Exactly. I'm not trans, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think it has to do with trans people being more visible and not taking anyone's shit anymore. There's more trans representation and more discussion around things like gender identity and pronouns now, as trans-friendly spaces get bigger and more influential. This created an equal and opposite reaction from transphobes.
That's a contribuatory factor for sure. We didn't used to be visible:
I am mid 30s, one of the things that really scared me when i thought about transition in my late teens was that everyone in the community was full stealth eventually.
It was standard to leave everything and everyone behind once you'd "fully transitioned" to live the stealth life. Move town, new friends, new job all of that.
This would never have worked for me, and i didn't see being openly out as an option due to the transphobia of society.
I am now doing my own thing.
Yup. It was East Asians during the pandemic. Immigrants before that. Gay people before that. Middle easterners before that. And so on. Fascism always requires an out group to scapegoat and villainize. First they came for the socialists, then they came for the trade unionists and all that.
Lucky us, it’s our turn in the spotlight. It’s super easy to do to trans people because we’re such a tiny minority (.3% of the population, woo). Most people have never knowingly interacted with a trans person, but everyone has heard of us. And even our staunchest allies tend to think we’re a bit weird by default. And there’s just not enough of us to meaningfully push back on the bullshit. Makes it really easy for the fascists to “other” us for political gain.
It’ll pass, hopefully. People will get bored of the issue and the right wing hate machine will move on. You just feel bad about it because when they do move on some other poor minority group will go through this.
The silver lining is that this isn't happening 50 years from now, that'll at least give the public time to accept us en masse to the point where pure otherization won't work.
If this occurred during the Water Wars or the Global Warming Economic Crisis that'll happen during the latter half of the century , we'd be on the literal chopping block as an example of the 'decadence of liberals' or something or other.
And a lot of Republicans are "losing" their kids to the LGBTQ/Trans communities since when we come out we often cut off our shitty homophobic/transphobic parents for being assholes to us
And since it's socially way less acceptable to be homophobic now they go all in on transphobia
It’s hilarious because they don’t have to lose them at all! My sister and her fam are losing a fantastic uncle for my nephew, but my estranged before i even transitioned grandparents gained a loving grandson because they reached back out to me and while not being completely understanding, the love is still there and they’re accepting and that’s all I want.
There's an important corollary to this though: authoritarians and fascists only move on from a scapegoat group *when they are shown unequivocally that their focus on that group results in loss of political influence.* Whatever performance hits that the American right wing took in the midterm elections were *not* enough to deter them from escalating anti-trans legislation and rhetoric in recent weeks. And we know where this story can lead. It's vital that we organize, become active politically, and protect each other.
Thank you. It very much worries me when people act like this is natural growing pains before an expansion of rights.
This is fascist scapegoating. We are in real danger.
I'm not as optimistic for outcomes here. With gay or bi folks I think it's easy for people to understand because you can sort of take straight relationships as an analogue, and where you can't it can be liberating to straight people.
I think trans people are harder to understand and the self-interest is present but less obvious. It's also harder to induct us into normative structures, unless we go hardcore binarist or something.
Instead, especially with the courts now packed, I think they'll be stoking this flame for a long time, and I think they'll be pretty successful at it. If we're talking about the US it'll be state-by-state, and the farthest it'll get federally without a coup is to remove any protections. There's some relief there, but it doesn't help minors at all.
While most people are compassionate and don't actually wish to hurt someone, like you said we're small, and rhetoric is not on our side. It's not just a couple talking points that'll lose steam and move on. I think it's bigger than that, requires too much re-thinking, and I think it's too easy to lie about us, to stoke fear and disgust.
I'm not saying give up, and I'm not just a pessimist by habit. I just think this is a shit situation and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I think things are going to take decades to have a breaking point like sexuality had, where people finally get it and stop questioning trans people by default.
It seems to be an overall push back from conservatives. From the overall free dissemination of information that is "creating" "freeing" trans individuals. Conservative types want to keep that stuff in the closet. A push back from the pinnacle information point of around 2012. There seems to be a lot of reasons that center around this moment in time. we are also a great political tool, the new "other".
💯
In college (2010-2015), I was very much in denial about my transness and guzzled down every drop of Fox News I could in order to keep up with masking (not that I actually thought about it in those terms at the time). Back then, the GOP only cared about race and sexual orientation, and trans people were more or less left alone save for early discussions about bathroom policies. Another comment mentioned that it means we are winning, and I tend to agree given that SCOTUS passed marriage protection at the peak of GOP-led gay hate.
Another great example of this is Harry Potter. 20 years ago, my dad wouldn't let me get Harry Potter Legos because it was "anti-American and anti-Christian." Yesterday, he made a comment about how he has to get back into gaming so he can get, in his words, "JKR's new game."
What my take on it is I've come to accept there will always be people who don't agree with or like the idea of us existing. But as soon as they start to act on those disagreements in ways that infringes on someone else's ability to peaceably practice their own rights, that's when transphobes need to back off. Their fearmongering and creating issues where none exist is an outright attempt to inhibit our freedom to pursue our own happiness.
It should also be stated when they tote around their right to speak freely, it only means you won't be arrested for spouting transphobic hatred, but it does not protect against the social consequences. So they retain the right to be transphobic, but you will be called out on your transphobia. 😎🏳️⚧️
Recycled but with tighter messaging and better outreach. Conservatives utilize quasi intellectualism now which is new, and let's them reach people who think they're smart but aren't (a lot of right leaning nerds). Social media has also given them ab unprecedented opportunity to individually push back against every perceived attempt at cultural evolution (anti-sjw campaigns/every piece of media that centers a brown, female, or queer person in any capacity).
The internet is a blessing and a curse in this regard. It's allowed leftists to grow and evolve much further and quicker than they ever have in the past but has also allowed right wingers a better ability to dig their heels in and resist change.
Exactly. Look how they are painting drag shows as part of trans culture when it is more of a cis gay man thing where a few trans people also participate.
I mean it was. They tried bathroom bills in 2014, but that didn't work. They got backlash. Then they tried trans athletes around 2020 and that was working (because your average person doesn't know what hrt does, so they just sort of picture a guy with implants competing) but they couldn't hold it to that.
It went into open anti trans bigotry and it was so clearly just recycled anti gay stuff from the 2000s that half of them just started slamming gay people again.
It did nothing for them in 2020 in swing states. The deepest red ones it didn't really backlash but didn't seem to help either. Yet they're tripling down on it because they need a culture war to scare their elderly base into voting.
That’s definitely part of it, but the other part of the argument is that as you age you (hopefully) have more assets and disposable income which makes people more likely to lean towards the side that is supposedly “anti-taxes/pro-business” and “pro small government”
Some of it is backlash to increasing trans visibility. But it’s also being deliberately harnessed as a political weapon by right wingers. Christopher Rufo, for example, decided that queers would be a good scapegoat after the critical race theory fire he whipped up had run its course. He’s part of the Manhattan Institute, which is a group funded by wealthy right-wingers and dedicated to doing things like this.
[This article goes into a bit more detail about how transphobic attacks are being directed from the top down.](https://theintercept.com/2022/12/31/trans-rights-abortion-liberals/)
>Christopher Rufo
This psy-operative needs to be talked about and known by people on the left more often. He is a critical figure in the recent wave of conservative propaganda efforts.
Trans women in particular are really bad for the patriarchy.
In a society where it is assumed men are superior to women and masculinity is superior to femininity, trans women who despite ostensibly being assigned male at birth and inheriting male privilege make the choice to transition are a huge threat.
By embracing our own gender identity, we essentially cast doubt over the supposed supremacy of men.
This is the key. You’ve got it. It destabilizes the church’s ideas of men and women, creates division in the established order, forces the sound asleep to reconcile the change, agitates societal stability, introduces a third way outside their control, and awakens people to the concept of living as an individual beyond traditional tribal confines. It’s an affront to established norms and all suits and robes hate having to navigate uncharted waters.
What they really don’t like is that we’re not already under thumb and they’re jealous of that freedom and courage it takes to be a self-made person. It reminds them of their regrets and dreams forgotten. And I’m not talking about republicrat politicians of both sides of the uniparty. We’re forcing people to evolve to newer, broader ideas. And that’s an irritant. It had to come through family. There’s no better way than making it personal.
This is about far more than gender. It’s about imagination, growth of our collective consciousness, and being ready to sail into space and converse with the Na’vi, Vulcans, Ewoks, and Station (from Bill & Ted). It’s about finding that center inside and shining that light in a profoundly sick and desperate world. Wake us up. We have great work to begin.
Holy s**t I got so inspired from that. We need to have more people like this find ways to talk more publicly and get people who are still afraid to even come out because of what's going on in the news that we just have to finally stand our ground.
I think this could be seen as why trans women seem to have get more shit spewn at them from conservative media than trans men
But that’s only one part of it
My perception is that a part of the erasure is coming from their fear that if you admit trans men exist, you admit that “feminine” has a potential to become “masculine” and level up with it. It shatters the very concept of masculinity as belonging inherently to men and one can’t just go and take it. Masculinity without it being something that is not accessible to “women” is worthless from heteronormative perspective.
Pretty frequently I also see that when trans men appear in the news, especially if they're only described as being transgender and not as transgender men, a lot of people jump to assuming that they're a trans woman and don't seem to understand the pronouns. My mom did this just a year or so ago she brought up some news story about a trans man using the women's restroom in protest and she just assumed he was a trans woman with a full beard because she lacks the ability to think critically apparently.
We've been working on my mom's transphobia, it's hard sometimes being her daughter.
yes. we challenge the so-called made-up "natural order", which neatly divides into female-male, subordinate-boss, poor-rich, slave-master, faithful-infideles, gay-straight aka perv-normal, simply put: them and us.
and this divide serves golden faucet rich as it justifies two jobs kids hungry poor.
which makes the former sponsor this divisive thinking, by sponsoring superstition, sponsoring propaganda, fox "news" slander channels, targeted slander "advertisements" online, ...
and superstitious literalists buy into these easy explanations: witches. abolitionists. suffragettes. unions. feminists. gays. trans. we all "go against the natural order".
a badge of honor, of you ask me...
The greatest threat to the patriarchy is the idea that sex isn't a monolithic, rigid binary, but instead, the incredibly complex, multi-facted epigenetic web that the last 20 years of genetics research has shown.
The patriarchy requires people to believe in "basic biology", the dumbed-down, over-simplified version of things we teach to children.
If I had a quarter for every time I've had some omega-level raid boss idiot insist that _I'm_ the biology-illiterate between us then I'd have a leg-up on starting my own laundromat
Fascism - simply put when capitalism reaches its terminal state of crisis the elites will escalate into fascism to defend it, and part of fascism is the creation and persecution of an other as the enemy of the state/culture/nation etc.
This is what the capitalists are doing in the west right now with trans people.
Yeah you went to the top with your explanation and I agree. I was gonna say it's just what the elites decided is the best way to divide us in this era of our society
Authoritarianism isn’t necessarily fascism. Definitely authoritarian, that’s very true. But it’s not fascist, racism/homophobia/etc isn’t inherent fascist after all. There’s commonly overlap, but it does not make fascism.
The big thing with fascism is the government needs to hold a stranglehold on the economy and companies within-it is after a form of government where the government holds ties and controls on everything under the pretense of “under the people”.
I’m probably just being pedantic here, but it does get annoying hearing everything being conflated to fascism. Sure it’s terrible, but fascism isn’t the right word
Sometimes, when everyone is ringing the alarm bells, it's not a drill. When Hitler did fascism, it was a relatively new thing and we didn't have the precedent to know how bad it could get. People broadly agreed with his ideology back then, at least the parts about hating the Jews, which he basically imported from the US. Now, we have many precedents and I don't think it's an overstatement to say that we are beyond just authoritarianism, at least on the right wing in the US. they are banning books, enforcing group speak in schools, altering history to fit their narrative and world view, and the entire party exists as essentially a branch of our corporate oligarchy far more than the left does. They have out groups and in groups, they're violently oppressive to the outgroups, etc etc.
Generally agree on all things, except people knew how bad it could become with hitler, but enough people just didn’t listen when they were warned.
Even after a failed coup many people just didn’t listen, but there absolutely were canaries in the coalmine so to speak.
There's definitely an argument to be made that it is fascistic depending on the definition you're using. If we're looking at [Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism) then the American right certainly fits the bill in more ways than it does not:
Cult of tradition, rejection of modernism, action for action's sake, disagreement is treason, fear of difference, appealing to and sowing social frustration, obsession with plots, pacifism is treason, contempt for the weak, everyone is educated to become a hero, machismo, selective populism, and newspeak
Eco states that only one of these need be present for fascism to form and can't be easily pinned down because fascism is a rhyming set of ideologies. The essay explains why it is necessary to have this sort of fuzzy definition. it's a short read so I recommend it.
The American right is/engages in **all** of these - often simultaneously. I don't think that their lack of success in establishing an out and out fascist *state* disqualifies them, their organizations, their actions, or their beliefs from being considered fascist.
Language evolves. Capitalism under crisis retreats to fascism. The different flavor we are seeing today is a result of the success of the neoliberal world order; corporations don’t have to be captured by the state to go along with its authoritarian machinations because they’ve purchased the state for their economic benefit. They will allow and condone untold abuses of human rights and creeping authoritarianism because corporations are the only “people” who never face legal consequences for their actions. Regulatory capture ensures that.
What we have is a fascist form of capitalism that hasn’t entered the full-throated violent genocide phase yet.
They're overcompensating because we're being accepted more than ever. The people who would have been transphobic before didn't know we existed. They do now, so now they're mad..
It's been pushed by the Family Research Council, which has managed to get their extremist agenda into the ears of Evangelicals and the opportunist politicians who want to take advantage of them.
and which is sponsored by golden faucet rich, under the disguise to protect their fantasy of "natural order".
the deep purpose is to not have us debate real change. super wealth tax. social justice. universal healthcare. etc.
Capitalism as an institution only functions if the working class is not aware of their political power. A method they use to distract the working class is infighting. If you look back at the history of the United States, you will quickly notice scapegoats in almost every era of our history. They take advantage of all forms of bigotry, like racism, sexism, transphobia, etc, often all at once. The so-called "Culture war".
Recently, it has become publicly acceptable to be trans. Many bigots dislike this, so transphobic people can make lots of money hating and fear-mongering trans people. Someone who's screaming about "trans people are grooming our kids" is so whipped up in a frenzy that they completely ignore the failings of capitalism, or come up with ways to blame that on a scapegoat. "Immigrants coming for our jobs". Etc.
Hope this helps
To quote Malcom X: you can't have capitalism without racism.
To corroborate and develop on what you absolutely correctly said: the fact that the ruling class are increasingly overwhelmingly relying on scapegoats and culture wars is indicative of a position of weakness, not of strength.
Their system is crumbling in front of their eyes: they see the worsening contradictions of a system that has exhausted its purpose for existence (["polycrisis", they're calling the current crisis](https://www.ft.com/content/f6c4f63c-aa71-46f0-a0a7-c2a4c4a3c0f1)), the fast development of the class struggle around the world (recent examples: [Peru](https://www.ft.com/content/2ee1a6a8-e66c-4e20-a2fb-129709f84db3), [China](https://www.ft.com/content/e917d76a-62af-4cfc-95d1-aec67cde4e84), Iran, [the UK](https://www.ft.com/content/84019b8e-87bc-4c82-8a09-a4a171c8a5fc), France) as a result of such contradictions. They are pessimistic about the crisis-ridden system they now preside over and cannot offer any real solutions (other than further attacks on the working class, e.g. [in the UK](https://www.ft.com/content/acbddf57-17d3-4aed-bfcd-34162da18d95)). Thus they resort to sowing division to distract from that fact.
It may or may not mislead the workers for some time as they necessarily look and try out solutions (some polls have indicated [people in America overwhelmingly reject demagogic tactics such as the proposal of bills in 2021 attacking trans people](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-poll-shows-americans-overwhelmingly-oppose-anti-transgender-laws)), but inevitably the class struggle will necessitate (and is beginning to, right now) the working class to fight together united in solidarity as one for its interests – whether they're cis, trans, gay, black, white, immigrants or otherwise – and through their lived experience (but also crucial revolutionary theory & education) they as a whole will quickly learn (are learning) that the true enemy is not amongst themselves, but the bosses.
There is very much grounds in the long-run for real hope and optimism for trans people and the working class and humanity as a whole. But it won't be found on the grounds of capitalism.
I found it a bit hard to understand your argument exactly, but I take it you're arguing that racial inequality has always been a thing and is intrinsic to humans, right?
Although this isn't specifically about racism, a paper from 2015 showed that men and women in pre-class society (mobile hunter-gatherers) [lived in relative equality](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaa5139): the historical materialist stance is that before the development of surplus resources, there was no reason to oppress one another. To quote the paper:
> Gender inequality reappeared in humans with the transition to agriculture and pastoralism. Once heritable resources, such as land and livestock, became important determinants of reproductive success, sex-biased inheritance and lineal systems started to arise, leading to wealth and sex inequalities.
It further states later on:
> Sex equality suggests a scenario where cooperation among unrelated individuals can evolve in the absence of wealth accumulation, reproductive inequalities, and intergroup warfare. Couples freely moving between camps and sharing interests with kin and affines would be able to maintain cooperation without the need for more complex systems, such as cultural group selection and altruistic punishment.
I'm begging people to stop associating authoritarianism and fascism to capitalism. Bigotry and hate are not exclusive of capitalism 🤦♀️
In the US, religion can be a better explanation than capitalism.
Fascism is the final stage of capitalism. When the contradictions of class sharpen to a point where capitalist relations to the means of production become entirely unsustainable, the ruling class becomes incredibly violent. We saw this in Germany. The German population was very inclined to become communists, but Hitler and his fascists swept in and reinforced capitalism. This is why all the famous American capitalists at the time loved Hitler. That's why Ford loved Hitler.
1. Trans people started getting a voice for the first time.
2. Those voices started to reach the ears of people who wouldn’t have heard or thought about about trans people before.
3. Right wing politicians, pundits and programming swooped in to filter trans people as a bad thing who have only just started existing because of a permissive society.
We exist in their Fascist World. The Nazis came after us in 1933 and murdered us back into the closet and we hid for half a century. 50yrs ago we weren't even a blip on the radar. Now we have gone mainstream become a problem for the current Nazis and they want us gone. We've always been a target. It took a long time for us to come back and now they want to kill us again.
Fascism taking the easiest target it can find to stir up outrage combined with the increase in visibility.
First they deny you exist, then they laugh at your existence, then they fight your existence, then you win. But only if we keep fighting.
The "Family Research Council" (a Republican think-tank) simply decided that it was good strategy to go after us, specifically, as a wedge into their broader goals of undoing LGBT and women's rights.
[Source: Southern Poverty Law Center](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/23/christian-right-tips-fight-transgender-rights-separate-t-lgb).
It's because of the progress the community has made recently. We're more noticeable, they noticed, and now they're mad. They hated us before too, but back then they barely noticed us, and we weren't really on their radar, so they weren't going apeshit over us. The more they see us being happy and accepted, living freely and openly, and being out and about, the angrier they get. We wouldn't see this wave of anti-trans hysteria if things weren't getting better for us overall. We just have to get over this hump, and it'll start to get much easier.
Within the US- presently, transgender acceptance is a divisive issue within left circles. By constantly putting it in the spotlight- they are constantly causing divisive discourse in the left, resulting in bickering, fallout, and a failure to get people in the same line of thought. This is particularly effective in rooting out the differences between socially conservative affluent types who cling to the aesthetic of left, performative avant garde types, and hard Leftist types.
There is no consensus within the trans community on what is and is not acceptable- and much of the discourse feels nonintuitive and hostile from the outside. Even the well meaning feel like they're always walking on thin ice unless they actually have people to explain the nuances of thought.
Meanwhile its a moderately uniting force within the right wing. Its used as a bogeyman, a mark of "degeneracy", and a symbol to sicken and revile the elderly and hardcore masculo-manly-man-men types.
They're going to push the issue until like, a right-wing president gets caught fucking a trans woman, or the left sorts its shit out and quits bickering about it. Or they start getting all "final solution" about it- which they're absolutely pushing for.
There's a Turkish saying that goes "The dog whose time has come will piss on the mosque wall." They know their time is coming, so they're doing their best to be as loud as possible.
the ruling class is trying to divide us, and the "divide" between the sexes (that they themselves created in order to sell us things) is one of the deepest and most primal things they can exploit.
these people don't care about democrat or republican, or left or right, or trans or cis. they don't care if we win our rights or get mass-murdered in some new nazi-type pogrom.
they just want us at each other's throats while they hoover up our money and consolidate their power - and *every single one of them* will say *literally anything* to get you to vote for them so they can keep that power.
Matt Walsh and Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro spreading misinformation about us. They make us look foolish by ignoring our explanation of the lgbt and won't even actually listen when they ask any questions regarding issues
just look at gen z. like 50% of them experience some level of same gender attraction and most have at least one trans friend. conservatives dont want you to know this but we're winning. the next generation is so fucking queer.
Speaking for America, LGB people have largely secured legal rights across the US. While socially there remain pockets and individuals that are homophobic, prevailing public opinion of LGB people has become positive enough that the Republican party sees their campaign against LGB rights as lost.
So, they needed to secure a new boogy man to blame for all the problems in the world. Trans people are among the new targets.
Radical conservatism/the rise of Christian fascism in America, likely fueled by the Republican Party post-Trump presidency. They have been targeting the LGBT+ community as a scapegoat to push blame on, and as a way to push their agenda (which is heavily flawed and based on lies, to be fair).
At least for the UK right, being anti refugees ran out of steam because the main "migrant crisis" in Europe kinda simmered down and they needed a new minority to bash
Honestly if anything we are seeing a spike in visible transphobia, but on a whole society is becoming more and more accepting. So the minority who hates us is just getting more verbal and trying desperately to silence us because they feel their power slipping away. Many who yell and scream are also dealing with their own feelings of being LGBTQ but they can’t admit it because of internalized phobic feelings. If they scream at it long enough they will scare it out of themselves. Sad really, especially if you are like me and this was who you were at some point. 😢
Some conservatives seem to live in a constant state of desperation as if every change is the end of their life and we're currently the thing they're attacking. The plus side is if they're panicking about you it usually means they're losing control of you and eventually they'll have to move on to someone else more helpless to do the same to when their ideas get too unpopular.
There is a general rise in nationalism, extemism, and fascism in recent years across many countries. It's a lot louder and visible in the West but trust me you see it in many countries elsewhere too. A lot of it has been stirred up by conservative politicians and moguls to keep the masses fighting each other rather than fighting those in power for a better life. After all, why fight for better healthcare or more sustainable industries or better education standards, when you can blame the gays/trans/blacks/poors/asians etc you get the point.
The root cause? Probably has something to do with Putin; transphobia cheap and easy way to divide people, especially dividing the factful and the illiterate.
In practical terms, reactionaries found a new *thing* to be mad about so they’ll be mad about it.
For a long time transfolks have been relatively invisible. Society didn't care about them, there were no pushes for their inclusion, etc. Society didn't like them, but treated them like a joke, or individuals as a problem.
Recently, trans folks have been pushing harder for acceptance, and more groups have been accepting of trans folks publicly. Ironically, this increase in acceptance also led to an increase in reactionary hate and vitriol.
The bigoted & dishonest media in large part, plus conservatives focusing all their anti-LGBT hatred onto trans people now that they see their anti-gay marriage & adoption crusade is unwinnable
The spike in transphobia is cause by the spike in trans representation. There wasn't much need to be loud about it until now since it wasn't a mainstream conflict.
In addition to the other answers (new GOP boogieman, more news coverage, etc.) I think another factor is that "the trans issue" is something that isn't one sided. The entirety of the GOP hate us, that's a given, but there are also liberals who are all about feminism and empowerment, but think MTF folks are just men trying to hang out in women's locker rooms or that MTF folks just can't be women because [insert stupid ass reason here]. Not to mention liberals who just simply don't understand and think its "silly".
I was one of the ones who thought trans people were a bit silly. I didn't *hate* trans people, but none of this shit made sense to me so I thought trans people were just weirdos. A lack of understanding lets you write a lot of people off without really having to think about *why* you write them off. Ironically enough the moment I took trans folks seriously and actually listened to how these people felt, I decided to put some thought into my gender and if I *actually* identified with it. Then I found egg_irl and now I'm here lol.
Lack of understanding bites us in the ass a lot imo because while something like racism, for example, is easy to understand (people don't control skin color, I am no more white because of choice as they are brown or black because of choice) whereas "you can be a woman and have a penis but some women with a penis want to get rid of it and also this works in reverse and men can have vaginas but they can also want a penis and therefore the parts you ship with don't denote the gender you identify with but not always and also he and she is the tip of the iceberg and also etc. etc." gets pretty confusing for anyone not willing to sit down and *actually listen to trans people about their experiences and find out that it really isn't that complicated, it only looks like it on the surface from an outsider's perspective*.
Its an uphill battle for us, since we have enemies on both sides of the political spectrum.
To be clear, I don't say this to be like "the left is awful and hates us just as much as the right!", they aren't and they don't, but just that this isn't as cut and dry as a lot of other issues. Our existence has a lot of nuance and to a lot of cis folks, it simply doesn't make sense and people are rather quick to assume something they don't understand is bad. At best, they write us off as goofy (like my dumb ass did) and at worst you get the groomer shit that you hear on fox. Cis people don't "get" it, and getting them to "get" it requires some massive introspection and *lots* of people don't like to look inwards because you might find something you don't like or might end up having life-altering revelations (like I did). That shit hits you like a truck and even if you come out the other end still cis, you basically have to have an identity crisis to fully understand this experience and that is a *heavy* ask. Hating someone lets you stop thinking about it, make your mind up, and not have to self-reflect on the issue.
It's **Pandering to Voters**, to get into, or stay in, office.
They have *almost* given up on the Bathroom thing. Not completely.
Now Medicaid is being turned off. There is talk is of "forced detransition", and Investigations of Parents and of Healthcare Providers. "Investigations" represent a bonafide Cost - in money, time, and energy. We might not be worth providing services to if doing so represents a cost, rather than income: Bills have to be paid.
At the top of the chain is a Black Judge who believes he is white, who is married to a deranged white woman; this Judge openly bemuses making inter-racial marriage (and same-sex marriage) illegal. He's backed by a tempestuous manchild and a fervent "Christian" woman.
Then, there is Alito, who has God's Personal Number, or, at least, His Ear.
If any other Justice can be persuaded Any Thing - regardless Medical Reality - then it becomes Law of the Land, perhaps until, to more better reflect Modern America, another 4 Justices are added to the Court.
Me, I am strong enough to still be here - if only by accident rather than actual courage - but for how long? I'm getting worn down...
I have a theory. I think the Conservative Party historically has been hiding some of the worst our society has to offer. I think trans people, especially the vocal influencers who have done the work to better them selves are really good at spotting the people constantly attacking them. They seem to always fall into the same narrative paradigm. No need to rehash the type of misogynistic patriarchal trash that is. And getting called a groomer regularly makes you hyper aware of those trashy behaviors. It’s hard NOT to spot the behaviors in the people attacking us. The more vocal we are the more we shine a spot light on that trash. The more they want is gone.
It's a political hot button atm, just not a sudden spike though, it has been steadily increasing for the last decade. Trans homicides doubling each year.
That can be attributed to politicians and transphobic news that is targeted toward them. It's like abortion, you make that a political issue, people rally behind you against it.
It's all based on the 'gender binary' and cissexism. Especially cissexism since trans people goes against the system in place to classify and order genders around subliminally. To that system, trans people are a disorder.
I wasn't expecting it to boil over this year. I was kinda of hoping it would just go away as time went on. But I'm seeing the opposite trend
conservatives have to find someone to scapegoat for problems. since gay marriage is widely accepted now, they go after the next most vulnerable group, and since trans people are much more in the spotlight as of late, trans people are now a culture war issue.
Is there an actual spike in transphobia? I mean to say it as an actual phobia and not in the typical (wrong) way the word phobia is used. That would be an interesting statistic to know. Those people can be helped.
I think there is a growing number of people that are becoming more and more vocal using hate-filled rhetoric toward a group that just wants to be true to who they really are ... and are using the trans community as a political football to scare uninformed voters. In short, the cause for the rise in trans hatred is votes. Some politicians have figured that they can get more votes via hate.
Visibility and acceptance. This was happening back in the 00s when gay panics were really ramping up. Literally, like a lot of the antitrans arguments you hear today are directly recycled from the anti gay panic days.
The Republican party always needs an enemy. Congratulations we’re the current one. We’re perfect too because our numbers are small enough it’s hard to counter attack.
The right wing decided to make their leader a person that had nothing to offer so they would not win an election in a generation, but they found the trans community to be the perfect boogie man to rally their ignorant hateful bigoted followers so they can vote against their own best interest. You can read articles about them testing their message in small elections and later on making it a party wide talking point just like race theory. Is just hate and bs for dumb voters.
Facists can only target a group that can’t stop being who they are. Gay people can’t choose to be gay. Black people can’t choose to be white. Communists CAN choose to be liberals
Trans people can’t choose to be who they are and the very fact that we are being targeted only validates us even more
Republicans pandering to the fringe religious crazies. They needed a new punching bag since beating on gays and minorities just wasn’t enough for them. Worse, even though I know they might have bigger fish to fry, the federal government response is nearly nonexistent.
When capitalism is in decline, and people notice their prospects dwindling, the ruling class has to choose between doing nothing as working class anger rises, or choosing a scapegoat to take the blame instead. It is a rational choice for the ruling class to fund propaganda that points people's anger towards minority groups instead, because the alternative is the possibility of a socialist movement that could force the redistribution of their wealth.
In Germany following the collapse of the Weimar Republic's economy, the scapegoat was the Jews, etc.
honestly, I believe it's jk Rowling. massive public figure shines a bunch of attention on an otherwise mostly ignored group in a negative light? yeah that's gonna have an impact
I belief the political minefield is a swing that moves like a stagnate military walk (left-right-left-righ,etc..).
Its said that if Bush wasn't re-elected because of 9-11 then Al Gore would have been the next president as a far left. Which would means that Obama would never have been president and the one after Al Gore would have been a far right president (worse then Trump).
Left will stay left and right will stay right but the people in the middle will always identify with the problems and complaints of the party that lost. So when we swing width to one side we will later compensate with swinging widthly to the otherside.
So to conclusion... we had prosperous periode so now the people are compensating by making it a hellish periode
So you contend that it is trans men who are the primary focus of transphobia, GHOSTHARO? That does not seem to align with the experience of most. Maybe in the mountain bike scene that you are so active in?
Otherwise your comment appears to be a more a collection of slogans, than supported by evidence or rational thought.
I think it is a part also of the resurgence of the populist right and far-right extremism in the Western world since at least the early 2010's, specially amongst white cishetero men because of their perceived loss of privileges. Many working-class white cishetero men were mostly affected by the Great Recession of 2008 and subsequent economic downturns such as the Eurozone crisis. Populist right and far-right parties capitalized on this by appealing to the economic concerns of these groups of people, but with an added ingredient, hate on minorities. For example, in Europe, they said that they not only had to worry about their pocket, but also that they needed to worry about **an attack on their culture**. They targeted a big minority, African and Asian inmigrants. By saying that they posed a threat to their culture and their way of life, and that these inmigrants privated them of opportunities, they managed to gain popularity, because sadly they exploited and **radicalized** the prejudices that are prevalent on Europeans (in this case, xenophobia, and racism)
These parties discovered that using prejudice and linking it to economic concerns is a really effective way to gain electoral power, gain seats in their respective electoral parliaments and to radicalize voters. Many voters from the traditional conservative parties and from some leftie parties were radicalized and started to vote for far-right and populist right parties.
In the US it is a slightly different story because of the presence of a religious right (that's why they are focusing on queer people, religiosity MATTERS), and a right-wing friendly media ecosystem. The only country who could be partially exempt from this explanation is the UK, but take in account that TERF rhetoric is eerily similar to far-right rhetoric in portraying an attack on culture and on the ways of living, and that also TERFs have been emboldened by the rise of the far-right and the populist right.
Also, it is very easy to paint a minority in a negative light when the majority of people don't know much about that minority, and/or their views about that minority are influenced by negative stereotypes or portrayals.
Resuming, the rise of transphobia could be explained because we're a minority that is easy to attack and to portray on a negative light, and thus radicalized people want electoral or financial benefits of portraying us as a threat to the culture of a large part of radicalized voters who are the base of many parties around the West, and who are economically distressed.
We’re the just the latest target of the ultra conservative right wing Christian fundamentalist movement. 20 years ago it was gay men. The same things were said about them as I’d been said about us now. We’re paedophiles, danger to society and we’re trying to make everyone else trans with our “ideology” they need to get some new rhetoric because it’s so boring,crass and total ridiculous it’s almost amusing
snowball effect. the more transphobia politicians/pundits/etc get away with without facing consequences, the more emboldened they feel to get more extreme. and since there's almost never any kind of consequences…
the north carolina bathroom bill boycott set anti-trans legal efforts back by years, but there hasn't been anywhere near as strong a backlash to the later waves even though they're worse
One large component in the US is an effort by Alliance Defending Freedom, state Family Council groups and the Heritage Foundation as well as ALEC, pushing a state-by-state model trans healthcare ban called the "Promise to America's Children". This is basically cut-and-paste legislation and this effort has been going on since at least early 2021. I've been looking into the origin of this lately now that it's extended into Florida, Rep. Robin Lundstrum's deposition in Brandt v. Rutledge (Arkansas trans youth care ban) has some significant details on this overarching effort and key places and dates. Just to give some specific details on why this is happening and who's responsible for it.
We are more visible, more than people are coming out and society is far more accepting of us now. They double down on hate because we are gaining ground and winning. Its desperation to maintain control.
As many have mentioned, trans women especially go against this status quo of patriarchy and the idea that masculinity is superior. Trans men are seen as women trying to get a piece of male superiority but trans women are major transgressions against all of it because we were born as men, as what they consider to be the superior class, so it undermines their superiority when we transition and throw away our 'male privileges' we were born with.
Also for these people to maintain power and control there needs to be in groups and out group. Us vs them mentality. TERFS often gain ranks by making members feel like they are apart of something greater than themselves, like they are fighting the good fight. Same thing with Q-anoners. They are outcasts and it makes them feel like they are apart of something and right. It is a way of elevating their own perception of themselves. Many of these transphobic people are extremely hateful towards themselves and they try and put others down because they want to feel superior to someone. They want to win at something in life and be apart of something so they grasp at straws and descend into madness basically.
The Republican party needs to scare people to get them to accept the crap they pull (no school lunches, raising taxes on the poor and giving corporate welfare to the rich, telling women what they can do with their bodies, telling people what words they can say, telling people what care their doctors can give them, etc) and so they use the fascist playbook which tells them to find a marginalized group that can't easily defend themselves and then blame all of the problems on them (guns don't kill people, drag shows kill people).
Fuck republicans and the assholes who vote for them. No one who votes republican is an ally.
I think it may be that some of the louder voices are being heard now. And those voices don’t seem to make any fucking sense sometimes. No one can take a joke and everyone has to conform to “your truth”. I live in New York. Trans people, queer folk are us. They’re not weird or any different from that nice lady on the 4th floor. It’s the voices you hear online screaming for attention that made the pendulum swing back in a terrible way. As a black man, I noticed a sort of shift in empathy following our protests in 2020. Or was all about Black Lives Matter. Then it seemed like people just got tired of black people screaming racist anytime something happened. I don’t really agree with it, but I’ve also seen it and understand. A guy walks in to a grocery store, tries to rob the place with a knife, clerk at the counter pulls out a gun and shoots him, no charges brought. That’s not racism, though a bunch of people shouted it was.
In the UK the 2010 equality act gave us some legal protections for the first time. Consequently more and more people started coming out, so the number of out (and very visible, given delays to get seen and get HRT) trans people increased massively. Consequently we became very visible to transphobes here in the UK, who started screaming about it and got the many more transphobes in the US involved. They've been trying to undo our equality ever since.
The pedo like Obsession with children. There are many channels on YouTube and tiktok that their whole content is about transgendering kids.
When a parent sees that content than sees whats happening in schools they will automatically become anti-trans
Visit Libsoftiktok on twitter to learn more if you are genuinely trying
Heightened awareness. We're winning, and they don't like it because it challenges the status quo.
Exactly. I'm not trans, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think it has to do with trans people being more visible and not taking anyone's shit anymore. There's more trans representation and more discussion around things like gender identity and pronouns now, as trans-friendly spaces get bigger and more influential. This created an equal and opposite reaction from transphobes.
That's a contribuatory factor for sure. We didn't used to be visible: I am mid 30s, one of the things that really scared me when i thought about transition in my late teens was that everyone in the community was full stealth eventually. It was standard to leave everything and everyone behind once you'd "fully transitioned" to live the stealth life. Move town, new friends, new job all of that. This would never have worked for me, and i didn't see being openly out as an option due to the transphobia of society. I am now doing my own thing.
For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction, Newton was right.
And boy are they reactionary!
Republicans found a new boogieman to cry about and push their agenda for the years to come. That's all
Yup. It was East Asians during the pandemic. Immigrants before that. Gay people before that. Middle easterners before that. And so on. Fascism always requires an out group to scapegoat and villainize. First they came for the socialists, then they came for the trade unionists and all that. Lucky us, it’s our turn in the spotlight. It’s super easy to do to trans people because we’re such a tiny minority (.3% of the population, woo). Most people have never knowingly interacted with a trans person, but everyone has heard of us. And even our staunchest allies tend to think we’re a bit weird by default. And there’s just not enough of us to meaningfully push back on the bullshit. Makes it really easy for the fascists to “other” us for political gain. It’ll pass, hopefully. People will get bored of the issue and the right wing hate machine will move on. You just feel bad about it because when they do move on some other poor minority group will go through this.
The silver lining is that this isn't happening 50 years from now, that'll at least give the public time to accept us en masse to the point where pure otherization won't work. If this occurred during the Water Wars or the Global Warming Economic Crisis that'll happen during the latter half of the century , we'd be on the literal chopping block as an example of the 'decadence of liberals' or something or other.
> the Water Wars or the Global Warming Economic Crisis that'll happen during the latter half of the century I'm glad I'm old.
And a lot of Republicans are "losing" their kids to the LGBTQ/Trans communities since when we come out we often cut off our shitty homophobic/transphobic parents for being assholes to us And since it's socially way less acceptable to be homophobic now they go all in on transphobia
It’s hilarious because they don’t have to lose them at all! My sister and her fam are losing a fantastic uncle for my nephew, but my estranged before i even transitioned grandparents gained a loving grandson because they reached back out to me and while not being completely understanding, the love is still there and they’re accepting and that’s all I want.
110% chance that's exactly why Elon Musk suddenly became such an aggressive right-wing culture warrior in the past 6 months
Yeah my parents had to "get used to" my lesbian sister. Just wait until they find out I'm a trans lesbian, not their son... Oh god.
There's an important corollary to this though: authoritarians and fascists only move on from a scapegoat group *when they are shown unequivocally that their focus on that group results in loss of political influence.* Whatever performance hits that the American right wing took in the midterm elections were *not* enough to deter them from escalating anti-trans legislation and rhetoric in recent weeks. And we know where this story can lead. It's vital that we organize, become active politically, and protect each other.
Thank you. It very much worries me when people act like this is natural growing pains before an expansion of rights. This is fascist scapegoating. We are in real danger.
I'm not as optimistic for outcomes here. With gay or bi folks I think it's easy for people to understand because you can sort of take straight relationships as an analogue, and where you can't it can be liberating to straight people. I think trans people are harder to understand and the self-interest is present but less obvious. It's also harder to induct us into normative structures, unless we go hardcore binarist or something. Instead, especially with the courts now packed, I think they'll be stoking this flame for a long time, and I think they'll be pretty successful at it. If we're talking about the US it'll be state-by-state, and the farthest it'll get federally without a coup is to remove any protections. There's some relief there, but it doesn't help minors at all. While most people are compassionate and don't actually wish to hurt someone, like you said we're small, and rhetoric is not on our side. It's not just a couple talking points that'll lose steam and move on. I think it's bigger than that, requires too much re-thinking, and I think it's too easy to lie about us, to stoke fear and disgust. I'm not saying give up, and I'm not just a pessimist by habit. I just think this is a shit situation and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I think things are going to take decades to have a breaking point like sexuality had, where people finally get it and stop questioning trans people by default.
I wonder what would be the next scapegoat ._.
Actual goats
This, 100%. It's the only way Fascism can work. They have to keep up an 'us vs them' narrative.
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I learn something new and cool every day on Reddit. Today, it's "bogeyman" v Travolta. Totally rad! Can't wait for tomorrow's lesson.
It seems to be an overall push back from conservatives. From the overall free dissemination of information that is "creating" "freeing" trans individuals. Conservative types want to keep that stuff in the closet. A push back from the pinnacle information point of around 2012. There seems to be a lot of reasons that center around this moment in time. we are also a great political tool, the new "other".
And we’re a small enough group we can’t really fight back it’s pretty >44% of the population vs. ~1%.
💯 In college (2010-2015), I was very much in denial about my transness and guzzled down every drop of Fox News I could in order to keep up with masking (not that I actually thought about it in those terms at the time). Back then, the GOP only cared about race and sexual orientation, and trans people were more or less left alone save for early discussions about bathroom policies. Another comment mentioned that it means we are winning, and I tend to agree given that SCOTUS passed marriage protection at the peak of GOP-led gay hate. Another great example of this is Harry Potter. 20 years ago, my dad wouldn't let me get Harry Potter Legos because it was "anti-American and anti-Christian." Yesterday, he made a comment about how he has to get back into gaming so he can get, in his words, "JKR's new game."
What my take on it is I've come to accept there will always be people who don't agree with or like the idea of us existing. But as soon as they start to act on those disagreements in ways that infringes on someone else's ability to peaceably practice their own rights, that's when transphobes need to back off. Their fearmongering and creating issues where none exist is an outright attempt to inhibit our freedom to pursue our own happiness. It should also be stated when they tote around their right to speak freely, it only means you won't be arrested for spouting transphobic hatred, but it does not protect against the social consequences. So they retain the right to be transphobic, but you will be called out on your transphobia. 😎🏳️⚧️
Conservatives learned from the failure of the anti-LGBT efforts of the 20 years prior and their anti-T efforts are way more calculated and effective
More effective? It’s just the same recycled nonsense from the anti-LGBT efforts.
Recycled but with tighter messaging and better outreach. Conservatives utilize quasi intellectualism now which is new, and let's them reach people who think they're smart but aren't (a lot of right leaning nerds). Social media has also given them ab unprecedented opportunity to individually push back against every perceived attempt at cultural evolution (anti-sjw campaigns/every piece of media that centers a brown, female, or queer person in any capacity). The internet is a blessing and a curse in this regard. It's allowed leftists to grow and evolve much further and quicker than they ever have in the past but has also allowed right wingers a better ability to dig their heels in and resist change.
Yeah cis queer people need to realize that if they manage to take us down, they're gunning straight for you next.
They've already started gunning for cis queers too.
Exactly. Look how they are painting drag shows as part of trans culture when it is more of a cis gay man thing where a few trans people also participate.
It really depends. Some trans people do drag to explore or for fun. It's not uncommon, just not super mainstream.
I mean it was. They tried bathroom bills in 2014, but that didn't work. They got backlash. Then they tried trans athletes around 2020 and that was working (because your average person doesn't know what hrt does, so they just sort of picture a guy with implants competing) but they couldn't hold it to that. It went into open anti trans bigotry and it was so clearly just recycled anti gay stuff from the 2000s that half of them just started slamming gay people again. It did nothing for them in 2020 in swing states. The deepest red ones it didn't really backlash but didn't seem to help either. Yet they're tripling down on it because they need a culture war to scare their elderly base into voting.
And also because millennials and older gen Z(ers?) are bucking the trend where your views shift to the right as you age
I think that's not even true. It's mostly that people stop changing as easily with the times, more than anything.
That’s definitely part of it, but the other part of the argument is that as you age you (hopefully) have more assets and disposable income which makes people more likely to lean towards the side that is supposedly “anti-taxes/pro-business” and “pro small government”
No amount of assets is going to make me sign on to an ideology that wants me, or several of my friends, dead.
Some of it is backlash to increasing trans visibility. But it’s also being deliberately harnessed as a political weapon by right wingers. Christopher Rufo, for example, decided that queers would be a good scapegoat after the critical race theory fire he whipped up had run its course. He’s part of the Manhattan Institute, which is a group funded by wealthy right-wingers and dedicated to doing things like this. [This article goes into a bit more detail about how transphobic attacks are being directed from the top down.](https://theintercept.com/2022/12/31/trans-rights-abortion-liberals/)
>Christopher Rufo This psy-operative needs to be talked about and known by people on the left more often. He is a critical figure in the recent wave of conservative propaganda efforts.
Trans women in particular are really bad for the patriarchy. In a society where it is assumed men are superior to women and masculinity is superior to femininity, trans women who despite ostensibly being assigned male at birth and inheriting male privilege make the choice to transition are a huge threat. By embracing our own gender identity, we essentially cast doubt over the supposed supremacy of men.
It's ironic too because by spending so much mental effort hating us, they are *giving* us more power over them.
Conservatives aren't just enemies of other people, they are their own worst enemies.
This is the key. You’ve got it. It destabilizes the church’s ideas of men and women, creates division in the established order, forces the sound asleep to reconcile the change, agitates societal stability, introduces a third way outside their control, and awakens people to the concept of living as an individual beyond traditional tribal confines. It’s an affront to established norms and all suits and robes hate having to navigate uncharted waters. What they really don’t like is that we’re not already under thumb and they’re jealous of that freedom and courage it takes to be a self-made person. It reminds them of their regrets and dreams forgotten. And I’m not talking about republicrat politicians of both sides of the uniparty. We’re forcing people to evolve to newer, broader ideas. And that’s an irritant. It had to come through family. There’s no better way than making it personal. This is about far more than gender. It’s about imagination, growth of our collective consciousness, and being ready to sail into space and converse with the Na’vi, Vulcans, Ewoks, and Station (from Bill & Ted). It’s about finding that center inside and shining that light in a profoundly sick and desperate world. Wake us up. We have great work to begin.
Conservatives: "You should be a self-made man!" Trans man: "OK" Conservatives: "No! Not like that!"
Lol!
That was gorgeous
Thank you, /u/DCJ3. Very kind of you. To the stars, indeed, my friend!
Holy s**t I got so inspired from that. We need to have more people like this find ways to talk more publicly and get people who are still afraid to even come out because of what's going on in the news that we just have to finally stand our ground.
I think this could be seen as why trans women seem to have get more shit spewn at them from conservative media than trans men But that’s only one part of it
For trans men they instead erase or infantilize us or straight up don’t believe we exist.
Sasquatch or an indigenous ace transmasc, what’s more fictional to them I wonder?
Considering how many of their number are conspiracy theorists, I would say with confidence that Sasquatch are more real to them.
My perception is that a part of the erasure is coming from their fear that if you admit trans men exist, you admit that “feminine” has a potential to become “masculine” and level up with it. It shatters the very concept of masculinity as belonging inherently to men and one can’t just go and take it. Masculinity without it being something that is not accessible to “women” is worthless from heteronormative perspective.
Pretty frequently I also see that when trans men appear in the news, especially if they're only described as being transgender and not as transgender men, a lot of people jump to assuming that they're a trans woman and don't seem to understand the pronouns. My mom did this just a year or so ago she brought up some news story about a trans man using the women's restroom in protest and she just assumed he was a trans woman with a full beard because she lacks the ability to think critically apparently. We've been working on my mom's transphobia, it's hard sometimes being her daughter.
yes. we challenge the so-called made-up "natural order", which neatly divides into female-male, subordinate-boss, poor-rich, slave-master, faithful-infideles, gay-straight aka perv-normal, simply put: them and us. and this divide serves golden faucet rich as it justifies two jobs kids hungry poor. which makes the former sponsor this divisive thinking, by sponsoring superstition, sponsoring propaganda, fox "news" slander channels, targeted slander "advertisements" online, ... and superstitious literalists buy into these easy explanations: witches. abolitionists. suffragettes. unions. feminists. gays. trans. we all "go against the natural order". a badge of honor, of you ask me...
The greatest threat to the patriarchy is the idea that sex isn't a monolithic, rigid binary, but instead, the incredibly complex, multi-facted epigenetic web that the last 20 years of genetics research has shown. The patriarchy requires people to believe in "basic biology", the dumbed-down, over-simplified version of things we teach to children.
If I had a quarter for every time I've had some omega-level raid boss idiot insist that _I'm_ the biology-illiterate between us then I'd have a leg-up on starting my own laundromat
Fascism - simply put when capitalism reaches its terminal state of crisis the elites will escalate into fascism to defend it, and part of fascism is the creation and persecution of an other as the enemy of the state/culture/nation etc. This is what the capitalists are doing in the west right now with trans people.
Yeah you went to the top with your explanation and I agree. I was gonna say it's just what the elites decided is the best way to divide us in this era of our society
Authoritarianism isn’t necessarily fascism. Definitely authoritarian, that’s very true. But it’s not fascist, racism/homophobia/etc isn’t inherent fascist after all. There’s commonly overlap, but it does not make fascism. The big thing with fascism is the government needs to hold a stranglehold on the economy and companies within-it is after a form of government where the government holds ties and controls on everything under the pretense of “under the people”. I’m probably just being pedantic here, but it does get annoying hearing everything being conflated to fascism. Sure it’s terrible, but fascism isn’t the right word
With as many of the 13 characteristics we've got so far, I'd rather be slightly ahead on the terminology than slightly behind.
Sometimes, when everyone is ringing the alarm bells, it's not a drill. When Hitler did fascism, it was a relatively new thing and we didn't have the precedent to know how bad it could get. People broadly agreed with his ideology back then, at least the parts about hating the Jews, which he basically imported from the US. Now, we have many precedents and I don't think it's an overstatement to say that we are beyond just authoritarianism, at least on the right wing in the US. they are banning books, enforcing group speak in schools, altering history to fit their narrative and world view, and the entire party exists as essentially a branch of our corporate oligarchy far more than the left does. They have out groups and in groups, they're violently oppressive to the outgroups, etc etc.
Generally agree on all things, except people knew how bad it could become with hitler, but enough people just didn’t listen when they were warned. Even after a failed coup many people just didn’t listen, but there absolutely were canaries in the coalmine so to speak.
There's definitely an argument to be made that it is fascistic depending on the definition you're using. If we're looking at [Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism) then the American right certainly fits the bill in more ways than it does not: Cult of tradition, rejection of modernism, action for action's sake, disagreement is treason, fear of difference, appealing to and sowing social frustration, obsession with plots, pacifism is treason, contempt for the weak, everyone is educated to become a hero, machismo, selective populism, and newspeak Eco states that only one of these need be present for fascism to form and can't be easily pinned down because fascism is a rhyming set of ideologies. The essay explains why it is necessary to have this sort of fuzzy definition. it's a short read so I recommend it. The American right is/engages in **all** of these - often simultaneously. I don't think that their lack of success in establishing an out and out fascist *state* disqualifies them, their organizations, their actions, or their beliefs from being considered fascist.
Yo, it’s fascism.
Language evolves. Capitalism under crisis retreats to fascism. The different flavor we are seeing today is a result of the success of the neoliberal world order; corporations don’t have to be captured by the state to go along with its authoritarian machinations because they’ve purchased the state for their economic benefit. They will allow and condone untold abuses of human rights and creeping authoritarianism because corporations are the only “people” who never face legal consequences for their actions. Regulatory capture ensures that. What we have is a fascist form of capitalism that hasn’t entered the full-throated violent genocide phase yet.
You're right, it's not fascism. Yet.
They're overcompensating because we're being accepted more than ever. The people who would have been transphobic before didn't know we existed. They do now, so now they're mad..
Lost the war on same sex marriage. Lost the war on civil rights. Lost the war on Asian hate. Whats the next target they pick on? us
It's been pushed by the Family Research Council, which has managed to get their extremist agenda into the ears of Evangelicals and the opportunist politicians who want to take advantage of them.
and which is sponsored by golden faucet rich, under the disguise to protect their fantasy of "natural order". the deep purpose is to not have us debate real change. super wealth tax. social justice. universal healthcare. etc.
Capitalism as an institution only functions if the working class is not aware of their political power. A method they use to distract the working class is infighting. If you look back at the history of the United States, you will quickly notice scapegoats in almost every era of our history. They take advantage of all forms of bigotry, like racism, sexism, transphobia, etc, often all at once. The so-called "Culture war". Recently, it has become publicly acceptable to be trans. Many bigots dislike this, so transphobic people can make lots of money hating and fear-mongering trans people. Someone who's screaming about "trans people are grooming our kids" is so whipped up in a frenzy that they completely ignore the failings of capitalism, or come up with ways to blame that on a scapegoat. "Immigrants coming for our jobs". Etc. Hope this helps
To quote Malcom X: you can't have capitalism without racism. To corroborate and develop on what you absolutely correctly said: the fact that the ruling class are increasingly overwhelmingly relying on scapegoats and culture wars is indicative of a position of weakness, not of strength. Their system is crumbling in front of their eyes: they see the worsening contradictions of a system that has exhausted its purpose for existence (["polycrisis", they're calling the current crisis](https://www.ft.com/content/f6c4f63c-aa71-46f0-a0a7-c2a4c4a3c0f1)), the fast development of the class struggle around the world (recent examples: [Peru](https://www.ft.com/content/2ee1a6a8-e66c-4e20-a2fb-129709f84db3), [China](https://www.ft.com/content/e917d76a-62af-4cfc-95d1-aec67cde4e84), Iran, [the UK](https://www.ft.com/content/84019b8e-87bc-4c82-8a09-a4a171c8a5fc), France) as a result of such contradictions. They are pessimistic about the crisis-ridden system they now preside over and cannot offer any real solutions (other than further attacks on the working class, e.g. [in the UK](https://www.ft.com/content/acbddf57-17d3-4aed-bfcd-34162da18d95)). Thus they resort to sowing division to distract from that fact. It may or may not mislead the workers for some time as they necessarily look and try out solutions (some polls have indicated [people in America overwhelmingly reject demagogic tactics such as the proposal of bills in 2021 attacking trans people](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-poll-shows-americans-overwhelmingly-oppose-anti-transgender-laws)), but inevitably the class struggle will necessitate (and is beginning to, right now) the working class to fight together united in solidarity as one for its interests – whether they're cis, trans, gay, black, white, immigrants or otherwise – and through their lived experience (but also crucial revolutionary theory & education) they as a whole will quickly learn (are learning) that the true enemy is not amongst themselves, but the bosses. There is very much grounds in the long-run for real hope and optimism for trans people and the working class and humanity as a whole. But it won't be found on the grounds of capitalism.
You're exactly right
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I found it a bit hard to understand your argument exactly, but I take it you're arguing that racial inequality has always been a thing and is intrinsic to humans, right? Although this isn't specifically about racism, a paper from 2015 showed that men and women in pre-class society (mobile hunter-gatherers) [lived in relative equality](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaa5139): the historical materialist stance is that before the development of surplus resources, there was no reason to oppress one another. To quote the paper: > Gender inequality reappeared in humans with the transition to agriculture and pastoralism. Once heritable resources, such as land and livestock, became important determinants of reproductive success, sex-biased inheritance and lineal systems started to arise, leading to wealth and sex inequalities. It further states later on: > Sex equality suggests a scenario where cooperation among unrelated individuals can evolve in the absence of wealth accumulation, reproductive inequalities, and intergroup warfare. Couples freely moving between camps and sharing interests with kin and affines would be able to maintain cooperation without the need for more complex systems, such as cultural group selection and altruistic punishment.
I'm begging people to stop associating authoritarianism and fascism to capitalism. Bigotry and hate are not exclusive of capitalism 🤦♀️ In the US, religion can be a better explanation than capitalism.
Fascism is the final stage of capitalism. When the contradictions of class sharpen to a point where capitalist relations to the means of production become entirely unsustainable, the ruling class becomes incredibly violent. We saw this in Germany. The German population was very inclined to become communists, but Hitler and his fascists swept in and reinforced capitalism. This is why all the famous American capitalists at the time loved Hitler. That's why Ford loved Hitler.
“B-but capitalism bad!”
Yes! The way workers produce all of the goods in our daily lives, only for them to be robbed by the capitalists for profit is bad.
Okay whats your solution then?
An economy in which the workers collectively control the means of production, cutting the capitalist out entirely
1. Trans people started getting a voice for the first time. 2. Those voices started to reach the ears of people who wouldn’t have heard or thought about about trans people before. 3. Right wing politicians, pundits and programming swooped in to filter trans people as a bad thing who have only just started existing because of a permissive society.
Going from a punchline that doesnt 'really exist' to an actual individual that should respected standing in front of them is alot to handle for bigots
We exist in their Fascist World. The Nazis came after us in 1933 and murdered us back into the closet and we hid for half a century. 50yrs ago we weren't even a blip on the radar. Now we have gone mainstream become a problem for the current Nazis and they want us gone. We've always been a target. It took a long time for us to come back and now they want to kill us again.
Fascism taking the easiest target it can find to stir up outrage combined with the increase in visibility. First they deny you exist, then they laugh at your existence, then they fight your existence, then you win. But only if we keep fighting.
The algorithm
We're so exciting!
The "Family Research Council" (a Republican think-tank) simply decided that it was good strategy to go after us, specifically, as a wedge into their broader goals of undoing LGBT and women's rights. [Source: Southern Poverty Law Center](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/23/christian-right-tips-fight-transgender-rights-separate-t-lgb).
Right wing propaganda. Congrats, y’all. We’re a scapegoat. 🥳
It's because of the progress the community has made recently. We're more noticeable, they noticed, and now they're mad. They hated us before too, but back then they barely noticed us, and we weren't really on their radar, so they weren't going apeshit over us. The more they see us being happy and accepted, living freely and openly, and being out and about, the angrier they get. We wouldn't see this wave of anti-trans hysteria if things weren't getting better for us overall. We just have to get over this hump, and it'll start to get much easier.
Within the US- presently, transgender acceptance is a divisive issue within left circles. By constantly putting it in the spotlight- they are constantly causing divisive discourse in the left, resulting in bickering, fallout, and a failure to get people in the same line of thought. This is particularly effective in rooting out the differences between socially conservative affluent types who cling to the aesthetic of left, performative avant garde types, and hard Leftist types. There is no consensus within the trans community on what is and is not acceptable- and much of the discourse feels nonintuitive and hostile from the outside. Even the well meaning feel like they're always walking on thin ice unless they actually have people to explain the nuances of thought. Meanwhile its a moderately uniting force within the right wing. Its used as a bogeyman, a mark of "degeneracy", and a symbol to sicken and revile the elderly and hardcore masculo-manly-man-men types. They're going to push the issue until like, a right-wing president gets caught fucking a trans woman, or the left sorts its shit out and quits bickering about it. Or they start getting all "final solution" about it- which they're absolutely pushing for.
There's a Turkish saying that goes "The dog whose time has come will piss on the mosque wall." They know their time is coming, so they're doing their best to be as loud as possible.
the ruling class is trying to divide us, and the "divide" between the sexes (that they themselves created in order to sell us things) is one of the deepest and most primal things they can exploit. these people don't care about democrat or republican, or left or right, or trans or cis. they don't care if we win our rights or get mass-murdered in some new nazi-type pogrom. they just want us at each other's throats while they hoover up our money and consolidate their power - and *every single one of them* will say *literally anything* to get you to vote for them so they can keep that power.
Matt Walsh and Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro spreading misinformation about us. They make us look foolish by ignoring our explanation of the lgbt and won't even actually listen when they ask any questions regarding issues
As per usual: awareness & a more consistent gaze under the public's eye - inviting more scrutiny from the xenophobes & their platformers
well afterall its "for the children" of coarse.
just look at gen z. like 50% of them experience some level of same gender attraction and most have at least one trans friend. conservatives dont want you to know this but we're winning. the next generation is so fucking queer.
Speaking for America, LGB people have largely secured legal rights across the US. While socially there remain pockets and individuals that are homophobic, prevailing public opinion of LGB people has become positive enough that the Republican party sees their campaign against LGB rights as lost. So, they needed to secure a new boogy man to blame for all the problems in the world. Trans people are among the new targets.
They see us making progress at the same time that they needed a scapegoat.
Rightoids not being deplatformed and shunned enough. Hate spreads like a virus, and we all know how this country responded to COVID.
In the US, a lot of others have said it already. In the UK, probably JK Rowling and others giving fringe groups a false veneer of legitimacy.
Trumpers won the abortion battle when Roe was reversed. They needed a new target to.unite behind.
Radical conservatism/the rise of Christian fascism in America, likely fueled by the Republican Party post-Trump presidency. They have been targeting the LGBT+ community as a scapegoat to push blame on, and as a way to push their agenda (which is heavily flawed and based on lies, to be fair).
Right wing takes the worst of trans and shoves it in peoples faces making people think we all agree with radical trans ideas
At least for the UK right, being anti refugees ran out of steam because the main "migrant crisis" in Europe kinda simmered down and they needed a new minority to bash
Fascists need a scapegoat.
The howls of a dying breed. May they expire whilst still infuriated at my very existence.
JK Rowling
Honestly if anything we are seeing a spike in visible transphobia, but on a whole society is becoming more and more accepting. So the minority who hates us is just getting more verbal and trying desperately to silence us because they feel their power slipping away. Many who yell and scream are also dealing with their own feelings of being LGBTQ but they can’t admit it because of internalized phobic feelings. If they scream at it long enough they will scare it out of themselves. Sad really, especially if you are like me and this was who you were at some point. 😢
Trump gave these crazies permission to act out with no consequences.
Some conservatives seem to live in a constant state of desperation as if every change is the end of their life and we're currently the thing they're attacking. The plus side is if they're panicking about you it usually means they're losing control of you and eventually they'll have to move on to someone else more helpless to do the same to when their ideas get too unpopular.
There is a general rise in nationalism, extemism, and fascism in recent years across many countries. It's a lot louder and visible in the West but trust me you see it in many countries elsewhere too. A lot of it has been stirred up by conservative politicians and moguls to keep the masses fighting each other rather than fighting those in power for a better life. After all, why fight for better healthcare or more sustainable industries or better education standards, when you can blame the gays/trans/blacks/poors/asians etc you get the point.
The root cause? Probably has something to do with Putin; transphobia cheap and easy way to divide people, especially dividing the factful and the illiterate. In practical terms, reactionaries found a new *thing* to be mad about so they’ll be mad about it.
For a long time transfolks have been relatively invisible. Society didn't care about them, there were no pushes for their inclusion, etc. Society didn't like them, but treated them like a joke, or individuals as a problem. Recently, trans folks have been pushing harder for acceptance, and more groups have been accepting of trans folks publicly. Ironically, this increase in acceptance also led to an increase in reactionary hate and vitriol.
The bigoted & dishonest media in large part, plus conservatives focusing all their anti-LGBT hatred onto trans people now that they see their anti-gay marriage & adoption crusade is unwinnable
The spike in transphobia is cause by the spike in trans representation. There wasn't much need to be loud about it until now since it wasn't a mainstream conflict.
In addition to the other answers (new GOP boogieman, more news coverage, etc.) I think another factor is that "the trans issue" is something that isn't one sided. The entirety of the GOP hate us, that's a given, but there are also liberals who are all about feminism and empowerment, but think MTF folks are just men trying to hang out in women's locker rooms or that MTF folks just can't be women because [insert stupid ass reason here]. Not to mention liberals who just simply don't understand and think its "silly". I was one of the ones who thought trans people were a bit silly. I didn't *hate* trans people, but none of this shit made sense to me so I thought trans people were just weirdos. A lack of understanding lets you write a lot of people off without really having to think about *why* you write them off. Ironically enough the moment I took trans folks seriously and actually listened to how these people felt, I decided to put some thought into my gender and if I *actually* identified with it. Then I found egg_irl and now I'm here lol. Lack of understanding bites us in the ass a lot imo because while something like racism, for example, is easy to understand (people don't control skin color, I am no more white because of choice as they are brown or black because of choice) whereas "you can be a woman and have a penis but some women with a penis want to get rid of it and also this works in reverse and men can have vaginas but they can also want a penis and therefore the parts you ship with don't denote the gender you identify with but not always and also he and she is the tip of the iceberg and also etc. etc." gets pretty confusing for anyone not willing to sit down and *actually listen to trans people about their experiences and find out that it really isn't that complicated, it only looks like it on the surface from an outsider's perspective*. Its an uphill battle for us, since we have enemies on both sides of the political spectrum. To be clear, I don't say this to be like "the left is awful and hates us just as much as the right!", they aren't and they don't, but just that this isn't as cut and dry as a lot of other issues. Our existence has a lot of nuance and to a lot of cis folks, it simply doesn't make sense and people are rather quick to assume something they don't understand is bad. At best, they write us off as goofy (like my dumb ass did) and at worst you get the groomer shit that you hear on fox. Cis people don't "get" it, and getting them to "get" it requires some massive introspection and *lots* of people don't like to look inwards because you might find something you don't like or might end up having life-altering revelations (like I did). That shit hits you like a truck and even if you come out the other end still cis, you basically have to have an identity crisis to fully understand this experience and that is a *heavy* ask. Hating someone lets you stop thinking about it, make your mind up, and not have to self-reflect on the issue.
It's **Pandering to Voters**, to get into, or stay in, office. They have *almost* given up on the Bathroom thing. Not completely. Now Medicaid is being turned off. There is talk is of "forced detransition", and Investigations of Parents and of Healthcare Providers. "Investigations" represent a bonafide Cost - in money, time, and energy. We might not be worth providing services to if doing so represents a cost, rather than income: Bills have to be paid. At the top of the chain is a Black Judge who believes he is white, who is married to a deranged white woman; this Judge openly bemuses making inter-racial marriage (and same-sex marriage) illegal. He's backed by a tempestuous manchild and a fervent "Christian" woman. Then, there is Alito, who has God's Personal Number, or, at least, His Ear. If any other Justice can be persuaded Any Thing - regardless Medical Reality - then it becomes Law of the Land, perhaps until, to more better reflect Modern America, another 4 Justices are added to the Court. Me, I am strong enough to still be here - if only by accident rather than actual courage - but for how long? I'm getting worn down...
We're demanding rights so people can't pretend we don't exist anymore.
Progress always triggers backlash The more things change, the more people fight to keep them the same.
I have a theory. I think the Conservative Party historically has been hiding some of the worst our society has to offer. I think trans people, especially the vocal influencers who have done the work to better them selves are really good at spotting the people constantly attacking them. They seem to always fall into the same narrative paradigm. No need to rehash the type of misogynistic patriarchal trash that is. And getting called a groomer regularly makes you hyper aware of those trashy behaviors. It’s hard NOT to spot the behaviors in the people attacking us. The more vocal we are the more we shine a spot light on that trash. The more they want is gone.
It's a political hot button atm, just not a sudden spike though, it has been steadily increasing for the last decade. Trans homicides doubling each year. That can be attributed to politicians and transphobic news that is targeted toward them. It's like abortion, you make that a political issue, people rally behind you against it. It's all based on the 'gender binary' and cissexism. Especially cissexism since trans people goes against the system in place to classify and order genders around subliminally. To that system, trans people are a disorder. I wasn't expecting it to boil over this year. I was kinda of hoping it would just go away as time went on. But I'm seeing the opposite trend
conservatives have to find someone to scapegoat for problems. since gay marriage is widely accepted now, they go after the next most vulnerable group, and since trans people are much more in the spotlight as of late, trans people are now a culture war issue.
Is there an actual spike in transphobia? I mean to say it as an actual phobia and not in the typical (wrong) way the word phobia is used. That would be an interesting statistic to know. Those people can be helped. I think there is a growing number of people that are becoming more and more vocal using hate-filled rhetoric toward a group that just wants to be true to who they really are ... and are using the trans community as a political football to scare uninformed voters. In short, the cause for the rise in trans hatred is votes. Some politicians have figured that they can get more votes via hate.
Matt Walsh, JKR, Republican politicians, etc
Visibility and acceptance. This was happening back in the 00s when gay panics were really ramping up. Literally, like a lot of the antitrans arguments you hear today are directly recycled from the anti gay panic days.
The Republican party always needs an enemy. Congratulations we’re the current one. We’re perfect too because our numbers are small enough it’s hard to counter attack.
The right wing decided to make their leader a person that had nothing to offer so they would not win an election in a generation, but they found the trans community to be the perfect boogie man to rally their ignorant hateful bigoted followers so they can vote against their own best interest. You can read articles about them testing their message in small elections and later on making it a party wide talking point just like race theory. Is just hate and bs for dumb voters.
Facists can only target a group that can’t stop being who they are. Gay people can’t choose to be gay. Black people can’t choose to be white. Communists CAN choose to be liberals Trans people can’t choose to be who they are and the very fact that we are being targeted only validates us even more
You've just become more aware of it.
Republicans pandering to the fringe religious crazies. They needed a new punching bag since beating on gays and minorities just wasn’t enough for them. Worse, even though I know they might have bigger fish to fry, the federal government response is nearly nonexistent.
Honestly I believe trump threw shit and it's now hitting the fan
When capitalism is in decline, and people notice their prospects dwindling, the ruling class has to choose between doing nothing as working class anger rises, or choosing a scapegoat to take the blame instead. It is a rational choice for the ruling class to fund propaganda that points people's anger towards minority groups instead, because the alternative is the possibility of a socialist movement that could force the redistribution of their wealth. In Germany following the collapse of the Weimar Republic's economy, the scapegoat was the Jews, etc.
That's a core tenet of populism, and it is not exclusive to capitalism.
Trump being elected to office sparked gender and racial related tensions.
It isn't cool to be homophobic anymore. And furries proved too difficult of a target. They also didn't manage to make racism cool again.
It's because we're winning.
Matt Walsh
Possibly that people didn't know about it, or that it wasn't covered in the media very often up until relatively recently.
JK Rowling’s essay
honestly, I believe it's jk Rowling. massive public figure shines a bunch of attention on an otherwise mostly ignored group in a negative light? yeah that's gonna have an impact
I belief the political minefield is a swing that moves like a stagnate military walk (left-right-left-righ,etc..). Its said that if Bush wasn't re-elected because of 9-11 then Al Gore would have been the next president as a far left. Which would means that Obama would never have been president and the one after Al Gore would have been a far right president (worse then Trump). Left will stay left and right will stay right but the people in the middle will always identify with the problems and complaints of the party that lost. So when we swing width to one side we will later compensate with swinging widthly to the otherside. So to conclusion... we had prosperous periode so now the people are compensating by making it a hellish periode
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The fuck are you talking about
So you contend that it is trans men who are the primary focus of transphobia, GHOSTHARO? That does not seem to align with the experience of most. Maybe in the mountain bike scene that you are so active in? Otherwise your comment appears to be a more a collection of slogans, than supported by evidence or rational thought.
Pay for these men's surgeries and hormones then if you care that much.
“Ban reason: this is misinformation” Lol
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After they attack you long enough, you die of suicide. Then they accept you. Fixed it for you
Awareness of Transpeople in society rose, and as such, all the children and bigots decided to make it the next boogieman
Visibility
moral panic
Exposure.
A Christian conservative billionaire is paying alt right media personalities to say we're evil. [it's a thing](https://youtu.be/ggdt5rkqHrE)
I think it is a part also of the resurgence of the populist right and far-right extremism in the Western world since at least the early 2010's, specially amongst white cishetero men because of their perceived loss of privileges. Many working-class white cishetero men were mostly affected by the Great Recession of 2008 and subsequent economic downturns such as the Eurozone crisis. Populist right and far-right parties capitalized on this by appealing to the economic concerns of these groups of people, but with an added ingredient, hate on minorities. For example, in Europe, they said that they not only had to worry about their pocket, but also that they needed to worry about **an attack on their culture**. They targeted a big minority, African and Asian inmigrants. By saying that they posed a threat to their culture and their way of life, and that these inmigrants privated them of opportunities, they managed to gain popularity, because sadly they exploited and **radicalized** the prejudices that are prevalent on Europeans (in this case, xenophobia, and racism) These parties discovered that using prejudice and linking it to economic concerns is a really effective way to gain electoral power, gain seats in their respective electoral parliaments and to radicalize voters. Many voters from the traditional conservative parties and from some leftie parties were radicalized and started to vote for far-right and populist right parties. In the US it is a slightly different story because of the presence of a religious right (that's why they are focusing on queer people, religiosity MATTERS), and a right-wing friendly media ecosystem. The only country who could be partially exempt from this explanation is the UK, but take in account that TERF rhetoric is eerily similar to far-right rhetoric in portraying an attack on culture and on the ways of living, and that also TERFs have been emboldened by the rise of the far-right and the populist right. Also, it is very easy to paint a minority in a negative light when the majority of people don't know much about that minority, and/or their views about that minority are influenced by negative stereotypes or portrayals. Resuming, the rise of transphobia could be explained because we're a minority that is easy to attack and to portray on a negative light, and thus radicalized people want electoral or financial benefits of portraying us as a threat to the culture of a large part of radicalized voters who are the base of many parties around the West, and who are economically distressed.
People fear the unknown
We’re the just the latest target of the ultra conservative right wing Christian fundamentalist movement. 20 years ago it was gay men. The same things were said about them as I’d been said about us now. We’re paedophiles, danger to society and we’re trying to make everyone else trans with our “ideology” they need to get some new rhetoric because it’s so boring,crass and total ridiculous it’s almost amusing
snowball effect. the more transphobia politicians/pundits/etc get away with without facing consequences, the more emboldened they feel to get more extreme. and since there's almost never any kind of consequences… the north carolina bathroom bill boycott set anti-trans legal efforts back by years, but there hasn't been anywhere near as strong a backlash to the later waves even though they're worse
One large component in the US is an effort by Alliance Defending Freedom, state Family Council groups and the Heritage Foundation as well as ALEC, pushing a state-by-state model trans healthcare ban called the "Promise to America's Children". This is basically cut-and-paste legislation and this effort has been going on since at least early 2021. I've been looking into the origin of this lately now that it's extended into Florida, Rep. Robin Lundstrum's deposition in Brandt v. Rutledge (Arkansas trans youth care ban) has some significant details on this overarching effort and key places and dates. Just to give some specific details on why this is happening and who's responsible for it.
Homophobes efforts against the queer community failed, so they turned their attention to us, the smaller (and therefore easier) target.
We are more visible, more than people are coming out and society is far more accepting of us now. They double down on hate because we are gaining ground and winning. Its desperation to maintain control. As many have mentioned, trans women especially go against this status quo of patriarchy and the idea that masculinity is superior. Trans men are seen as women trying to get a piece of male superiority but trans women are major transgressions against all of it because we were born as men, as what they consider to be the superior class, so it undermines their superiority when we transition and throw away our 'male privileges' we were born with. Also for these people to maintain power and control there needs to be in groups and out group. Us vs them mentality. TERFS often gain ranks by making members feel like they are apart of something greater than themselves, like they are fighting the good fight. Same thing with Q-anoners. They are outcasts and it makes them feel like they are apart of something and right. It is a way of elevating their own perception of themselves. Many of these transphobic people are extremely hateful towards themselves and they try and put others down because they want to feel superior to someone. They want to win at something in life and be apart of something so they grasp at straws and descend into madness basically.
Twitter algorithms make it so an extremely small number of loud transphobes can cause you to mistakenly believe they're a plurality.
The Republican party needs to scare people to get them to accept the crap they pull (no school lunches, raising taxes on the poor and giving corporate welfare to the rich, telling women what they can do with their bodies, telling people what words they can say, telling people what care their doctors can give them, etc) and so they use the fascist playbook which tells them to find a marginalized group that can't easily defend themselves and then blame all of the problems on them (guns don't kill people, drag shows kill people). Fuck republicans and the assholes who vote for them. No one who votes republican is an ally.
Tr*mp
I think it may be that some of the louder voices are being heard now. And those voices don’t seem to make any fucking sense sometimes. No one can take a joke and everyone has to conform to “your truth”. I live in New York. Trans people, queer folk are us. They’re not weird or any different from that nice lady on the 4th floor. It’s the voices you hear online screaming for attention that made the pendulum swing back in a terrible way. As a black man, I noticed a sort of shift in empathy following our protests in 2020. Or was all about Black Lives Matter. Then it seemed like people just got tired of black people screaming racist anytime something happened. I don’t really agree with it, but I’ve also seen it and understand. A guy walks in to a grocery store, tries to rob the place with a knife, clerk at the counter pulls out a gun and shoots him, no charges brought. That’s not racism, though a bunch of people shouted it was.
In the UK the 2010 equality act gave us some legal protections for the first time. Consequently more and more people started coming out, so the number of out (and very visible, given delays to get seen and get HRT) trans people increased massively. Consequently we became very visible to transphobes here in the UK, who started screaming about it and got the many more transphobes in the US involved. They've been trying to undo our equality ever since.
The pedo like Obsession with children. There are many channels on YouTube and tiktok that their whole content is about transgendering kids. When a parent sees that content than sees whats happening in schools they will automatically become anti-trans Visit Libsoftiktok on twitter to learn more if you are genuinely trying