We Need to Talk More About Trans People, Not Less

[Lori Dee]

We Need to Talk More About Trans People, Not Less
Trump's campaign spent millions spreading lies about the trans community. Now, it's on us to correct the record
Link to Full Article
Rolling Stone - Commentary - Jay Michaelson
November 17, 2024

For the vast majority of people, gender and sex align. But for a small minority — recent estimates say between 0.6 and 1 percent of the U.S. population — they don't.

This isn't just a preference, like wishing you had blonde hair instead of brown... It is, for many people, a painful mismatch between how they feel about this intimate, fundamental part of themselves and how they are seen in the world, or even in the mirror. This condition is known as gender dysphoria, which simply means a non-alignment of sex and gender.

How do we know this? Well, if you know trans people, especially teenagers, it's obvious. Trans people just exist. They're not mentally ill, and if they're allowed to be who they are, they are as happy and unhappy as the rest of us. It's really quite simple, but since only 40 percent of Americans say they know someone trans, trans allies need to talk about it more.

Alternatively, you can read up on four decades of scientific studies. ... the mainstream medical consensus remains clear: all 21 major medical organizations recognize gender dysphoria and the range of treatments for it. None deny it. These are facts.

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A good read. Check out the Full Article.

[Sephirah]

I agree wholeheartedly with this. The only way you dispel perpetuated lies and myths about something, is to expose people to the truth of it.

The sad truth is that most people have no real idea or understanding of what being trans means. They only ever see the news headlines. And... lately that's mostly to do with sports. To do with the biology of what being born one way or born another way entails. That's what people are exposed to. It's the 1% of what being trans is. If you believe all the stuff you're fed, being trans is just trying to do something through nefarious means. Be that bathrooms, sporting achievements... the whole narrative is purely about people trying to get one up on other people.

Very few folks ever see the truth about it. Mostly because they're never in a position to be exposed to it, but sometimes because they believe what "trusted" sources tell them. Once you can get someone to make up their mind, you have the devil's own job to get them to change it. And that's where the biggest logical fallacy of any sort of discourse comes in. Appeal to emotion. If you can make someone feel a certain way, emotion is like ten times stronger than reason. If you can make people feel that some innocent maiden is being subjugated by some big strong guy... you play to people's sense of right and wrong. Regardless of the fact that it isn't that at all. Make trans women into villains... predators hiding behind the condition to get what they want... people who don't know any better will immediately form an opinion. One that is very hard to change.

The people doing this know it isn't the case, but they don't care. They have an agenda. Make people love you by making them hate other people. This is nothing new. The Romans were doing it 2000 years ago. Play on fears, uncertainty, and ignorance. It's how people in power have operated for centuries. And I don't just mean politicians.

Every conversation I've ever had with someone, one on one, away from all the hate and force fed rhetoric, has ended with "I did not know that. Thank you for explaining what you're going through." And the vast majority of people are like that. They know something until they know something different. So we have to be the change we want to see. It isn't hate that drives most people (not in the public eye), it's ignorance. And there's only one way to change that. Most people don't know what they think. Only what they're told to think.