Quote from: AnneK on December 06, 2018, 10:20:33 PM
I've noticed that a lot of "conservatives" aren't beyond outright lies, when it suits them. One example that was on TV a few years ago was about how some in a Pennsylvania school board were trying to pass off creationism as science, by calling it intelligent design. We have the same problem with the current Premier of Ontario, who ignores facts and comes up with his own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District
True, although I think that less conservative people can also manipulate the truth, presumably telling themselves that the end justifies the means. E.g. I have a 1990s WWF pamphlet claiming that the very small number of black rhinos in Kenya was down from 20000 in 1970, even though 1960s sources such as SOS Rhino and The Lion And The Lily put the number at less than 2000.
Personally, I think that the anti-trans people, though misguided, are genuinely afraid. More documentaries and trans characters in TV shows might alleviate that fear. If, God forbid (sorry, anti-Creationists), it ever comes to having to break any laws to make our point, having as many people as possible on side could make a difference. Rosa Park's protest, and the official overreaction to it, might not have succeeded in helping to change laws if there were not already a large number of people on her side, both fellow victims and unaffected people who were no longer prepared to support an injustice.
Listening to the arguments of those who oppose us is also important. We should not rule out the possibility that in at least a few cases, they have genuine grounds for concern. Then we might negotiate solutions that address those concerns to everyone's satisfaction. The Dover school Intelligent Design case was raised as an example of supporters of an idea bending the truth. However, the supporters of Intelligent Design would not regard themselves as liars. I don't know enough to discuss the merits of the Dover school case but some Intelligent Design supporters do not even claim that God was involved in it. As Wikipedia puts it, "... the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design—namely that life shows evidence of being designed by an intelligent agent which is not named specifically in the book ... "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Pandas_and_People.
For myself, I certainly believe in evolution by natural selection but advances in science prevent me from saying that no forms of life exist that were not at least partly intelligently designed, e.g. the goats that produce spider silk:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-16554357/the-goats-with-spider-genes-and-silk-in-their-milk . Even Darwin chose the term natural selection because he was already aware that intelligent selection by breeders could change animal and plant characteristics.
My point is that people who fear having trans people in their bathrooms should have their fears listened to and addressed, whether or not they are justified. I would not be happy if trans people were allowed to use their bathrooms but anti-trans people were afraid to.
