In audio released Friday evening, senators and representatives from Ohio and Michigan revealed the “endgame” is to ban transgender care “for everyone.”
A year or so back I heard a trans activist on a podcast saying that the “protect kids” rhetoric was bullshit and all the bans on providing gender affirming care to trans kids was a foot in the door to ban it for all trans people.
Now we just need the leaked audio of republicans talking about banning birth control for the awfulness hat trick.
That’s only because they don’t think they can reintroduce chattel slavery. Their actual endgame, if they accomplish this, will be much, much worse.
It’s constantly a slippery f’n slope with these people, and they always want to keep on sliding down that slope.
The slippery slope implies that it’s some kind of accident.
They’re dragging us kicking and screaming into a ditch.
Slippery slope implies that allowing the change will mean sliding further and further in the same direction. Intent does not matter.
This is a slippery slope because every time they say something has a limited scope they just keep increasing the scope.
The slippery-ness of the slope is inherently about intent. If the slope is slippery then it isn’t their fault for falling down the slope.
This slope isn’t slippery. It’s a stair case into fascism and they are goose stepping down the steps and dragging us by the hair.
The slippery slope can easily be unintentional, like the fear that giving something up will just naturally lead to other things being given up as a logical extension of the first thing. That is why slippery slopes are often described when making exemptions for certain rights. It is not that someone is intentionally going to expand the exemptions, but that exemptions tend to lead to more and more exemptions as a slippery slope.
This one is intentional. Some slippery slopes are intentional and some are accidental. Intent does not matter.
What do you think “slippery” means? If you slip, it’s unintentional. This is not a slippery slope. This is an intentional methodological plan.
Someone can intentionally trick someone onto a slippery slope and grease it up to make the slide faster, like Republicans are doing right now with undermining abortion and LBGTQ+ rights while claiming it isn’t a slippery slope.
Where do you get the idea that a slippery slope must be unintentional?
Is someone slipping on a banana peel unintentional if someone drops the peel in front of them? Do you think you might be taking the word ‘slippery’ a little too literally?
Freedom of expression is a core American value. Why are conservatives so anti American.
Oppressing minorities is as American as apple pie.
Imagine being so insistent on targeting what amounts to 1% of the population.
This shows how little they care about governing and how much they care about pushing their agenda.
That’s a rounding up by a pretty big margin. I am in one of the most trans friendly cities on the planet and we’re sitting at 0.4% of our population being trans.
A lot of the rhetoric tends to fall on the “we shouldn’t have to change our behaviour because it’s such a small number!” but then we are also supposed to be this society wide menace that is “socially contagious”…
We are prime scapegoats because you require extra empathy to understand the basics of what being trans is actually like compared to being cis and conservatives generally rate pretty low on empathy. They don’t care that they are condemning us to permanent misery, they can’t conceptualize that misery anyway.
I think one can be bigoted AF against gay and trans people and still defend their rights, I mean I think a lot of people are shit, doesn’t mean I want them imprisoned for it, I just don’t hang out with them. End of problem. Because you don’t go knocking at their doors asking them to be gay, right? These fuckers go door to door asking me to vote to end gay, and that is more annoying than I ever found a gay person. Fuck that, you be you and I be me, you stay there I stay here everyone happy, bigots and gays together, not divided.
This feels like it’s intended to be a positive message… I think? I have certainly never knocked on anybody’s door and asked them to be trans. I think a lot of people assume that we are trying to force people to use our pronouns and be nice to us… But if it’s on my own time why would I hang around people that call me things that make me feel like crap?
It’s crazy though how upset people will get when you tell them you don’t like them very much. Bigots want to be “respected” but most of the time it just seems to mean “above judgement for behaviour.”
I hold some views that are very often branded “-phobic”, while you could not possibly find a more humanistically and egalitarian determined person who would literally (and I say this with a straight face) die for everybody’s right to enjoy the same freedoms and liberties as everybody else regardless of their personal choices, or their non-personal choices, or whoever they are or how they identify themselves.
Simultaneously I think the LGBTQ movement is fucking bullshit dogmatic artificial manufactured outrage culture whose participants refuse to ever have anything but the most disingenuous, vile, and divisive arguments, on a basically fascist level. And don’t even get me started on trans whatever. I don’t mind any of these people as people. But their arguments suck ass, that is the single thing that pisses me off, they suffocate dialogue, and I will never have any of that. It is hypocritical to demand of me that I see others the way they see themselves. You may choose to see yourself however you want, and I retain my right to see you however I want as well. I don’t have to agree with you. You may see yourself as trans, and I will never disrespect you for it, but if I see it as hypothetically should be classified as a mental disorder then that is my right. Strictly based on scientific classification (i have a degree in psychology), the argument can be easily made. Why isn’t it? That is my contention.
But I would die for their rights, without a second thought, to say what they want and be what they want and I would take up arms to defend anyone being oppressed for their sexuality, or religion, or color of skin. I went into the army based on those ideals, just so that in case it comes my way, I will be prepared to do the right thing and protect civilian rights.
Part of the reason why the mental disorder thing doesn’t stick is that a gender identity is pretty key to our self conceptualization of who we are as people. It’s really hard to explain it to cis people in a way that makes sense to them because so many don’t have a situation that is comparable. In my talks with cis people while some do have a binary gender identity that matches their physicality and they feel the same dysphoria / euphoria we do… they aren’t the norm I’ve observed. Most cis people seem to be without a strong gender identity. If they suddenly woke up as the opposite sex they might be perfectly chill with it.
But imagine you have a situation where you’ve always seen the world through the lens of a self where your brain recognizes members of the other sex as being your people. You struggle to empathize with members of your birth sex and you react with horror as your body changing not only triggers a sense of body horror it makes it so other people start treating you in a way where it’s like they stop recognizing you. Internally however this is a constant, your personality, veiws and every choice you’ve made, every social interaction you’ve ever had has been colored with this subtext.
I suffer from a fair amount of gender dysphoria, but I haven’t transitioned due to other factors. But if the option to suddenly just be happy in this body and conceptualize myself fully as the gender that matches this body… I wouldn’t take that option, the idea of even doing so is sickening. At some level this IS me. If you changed it you’d violate something deeper than just flesh.
A lot of people look at us first and foremost as a problem. A disorder not in that we are sick but that we do not submit to the order that is easy for other people who don’t want to take the energy to empathize or understand. That we fight to engineer our spaces to make living our lives more fulfilling to US is too much for some people who just try and discredit and flatten our expression to a narrow version of what is acceptable because we are expected to endure a permanent level of “tolerable” unhappiness… Largely for the sake of THEIR convenience.
Yes, we fight to change things but so much of this "I would fight for your freedoms… But " rhetoric is ignorant of the rubric we have for what constitutes a life worth living and a life worth actually fighting for. It’s hard to fight that tide because we are in the position of having to explain color to the blind when we talk about things like gender identity.
Ultimately I don’t care what random people “think” about me. But reflecting my own body back to me in language that refers directly to it means that you are doing something that makes me feel like shit. I accept a certain amount of random interaction as just the cost of doing business of going out in public but there’s certain places where I should not need endure that. Like the people who want to be my friend and feel some measure of closeness. Or in places made safe by our engineering where the general rule of the space is that no one should have to deal with the status quo outside where we can’t let our walls down. Our homes, queer spaces, or places where we’ve adequately advocated for our needs and the people in charge of that space have sided with our interpretation of a better status quo - physical and digital tangible territory claimed by us. The majority of spaces in the world value cis people’s comfort over ours but they whine over the implications that there is any other way of doing businesses because they are fighting for the social engineering that makes them feel most comfortable- just like we are doing. Some people and places it’s fine to have actual standards for behaviour because it allows you to actually relax in a public space without steeling yourself for the next random hit of having to perform for someone who really wants nothing more than you to not be their “problem” .
Stopping ADULTS from receiving Life Saving Healthcare is EXACTLY how we Save The Children!
You’re joking, but they literally believe that.
They believe all trans folk are pedophile groomers that are brainwashing children into becoming trans by sneaking into bathrooms and school sports teams, so they want to kill us to Save The Children.
Oh man, I hope they do! What am I going to do with myself in the meantime? Just knowing that there’s a slight chance that someone might remove my penis and replace it with a vagina and then give me boobs… It’s too much for me. We must prevent anyone from trying! That way they won’t do it to me!
Actually, what about two penises? That’s like double macho! Ok let’s hope they block male to female and female to male… But male to really macho male, that’s gotta stay!
Let’s see if the population complains about exceptions such as removal due to cancer and such. Maybe toss the doctors in jail for removing boobs that have cancer? And specifically the law should say boobs because that’s more funny. And cruel. We are Republicans! God damn it! In God damn we truss… well it’s a sort of truss, it’s a cross ❌ truss!
Yes it’s all sarcasm and confusing non language. It makes my brains happy.
Wait was this a thing? Because I fuck as hell am not going to accept them taking away people’s right to replace my dick with a vagina and a nice set of tits. I’d be willing to go to war over that!
With great power comes great responsibility. You must use your boobies for good.
Is there any bad use for boobs, honestly?
Clearly you are a child, not married and or have not had experience with love. It’s all a trap.
it must be nice having a party that just always manages to force through all the shit you want no matter the odds
it’s so awesome that we still haven’t fixed roe. like, ridiculous that that night the president didn’t write something saying ‘actually it’s legal everywhere executive order fuck you’. i don’t care if that’s not how it works!! he’s the president!! that’s how 40% of people think it works anyway!!
Yeah I fully expect this to become normal for red states.
Probably gonna kill myself lol
I think it might just be time to move bud. You’re in an escapesble situation. You don’t HAVE to stay and listen to their bullshit. You’re much much better than they are. Keep positive thoughts and you WILL get through it!
I’m still paying off my trailer, I can’t just move without destroying my life anyway. My resume is unimpressive, I’m going into my mid 30s, I’d just be condemning myself to a life in homeless poverty.
Michigan isn’t red. And don’t fucking kill yourself. I’m an old cis white dude, and if I can help fight for your rights, the least you can do is stick around to enjoy them, right?
I’m terrible at pep talks but just don’t fucking kill yourself. There is beauty in the world you have yet to experience, and you make the world a more wondrous and beautiful place just by existing.
I’m in Iowa and that’s a red state these days. If they want to kill me I won’t go quietly, but I’d definitely rather die than detransition.
There are other options. They might involve not staying in Iowa, but hell suicide means leaving Iowa, too, so you might as well try another state.
The Arab Spring all started with a suicide.
Just something to think about.
Of all the Iowans to kill why one of the victims?
🤔 😲
We would welcome you here in Washington.
If I manage to pay off my trailer before they issue my death sentence I’ll try to move, but if I run out of time I’m not going to try and thread that needle. I’ll just make sure it counts.
