The Backlash Against Transgendered Americans

[Wynternight]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/23/the-hunting-of-trans-americans.html

Jay Michaelson for the Daily Beast - 23-02-15

"For years, some mainstream gay activists said to the transgender community, "Just wait—first we'll get our rights, and then you'll get yours."

As offensive and patronizing as that was, what has come to pass is far worse.  The anti-LGBT backlash is here, and transgender populations are suffering the most—even though they hadn't won that many legal victories in the first place. They're getting the backlash before winning anything to lash back against."

[Dee Marshall]

On top of everything else, this article has a link that shows me I was wrong in thinking my state was protecting my rights. This has NOT been a good day!

[LordKAT]

It also includes a contested murder as transgender when it is believed not.

[Julia-Madrid]

Unfortunately there are no real surprises in this piece, although we should not forget that a lot of violence still continues to be directed against LGB people as well.

I'm not so sure that we're seeing an anti-trans backlash per sé.  Looking at the USA from Europe I feel that we're seeing a nasty bit of general discrimination from lawmakers towards the LGBT grouping as a useful category, aimed at part of an electorate whose baser instincts require them to have someone to hate.   

While we all find it repugnant, politicians can and do create any number of reasons why they find discriminatory legislation "necessary", and we need to continue with the activisim and outreach.   Unfortunately I get the strong impression that organised outreach and activism is not one of our strong points - we've got some work to do here...

Julia

[suzifrommd]

I agree with some of the stuff in the piece. The anti-trans bathroom bills are appallingly ignorant, but can be chalked up to our stubborn refusal to educate people about our needs. I posted a thread about a year ago suggesting we should try to educate the public about why we need to use correct bathroom. I was treated to a barrage of disagreement from people who though it would "wake up" our enemies and those who thought "haters gonna hate" and that educating them would be a waste of time.

People, we're bringing this on ourselves!

[ThePhoenix]

Nothing changes because people sit on their butts and refuse to do anything about anything, no matter how easy or how safe.

[Jill F]

Nothing changes because people sit on their butts and refuse to do anything about anything, no matter how easy or how safe.

^THIS^ is why I refuse to disappear into stealthland.  If I have to become a statistic because of who or what I am, then so be it.  If I didn't transition when I did, I'd probably be dead by now anyway.  This cycle needs to be broken and I will do my part to make our voices heard.

[mrs izzy]

Even in stealth land we can get things done. 

We are the ones who prove most of their thinking are flawed.

Society is more scared of the stealth vs  the visible.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease and does not care if stealth or out who applies it.

Things are changing and just as any movement there is going to be a lot to get the dust to settle.

Keep doing what you feel is needed and if in stealth then so be it.

[Zumbagirl]

I guess I have to be really really dense, but I still don't understand what rights people want? Is it just going to pee somewhere? Forcing everyone else to like you? What? Before you answer you read this:

I came out at a job that had a "perfect score HRC rating" and yet I was still fired. That was "before" wrk place protection, laws or anything. In short I was left holding a bag of crap and I was going to have make a sandwich out of it. I suppose I could have tried to be a martyr for the cause and rolled the lawsuit lottery dice, but I felt it was better to keep my transition my own business and move ahead with my life. My personal takeaway is that some people in this world will not like me no matter what I do or how nice I am, period. I cannot mandate them to love me anymore than I can mandate a rattle snake not to bite. Suppose there really were workplace protections and I could transitioned at that job. They could have still dreamed up something else, not doing my job, not participating properly in management, I mean anything.

If someone is worried about their safety or getting killed (and yes I am all too aware of this in the real world) then learn how to protect yourself and be self-reliant, because remember this: The police are not going to be your new found friends when they show up to rescue you. This is why I have invested the time and energy to carry a gun. Now I know I have a fighting chance.

I mean good grief the hysteria that is whipped on both sides of the political spectrum is theater extraordinaire. This is why, even though I come from a very well politically connected family I have opted "out" of politics. Conservatives with an irrational fear of gay people when I bet some of them probably are deep down at least bisexual if not full blown gay. Liberals who fly into a panic and hide in the closet at the mere sight of a gun. And then there are the people who eat this controversy up like candy and pander to the lowest common denominator of society with their youtube rants.

What's wrong with practicing the simple maxim: Live and let live? Do we all need to live in a society filled with morally righteous busybodies telling us, you can wear a skirt here, but pants there? Are we that stupid as a species we can no longer direct our own lives?

[Wynternight]

Call me naive but I'd like to live in a world where I don't have to be worried about losing my job, my housing, or my life for being trans. I'd like to go to the loo, take care of business and not have to worry about some overwrought moral panic getting me arrested. I'd like to carry my firearm not because I'm trans and what, 80% more likely to face violence then someone not trans but due to "normal" street crime. But the world ain't kittens and rainbows so until then some of us are going to stand up and say "No, you can't fire me, evict me, or hurt me because I'm transgender."

You do what you want to do and those of us looking to make some positive changes will do what we have to.

[warlockmaker]

In much of Asia where we have a Bhuddism there is an unspoken acceptance of the LGBT. It is not in their laws  that matter but in their soul and culture to "live and let live" so long as no one is harmed. In Thailand, despite their acceptance there are no laws for change of gender and the TGs carry male/female ID cards of their birth gender. I understand that this will change and they will be able to carry an ID card if they fully change their gender. In Hong Kong, TG have all the rights including marriage, something the Gays do not have.

BUT its not the law that matters, we need a culture of acceptance, its this acceptance that must be the soul and essence of society, and laws cannot change that.

[Tysilio]

I guess I have to be really really dense, but I still don't understand what rights people want? Is it just going to pee somewhere? Forcing everyone else to like you? What?

I'm not fond of the expression "Haters gonna hate," but there's truth in it. Humans seem to need scapegoats: to have some group they can hate and blame for their own struggles.

It used to be socially acceptable to treat people of color as less than human. It used to be just fine to despise Jews, and blame them for society's ills. It used to be normal to regard women as perpetual children, incapable of rational thought, owning property, or existing without the protection of a father or husband. And it used to be OK to regard LGB people as the spawn of the devil, or at best as diseased perverts.

None of these attitudes have gone away completely, but it's no longer OK, at least among educated people, to express them in public. Prejudice dies hard, but all those groups now have or are achieving equal protection under the law. Change is slow, but it does happen, especially if people make a stink about deserving equal treatment.

We've come a long way in a short time: from not existing in public awareness, to being regarded with hate and derision, and now to a point where people are starting to see that we deserve to be treated with respect and to have our rights protected under law. The media now talk about a "transgender tipping point," and I think that's accurate.

What rights do I want? I want the same rights under law as everyone else, and I'm willing to fight for that. I can't force people to like me, but I want them to treat me with dignity and respect, even if they're just faking it because they know they have to. 

[suzifrommd]

I come across the attitude a lot - some variation of "we don't need better laws because I've got a gun" (or am a self-defense expert, or my friends got my back, or I can stop a freight train with my little finger). There's so much wrong with this that any answer would be incomplete, but I'm going to take a crack at it.

1. As Tysilio said, attitudes change over time. I'd like to add that often the laws come first and the attitudes follow. In the U.S. in 1964 when they passed the civil rights act, racist acts were socially acceptable in ways that were thought abhorrent decades later. A lot of the recent spikes in acceptance of same-sex marriage follows in areas where judicial legalization takes place.

2. Is a society where everyone is a combatant one where we'd want to live. Elderly people? Children? Do we want them to carry weapons to have to defend themselves?

3. I'm not just looking for safety. I'm looking not to be marginalized. I'm looking to live in a society that understands me and those like me. A gun isn't going to help that.

There's more I could say, but I have other posts to read.

[Tysilio]

As Tysilio said, attitudes change over time. I'd like to add that often the laws come first and the attitudes follow.

Exactly.

"Grab them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will follow."