I don’t know why I was born transgender, but I have no secret agenda. I want my child to live in a world where they are safe and free to be exactly who they are.
…
Fewer than 1 in 3 people report personally knowing someone who is transgender. Yet the American public is saturated with viral social media videos and political news stories, largely generated by a well-funded coalition of organizations long dedicated to making it as difficult as possible for LGBTQ+ people to go about their daily lives.
These organizations proudly advocate for the abuse of LGBTQ+ young people through the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, and they have celebrated their role in influencing Texas to “investigate” parents who’re doing their level best to support their transgender kids.
They’ve succeeded in generating national debates about excluding transgender kids from school sports, banning medically necessary health care and even prohibiting restroom usage – all under a guise of “protecting young people.” But these debates are largely missing the point.
Transgender people are our friends, family members and neighbors. They work in the cubicle next to us at the office, and they pray next to us in our houses of worship.
….
In a capitalist system money is a weapon. You wonder why gay men have been so successful in shifting attitudes? It’s because they have money.
You can’t be serious.
About what? Money being a weapon in a capitalist system?
That it’s the reason gay men changed minds or something?
Minds shifted long before those in power did.
It was a bit of a cultural zeitgeist in the 2010s. A lot happened with popular culture being more pro LGBT, and that translated into more people becoming LGBT.
It makes sense. When more people are comfortable to come out of the closet, more people end up knowing gay people. And that leads to people realizing gay people are no different from everyone else, which leads to pro LGBT beliefs.
What I find fascinating is that we’re seeing what the natural distribution of sexuality is for people. Based on Gen Z it looks like it’s much higher towards bi and gay than we previously thought.
The first hormone treatment for trans women, that we know of, is from nomadic horse archers. The terror of the Eurasian steppe. We don’t own it, but we were there.
The first use of special forces and high autonomy fire teams was not in world war one, it was the sacred band of Thebes, who were institutionally and officially fucking each other. No straights allowed. These guys, only like 200 of them in service at a time, absolutely changed the face of ancient warfare.
T.E Lawrence, the guy the offensive ‘subby bdsm obsessed gay man who’s too kinky to torture’ stereotype was based on, invented the modern doctrine of guerilla warfare that firmly kicked the ottoman empire in the dick with basically no resources, then was used to successfully crush the most extravagantly bloated military that has ever existed not once but twice over the next century.
But sure. Begging, and having a big armful of tickets after the counter closes down, is our strength. Ask all the old German fops how that went for them. Hell, ask rock Hudson or Alan Turing; I’ll wait.
Nevermind the history of queer militancy in the western world. The people who got us our ‘rights’ birthed them out the barrel of a gun onto the counter of a dive bar in a fucking condemned building, and that gun was pointed at a cop, maybe supplied by somebody’s panther bf/gf.
I would never suggest anyone beg for their right to live. I have no idea how you got that idea from what I said.
Money is begging. Its saying how much of a good boy you are. It will not save you, even if youre lucky enough to have it, even if the effects of widespread disinheritance and bigotry didn’t mean we statistically have less of it.
I’m not disagreeing with you but I’m having a really hard time grasping this perspective when literally nobody would consider gates, Bezos or musk to be “beggars”.
Oh, so you think peter thiel will save us?
Bruh.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of not just history in general, but specifically and especially queer history.
You know the weapons that got us rights? It was horse archery, the doctrine of special forces, the 20th century incarnation of guerrilla warfare, and fucking bricks thrown very hard at cops by people with nothing to lose. This assimilationist bullshit is going to get people killed, and I might be one if them, so please fucking stop.
Wait wait, what’s wrong with assimilating? Isn’t that the goal? That being LGBT is so normalized as to be unremarkable?
It’s why you don’t see “no Irish allowed” signs anymore.
Its why american Irish people are all fucking cops, and people actually from Ireland tend to think they’re deeply fucking cringe at best.
Queerness has created a culture worth keeping, a culture of virtues exploration and living off script. Its beautiful. And we cant really be straight anyway; the cultural abyss of heterosexuality is made around controlling and regimenting the straights. We donct canct and honestly fuvking shouldn’t fit there. If you want to genocide us, you go ahead and start with yourself.
And fuck the term “lgbt”, such neoliberal exclusionary positivist bullshit.
Jesus you’re just angry at everything huh
You think the American Irish lost their culture by assimilating?
Implying money is power isn’t urging assimilationism, why are you so quick to accuse them? Money is crucial to funding militant movements, these are not separate tactics.
Historically, queer movements in particular have done without much money. The problem is with what money is and how its kind of opposed to a lot of the virtues of queerness, but that requires I be at least slightly eloquent to explain and I am not right now.
hey no worries, maybe later if you’re feeling up for it we can chat more - I’m especially interested in any sources you have about the transfeminine horse archers, I’m having trouble finding anything about it from searching online.
Yes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enaree I think that’s it.
so cool, thanks for sharing - I wonder if there was anything more specifically about the use of hormones? Just wondering how that might have been working in ancient contexts (I can only imagine a few ways it might work, such as by trying to isolate hormones from urine and then taking those orally.)
Well, they were horse nomads.
not sure what to take from what you are saying, do you mean they didn’t have hormones, or … that they drank horse urine (like, are you assuming context from the fact Premarin was derived from horses?)
I’m in no way discouraging such behavior. But if such acts aren’t followed up by financial backing historically they do not succeed.
I’m pretty sure its people with aids physically shackling themselves to pharma execs that hot us prep, not your good-boy points. They literally wouldn’t let us spend our good boy points, even those who were personal friends with the president. Not that it would have done much good.
You’re telling me if musk, Bezos or gates came out as trans… what would happen?
You act like there aren’t already wealthy trans people.
Not many no.
I’m not sure why you’re trying to fight this idea anyway. What makes trans rights immune from the huge influence money has in this country?
What about Caitlyn Jenner?
Do you feel like Caitlyn Jenner uses her influence to support the trans community?
Absolutely not. My point is that wealthy LGBT people aren’t what changed the dialogue. Some of the rich gay men also turned out to be libertarian tech bros who didn’t seem to care much for the rest of the community.
I’m just saying wealth isn’t a big factor.
Why? It’s a big factor in everything else in this country. What makes trans rights immune from monetary influence?
Yet Caitlyn Jenner isn’t exactly using her money to help the trans cause… It requires more than just money, there has to be a political movement and adherents to that movement who have the money and other relevant resources to effect change.
Not disagreeing with that.
Sorry, perhaps I positioned myself as more contradicting what you said when I meant for it to be more like a “yes, and” situation. I agree with your point about money, I was just thinking of all the other factors and got a little too excited XD
No worries. I know I’m stepping into a (rightfully) charged discussion here.