES." (Please don't actually
say 'transes'...) That is an argument that
is often used to drive wedges into the trans
community - and into the LGBT community as
a whole - to make an attempt at making trans
people more "palatable" to cis people. Not
only does it not work, but it also serves
to weaken the community and make it easier
to atomize.
As we mentioned before, forcing a person to
adhere to their assigned sex has no real value
other than to make ourselves comfortable with
that person. While not every trans person
agrees with the existence of the following
(me included), we have medical criteria that
can judge whether a person is experiencing
gender dysphoria or not. We have tons and
tons of hoops that a person has to jump through
for long periods of time in order to "prove"
that they're "really trans," which often includes
people trying (knowingly or not) to disprove
the individual's "transness." If a person
is willing to jump through all of these, and
still holds that they're transgender, then
they are probably right.
Okay, now that ALL OF THAT is done...
Here's the list of all of the states trying
to pass bills meant to affect trans youth,
the bills, and the motions taken on the bills.
Now, keep in mind, only a handful of these
- seven - explicitly failed to pass. All of
the rest are either "postponed indefinitely,"
were passed on to another committee, are under
a second or third reading...you get the idea.
And remember that, due to the Coronavirus,
many state sessions have been cancelled or
put on hold, to be resumed at a later date.
It is likely that, once sessions are started
back up again, that these bills could go forward
once more. If you live in one of these states,
do keep an eye on the respective legislation
in your area.
And we didn't even touch the federal rulings
yet. Oh boy.
As you might have seen, the Trump Administration
has been trying to push through policies that
would effectively roll back rights, "guarantees,"
and amendments that were put into effect by
the Obama administration.
(Now, let it be known, that I do not like
either president, each for their own reasons.
What I say here is not an endorsement of one
or the other. I am merely stating things that
each one has done.)
In the late years of the Obama administration,
guidance was provided to schools about how
trans students should be treated (so, protecting
them from harassment, accomodating names and
pronouns, protecting them from non-consensual
disclosure of their trans status, and giving
them access to the proper locker rooms and
bathrooms. You probably remember this as the
thing that sparked the surge of "bathroom
bills.")
He also signed an executive order that added
"gender identity" to the list of categories
protected from discrimination in the federal
civilian workforce, as well as government
contractors and sub-contractors. Most importantly
to understand the following: the Obama administration
also held that Title IX prohibited discrimination
not only on the basis of sex, but also on
the basis of gender identity.
(The guidance on Title IX DID allow schools
to bar students from playing in gender-segregated
sports as their gender, though. Which...eugh.)
As for the Trump Administration, well, one
of the first things that they did upon taking
office was to withdraw the Obama-era guidance
regarding Title IX. You know, the one that
required schools to protect trans students
from harassment. After no such promise to
do so - and even what might have seemed like
a promise to not do so, the guidances were
withdrawn anyways. In July of 2017, Trump
put out a tweet that said that trans people
"could no longer serve in the military" due
to the "undue expense that trans people caused,"
or something to that effect. (It was debated
at the time whether a tweet could be viewed
as actual policy, but as of early 2019, people
who are either in transition or have already
transitioned cannot enlist for the military...)
(Personally? Fuck the military, but also fuck
the precedent that this policy is setting.)
Jeff Sessions - at the time, the Attorney
General - issued a memo that the US Department
of Justice would no longer argue in court
that trans people are federally protected
from employment discrimination. The reasoning
came from the administration's position that
"being gay or trans is a category of identity
that is different from 'biological sex' and
therefore, not protected under current law."
Oh, yeah, about that. I mentioned that Trump
withdrew protections for trans students under
Title IX. What I didn't mention was the memo
that wanted to define "sex" under Title IX
as "solely male or female as a biological
and unchangeable condition determined by genitalia
at birth." From the memo: "Sex means a person's
status as male or female baseed on immutable
biological traits identifiable by or before
birth. The sex listed on a person's birth
certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute
definitive proof of a person's sex unless
rebutted by reliable genetic evidence."
[sigh]
The Administration itself attempted to file
a "conscience rule" aimed at expanding protections
for healthcare providers that refuse to provide
services due to "moral or religious objections,"
and it released a statement opposing the passage
of the Equality Act, which would have extended
civil rights protections explicitly to LGBTQ
people, and would have barred discrimination
based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The DOJ also submitted a number of briefs
in courts around the country arguing that
employers could omit LGBTQ people from anti-discrimination
protections, basically making it legal to
discriminate based on sexual orientation or
gender identity. They also sent two memos
to all executive branch departments that interpret
religious liberty protections in such a way
as to give exemptions from federal anti-discrimination
to agencies and contractors. They dropped
a federal lawsuit against North Carolina's
"bathroom bill" law, because North Carolina
had replaced the law in question with a new
one. The new one dropped the requirements,
but stopped local governments from enacting
their own anti-discrimination laws until THIS
YEAR.
Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management
removed guidance on how to support trans federal
employees and replaced it with guidance that
links to the DOJ's reinterpretation of the
Civil Rights Act, which says that Title VII
does NOT prohibit discrimination based on
gender identity. The Census Bureau removed
questions about sexual orientation and gender
identity from the final 2020 American Community
Survey. The Federal Bureau of Prisons rolled
back policies that recommended housing trans
inmates by gender identity "when appropriate,"
and go off of "biological sex" instead. The
Department of Agriculture pushed for the 4-H
youth organization to withdraw guidance that
protects and welcomes LGBTQ members.
The Department of Health and Human Services
announced a proposed rule that would allow
adoption and foster care agencies funded by
the department to turn away care providers
who are LGBTQ, dropped a proposed requirement
that would bar hospitals from being able to
discriminate based on sexual orientation or
gender identity to be able to participate
in Medicare and Medicaid, proposed a rule
that would eliminate regulations prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sex stereotyping
and gender identity by any program funded
by the nondiscrimination provision of the
Affordable Care Act, and proposed a rule that
would allow them to give grants to organizations
that deny services to LGBTQ people.
The Department of Labour issued a directive
to exempt contractors from having to comply
with nondiscrimination rules that conflict
with the contractor's religious beliefs, specifically
citing sexual orientation and gender identity.
They also: removed sections from their website
about workplace rights, advancements on, and
resources for LGBTQ workers, and proposed
exemptions for providers of services and supplies
for the military's TRICARE health program
from the Executive Order that prohibits gender
discrimination by federal contractors.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
removed guidance resources from its website
that advised equal access practices for emergency
shelters regarding LGBTQ people, withdrew
a regulation that said that federally-funded
shelters have to inform people of their right
to equal access, and withdrew a survey to
evaluate the impact of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness
Prevention Initiative.
...Still awake? Sorry, that was a lot. But
that's a lot of the actions that the Trump
administration has attempted to push through
and/or roll back regarding trans rights, and
it is very likely that I have missed something
that should have been on this list.
Even when trans people's access to transition-related
care isn't under attack, transphobic attitudes
and policies are found in other places, and
arguably do more harm than SIMPLY denying
transition-related care does. Let's say...you
got into a car accident, and you're badly
hurt. When the EMTs showed up to treat you,
and cut your pants to treat an injury, they
saw genitalia that did not match what they
thought you "should" have. They then spent
their time shouting transphobic slurs at you,
rather than treating you properly. When you
arrived at the hospital, the doctors there,
too, refused to treat you properly. You died
in the waiting room, and later analysis shows
that - had you been treated immediately and
properly - you would have had a 86 percent
chance of survival. Now, say your gender was
not respected upon your death, even if people
widely knew you were trans, and that - even
25 years later - people still abused you,
even in death.
Neither of those scenarios are either false
nor a rarity. The first scenario was that
of Tyra Hunter. (Note: none of the doctors
involved faced charges, and the only other
"punishment" was a 2.9 million dollar lawsuit
on the City of D.C.). The second scenario
was that of Leelah Alcorn, whose parents refused
to bury her under her chosen name or presentation.
Even in duress - even in death - transphobia
still manifests. And I would argue that this
is far more insidious than outright denial
of transition-related care.
Which brings me to...
The Trump Administration finalized the rule
removing healthcare protections for transgender
people. I'm gonna read the Forbes article
here:
The Trump administration on Friday finalized
a rule that would roll back protections from
discrimination for transgender patients through
the Affordable Care Act, making the move amid
the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and on the
four-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub
shooting. The passage of the ACA made it illegal
to discriminate in health programs and activities
on the basis of sex, with a 2016 rule further
describing sex as, "an individual's internal
sense of gender, which may be male, female,
neither, or a combination of male and female."
The Department of Health and Human Services
wrote that the 2016 rule, "exceeded the scope
of the authority delegated by Congress.”
Roger Severino, director of Health and Human
Services' Office for Civil Rights, said in
June 2019 that the administration intended
to go, "back to the plain meaning of those
terms." Without the protections, doctors and
healthcare providers could deny medical service
for transgender people; the finalized rule
also removes requirements for services to
be provided to women who are seeking an abortion
or have had one in the past. Lambda Legal
and the Human Rights Campaign, both LGBTQ
advocacy groups, separately announced plans
to challenge the rule change. "We will be
challenging the rule because at a time when
the entire world is battling a dangerous pandemic,
which in the United States has infected more
than 2,000,000 people and killed more than
116,000, it is critical for everyone to have
ready access to the potentially life-saving
health care they need," said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan,
senior attorney at Lambda Legal. The administration
attempted to issue a "conscience rule" last
year that would have given protections to
healthcare providers that opposed medical
procedures like abortion or sterilizations
on religious or moral grounds, keeping them
safe from losing federal funds. A federal
court later voided the rule. The finalized
rule comes after a wave of protests against
police violence following the death of 46-year-old
George Floyd while being detained by Minneapolis
police officers. According to a 2014 report
from the Office for Victims of Crime, 15%
of transgender people reported being sexually
assaulted while in police custody or jail,
and the figure doubled for black transgender
people.
Do we see a problem with this?
Back to you, past-tense Silverface!
Looking at state and federal rulings and policy:
These laws, memos, policy reversals...if you
know any of them, aren't designed with the
intent to, you know, make it illegal to be
transgender. But they do, very handily, serve
the purpose of making it harder for transgender
people to simply exist in society without
their gender being called into question at
every single turn. Without being seen as a
"boogeyman," "a danger to society," or "confusing
the youth and ELIMINATING WHAT IT MEANS TO
BE A MAN OR A WOMAN. MUH TRADITIONS!!!"
(seriously, people are actually saying those
things...)
So, yeah, it might stand to reason that transgender
people in America are a little bit concerned
about some of this stuff that's trying to
get pushed through state and federal branches
of government, when the simplest, barest of
rights were only granted to us just a short
time ago.
So, just in case you thought it was just an
America thing, it's really not. Transphobia
is a problem in a lot of places, and the rolling
back of rights previously granted to trans
people (and the cultural influence that transphobic
figures have attained, allowing them to spread
their rhetoric to people before they could
be educated about trans issues - I'm looking
at YOU, Graham Linehan...) is also a problem
in places other than America. Yayyyyyyy
I'm still gonna lead the pack with America,
though. If you pay attention at all, you know
that the killing of transgender people in
the USA - almost entirely trans women of colour
- has never stopped. Between October 2018
and September 2019, thirty people were murdered
in the US. And, if you look at the source
for that statistic, 331 people total were
included in that report. The majority of trans
people killed - 130 - were in Brazil.
In places where transgender people have already
acquired widespread access to transition-related
care, like the United Kingdom, anti-trans
rhetoric, mainly fueled by the rise of TERFs
and amplification from mainstream media, has
taken hold and has, well, become a problem
for the trans community, to put it lightly.
The rhetoric mainly seems to revolve around
two things: that gender is something that
is biologically identifiable at birth, unchageable,
and immutable, and that, by allowing trans
women access into womens spaces, you are putting
"real women" "at risk."
I've already addressed the first point earlier
on, and since I really don't feel like taking
on the second point, I'll just point you to
a video by Shaun called Transphobia in the
UK, something that he addresses quite handily.
Note: those two things are not necessarily
attributable to the same groups of people.
You could have a group saying both things,
or you could have one group that says one
thing, and another group that says another
thing. For the purposes of understanding what
is happening, that is not relevant.
In Poland, you might have heard that anti-LGBT
zones have been established, with the intent
of "re-establishing "family values" or something
of the sort. What you might not have heard
is that about a third of Poland falls under
such LGBT-free zones, and that this does include
transgender people, not just gay, lesbian,
and bisexual people.
This just in: Poland has been declared by
its President to be one big anti-LGBT zone
via the signing of the family card!
In Poland, a survey conducted by Swider and
Winiewski (might be saying that wrong) in
2017 showed that, out of 10,704 LGBTQ people,
and out of the %7.2 that were trans, %78.6
of them experiencesd at least one verbal,
physical, or sexually aggressive form of violence.
Poland also ranks among the countries with
the most discrimination laws and policies
in place explicitly targeting LGBTQ people.
In fact, the European Union Agency for Fundamental
Rights Survey, conducted in 2013, found that,
of 6,771 trans people interviewed, %46 felt
they were being discriminated against, while
%28 were assaulted or threatened with violence.
Recently, the Hungarian Parliament passed
a bill that would end gender recognition in
the country altogether. Since 2017, legal
changes in Hungary were stalled, and with
the passage of this bill, anybody that was
put on a waiting list is going to be removed
from it, along with anybody who just recently
applied. This means that any trans person
- regardless of whether they have "fully transitioned"
or not - who has not gotten the marker on
their birth certificate changed will be outed
as transgender at every turn. Applying for
jobs. Renting or buying any property, such
as a house. As a side note, every single amendment
proposed to be added to the bill was thrown
out.
If you look at the justifications for many
- if not all - of these bills, policy changes,
etc., you're likely to see that one of them
is "preserving family values," or "preserving
Christian values." Now is the time to point
out that the Bible says nothing about a person
being transgender. Nothing. All it says is
that "a man shall not wear womens clothing,"
and vice versa. (Deuteronomy 22:5, if you're
curious). And all that is talking about is
cross-dressing, which is not what being transgender
is. As for "family values," what are these
family values? How do we define them? Is it
that these "family values" are rooted in the
gender roles of post-WWII familes, whose women
were forced back into keeping house, raising
children, and pleasing the husband, while
the husband went off to win bread for the
family, protect their children and their home,
and project the perfect image of masculinity?
Whose children were raised to abide by the
wishes of their parents at all times, and
only do what they were told? To be raised
and molded according to what their parents
and society at large wanted them to be? To
continue the image of "man and woman, each
in their strictly defined place?"
(At least in America: yes. That's where the
"family values" being pushed found their root.)
So, where does this anti-trans rhetoric really
come from? Who is pushing it?
Well...it's not hard to figure out where the
screaming and shouting is all coming from.
I would like to mention that transphobia can
exist in any political sphere. I am not assigning
the ability to be transphobic to any one political
ideology. Just as people on the right can
be guilty of transphobia, SO TOO CAN PEOPLE
ON THE LEFT. (And, just between you and me,
this is something that people on the left
seriously need to address in our spaces going
forwards...)
If you've not been living under a rock, you
might have noticed that most of the folks
kicking up a fuss about trans people "being
a danger to our way of life" have been - and
still are - MAINLY right wingers. Outliers
do exist, but for the most part, this is who
has been making all of the noise. To this,
you might ask: "why might right wingers wish
to take rights away from trans people?" Well,
I can only take my best guess at an answer,
since I obviously can't read minds. If we
look at the rollbacks of rights of other groups
throughout history, we can begin to see a
pattern emerging. When things are perceived
as changing "too fast," or if things are beginning
to benefit everybody more equally, that shift
is perceived as a threat to right wingers,
their understanding of the world, and their
way of life. In short: levelling the playing
field and giving everybody the same rights
threatens the existing status quo. Why such
things might be perceived as threats varies
from person to person, and I must be clear
about this, NOT EVERY RIGHT WINGER SEES SOCIAL
EQUALITY AS A THREAT TO THEM OR TO THE STATUS
QUO. That being said, the people who DO see
a threat might view it as an affront to their
religious beliefs. Some view it as a threat
to the existence of their "in-group," or see
it as a challenge to what it means to be (insert
type of person here). Some, baffingly, even
perceive it as a plot to destroy the family
unit, and to "demasculinize our men and destroy
our women," which...err...I kind of already
laid out how that one is bullshit...
Anyways, if you zoom out and see the wider
picture, transphobia can be viewed as a reaction
to shifting gender roles, our shifting understanding
of gender, and a shifting understanding of
ourselves and how we move and interact in
society.
Reactionary.
When it comes to trans rights, it doesn't
matter what kind of progress people think
we might have made. When you take a moment
to see what is actually happening, we only
made small steps towards having the same rights
as any other person, and are being met with
vitriolic backlash regardless. Despite what
people think about our steps forwards, the
amount of crimes against trans and gender
nonconforming people in our societies has
been steadily rising, and in our lawhouses
and in the media, trans rights are still under
attack.
Basically, it doesn't matter what you can
describe this hatred of trans people as - the
OTHERING of trans people as. It doesn't matter
what you call it. No matter what you call
a movement that wants to otherize and dehumanize
transgender people, whether that be the movement's
main goal or merely a side effect, the game
being played - the name of the game - does
not change. And at this point in time, that's
all we need to know.
Hey everybody! I suspect the comments under
this video will be...fun and happy! ... Do
try not to read them...
Anyways, I would like to thank my patrons,
and a special thank you to Anarchaboy, cuddles,
QuotidianMoto, Marcin Serwin, withteeth, Tony
Burns, Val Knight, Odo, and Some Engineer.
Your support is not going towards me for the
foreseeable future; it is going to the National
Bail Fund Network instead, for people arrested
while exercising their given right to protest.
I would also like to thank joyce-stick for
her help with going over the script before
filming - you can find her channel in the
description and on-screen. (GO SUB TO HER...)
If you liked this video, like it, if you didn't
like it, don't like it, and if you have anything
to add here, feel free to comment down below.
Do try to keep it respectful, yeah? If you
saw this and thought "Just found out about
transphobia...damn that shit sucks" maybe
subscribe?
Anyways, thanks for watching, and I'll see
you later. Bye!
