Hi Jill, the growing homophobia in the US is a worrying and disheartening trend. I think there is a case to be made that this homophic backlash stems from a reaction to the aggressive and unforgiving efforts to push new gender identity norms onto culture that seem irrational and arbitrary to most people. "The religion matters less than the arrogance and the narcissism, and the demand that everyone else adhere and submit." You are correct to point out traditional religions are fueling radical policies and intolerance, but I think the progressives need to recognize that a similar religious dynamic is at play within their secular humanist ideology. There is an obvious dogmatism when it comes to transgenderism and other new gender identities that has diminished the credibility of LGBT+ rights advocates in the eyes of more conservative people who may not live in coastal cities or have attended elite coastal universities. When people can't get straight answers for questions like "what is a woman?" Or when people born biologically male competing as women dominate women's sporting events on a public scale they create easy opportunities for right wingers to score easy cultural wins with their voters and conservatives become less likely or willing to listen to nuanced stories about people who rightfully fall into a transgender identity. When identity is explained as how one feels about themselves vs "how they were born", which was the case made to encourage acceptance of gay people as having a natural and uncontrollable sexual atteaction to people of the same sex like heterosexual people, they recoil back into old intolerant ideas to fight what they see as an encroaching cultural radicalism that they don't understand and can't question or challenge without punishment from public institutions so they ally more closely with religious ones and the churches now have an audience more willing to listen to anti homosexuality religious messages.
It feels like the authoritarians have found an ideal target in trans people: compared to the broader queer community, it is a very tiny minority (~1% of the US, though tellingly the average American apparently thinks it’s over 20%!) and very visible — a newly transitioned transwoman can hardly help but stick out at work, all day, for example. It makes it that much easier to insert propaganda about “transgender ideology” (rather than just accepting a small but natural part of human variation which has been around as long as we can tell) or “over-aggressive activism that deserves a backlash” (which of course has been used against every other assertion of basic human rights, over and over). But the passage of hate-fuelled bills in GOP-dominated state legislatures make it all too clear it really is just the point of the spear.
I recently read an article about external, non-genital structures that are different between male and female non-human primates. It showed that sex is not a simply binary. Even at the chromosomal level in humans there are more than 2 ways that X and Y chromosomes can combine -- XXY and XYY among them -- which resulted in an Austrian woman skier being required to compete in the men's division because of a chromosomal peculiarity. I also recall an article discussing gender among Indigenous peoples in the Americas where there were anatomical males who wore women's garments and did the work associated with that gender. In short, sex and gender are just another area of human diversity but, as so many are unable to consider the descendants of African slaves as equal to descendants of slave owners, there too are people who cannot conceive of diverse genders.
I detect a pushback among subscribers on this essay, which is unusual for us but important. It is unfortunate that the T has been added to the LGB when the issues are so divergent. Trans activists don’t just want to be a part of civil society, they intend to radically change it. They are the new authoritarians. You must say Transwomen are women, even if your lying eyes and your brain tells you not to believe it. You must think the right thought because this is “no debate”. Judges must call accused rapists in court “she” if requested. My nightly newscast called a man with a man’s name and a full beard a “she” because, well, they are required to use the preferred pronouns. My 4 year old comes home from preschool with “men can have vaginas”, knowing my son doesn’t really even understand what a vagina is. An 80 year old woman swimmer was kicked out of the Y pool because she objected to having a man in the women’s changing room. Male athletes who have gone thru puberty can now compete in women and girls sports and take the place of young women on the podium. If you want to discuss this, if you are worried the long slow slog for women’s rights are under attack, you are a hater and a transphobe. This is not normal civil rights behavior, it is more similar to the demand of old style religion that the dogma shall not be questioned and, if it is, you will be shamed and excommunicated, we will send the Twitter mob and take away your livelihood. Trans individuals are nothing new, are a tiny minority and deserve nothing but the respect and freedom of being human. Trans individuals were rare, they didn’t claim to be the opposite sex and they weren’t hellbent on gaslighting the rest of us. That’s all changed. It is not just the right wing who are concerned. One can live on the west coast, have a post graduate degree, be gay and a Democrat and be even more concerned...because we are the most susceptible to this agenda because we always intend to be kind, empathetic and show support for marginalized groups. Still, why is there no equal and ongoing discussion about “what is a man”? Because women have always been pushed around by men who insist they mean no harm to us (but if you don’t call us women, we’ll slit your ugly TERF throat). Dems, especially the progressive wing, we have a problem. It can’t be escaped by tying it to LGB or ignoring it or just saying (like was done with CRT) that it’s just a made up problem. It’s a real problem.
Hi Jill, the growing homophobia in the US is a worrying and disheartening trend. I think there is a case to be made that this homophic backlash stems from a reaction to the aggressive and unforgiving efforts to push new gender identity norms onto culture that seem irrational and arbitrary to most people. "The religion matters less than the arrogance and the narcissism, and the demand that everyone else adhere and submit." You are correct to point out traditional religions are fueling radical policies and intolerance, but I think the progressives need to recognize that a similar religious dynamic is at play within their secular humanist ideology. There is an obvious dogmatism when it comes to transgenderism and other new gender identities that has diminished the credibility of LGBT+ rights advocates in the eyes of more conservative people who may not live in coastal cities or have attended elite coastal universities. When people can't get straight answers for questions like "what is a woman?" Or when people born biologically male competing as women dominate women's sporting events on a public scale they create easy opportunities for right wingers to score easy cultural wins with their voters and conservatives become less likely or willing to listen to nuanced stories about people who rightfully fall into a transgender identity. When identity is explained as how one feels about themselves vs "how they were born", which was the case made to encourage acceptance of gay people as having a natural and uncontrollable sexual atteaction to people of the same sex like heterosexual people, they recoil back into old intolerant ideas to fight what they see as an encroaching cultural radicalism that they don't understand and can't question or challenge without punishment from public institutions so they ally more closely with religious ones and the churches now have an audience more willing to listen to anti homosexuality religious messages.
It feels like the authoritarians have found an ideal target in trans people: compared to the broader queer community, it is a very tiny minority (~1% of the US, though tellingly the average American apparently thinks it’s over 20%!) and very visible — a newly transitioned transwoman can hardly help but stick out at work, all day, for example. It makes it that much easier to insert propaganda about “transgender ideology” (rather than just accepting a small but natural part of human variation which has been around as long as we can tell) or “over-aggressive activism that deserves a backlash” (which of course has been used against every other assertion of basic human rights, over and over). But the passage of hate-fuelled bills in GOP-dominated state legislatures make it all too clear it really is just the point of the spear.
I recently read an article about external, non-genital structures that are different between male and female non-human primates. It showed that sex is not a simply binary. Even at the chromosomal level in humans there are more than 2 ways that X and Y chromosomes can combine -- XXY and XYY among them -- which resulted in an Austrian woman skier being required to compete in the men's division because of a chromosomal peculiarity. I also recall an article discussing gender among Indigenous peoples in the Americas where there were anatomical males who wore women's garments and did the work associated with that gender. In short, sex and gender are just another area of human diversity but, as so many are unable to consider the descendants of African slaves as equal to descendants of slave owners, there too are people who cannot conceive of diverse genders.
I detect a pushback among subscribers on this essay, which is unusual for us but important. It is unfortunate that the T has been added to the LGB when the issues are so divergent. Trans activists don’t just want to be a part of civil society, they intend to radically change it. They are the new authoritarians. You must say Transwomen are women, even if your lying eyes and your brain tells you not to believe it. You must think the right thought because this is “no debate”. Judges must call accused rapists in court “she” if requested. My nightly newscast called a man with a man’s name and a full beard a “she” because, well, they are required to use the preferred pronouns. My 4 year old comes home from preschool with “men can have vaginas”, knowing my son doesn’t really even understand what a vagina is. An 80 year old woman swimmer was kicked out of the Y pool because she objected to having a man in the women’s changing room. Male athletes who have gone thru puberty can now compete in women and girls sports and take the place of young women on the podium. If you want to discuss this, if you are worried the long slow slog for women’s rights are under attack, you are a hater and a transphobe. This is not normal civil rights behavior, it is more similar to the demand of old style religion that the dogma shall not be questioned and, if it is, you will be shamed and excommunicated, we will send the Twitter mob and take away your livelihood. Trans individuals are nothing new, are a tiny minority and deserve nothing but the respect and freedom of being human. Trans individuals were rare, they didn’t claim to be the opposite sex and they weren’t hellbent on gaslighting the rest of us. That’s all changed. It is not just the right wing who are concerned. One can live on the west coast, have a post graduate degree, be gay and a Democrat and be even more concerned...because we are the most susceptible to this agenda because we always intend to be kind, empathetic and show support for marginalized groups. Still, why is there no equal and ongoing discussion about “what is a man”? Because women have always been pushed around by men who insist they mean no harm to us (but if you don’t call us women, we’ll slit your ugly TERF throat). Dems, especially the progressive wing, we have a problem. It can’t be escaped by tying it to LGB or ignoring it or just saying (like was done with CRT) that it’s just a made up problem. It’s a real problem.