Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 04:00 PM PST
Defending our existence
by rserven
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/18/1180069/-Defending-our-existenceAndrea Ayres at policym1c has an essay up entitled Transgender Rights: Why they matter to everyone.
[...]
I am not your enemy, but neither am I your friend on this very fundamental issue. I do not understand why people who have undergone such a thing, for reasons I readily admit I do not comrprehend, should be placed in some category above others who have undergone different types of cosmetic surgery for reasons that strike me as none other than personal desire.
No, this person is definitely not our friend. He describes us demeaningly in my opinion. Classifying what for many of us is life-saving surgery as "cosmetic" (which even insurance companies have been disabused of by the medical establishment) is bad enough. But to describe our journeys as nothing other than whim?
My main issue is my and my family's standard of living. How does supporting transgender rights help me and mine at all? Why should I care?
Why should white people have cared about the treatment of non-whites? That certainly didn't advance the standard of living of those white people. But as someone who marched for equal rights based on race in the 60s, who supported equal rights for women always, and who was fought in the trenches for equal rights for gays and lesbians, I find the attitude truly disturbing.
You should care because it is the right thing to do. It's the correct moral stance. No one is free until all are free.
