Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Because they're there.


     I've been doing this long enough to know that a column like yesterday's, about a summer camp for children with a parent who has died, won't get much reaction. There's nothing to object to, no way for reactionaries to beat their chests or whine about themselves as victims. So they fall into a sullen silence, biding their time.
     Mostly. I glanced into my spam filter, and there was a chronic complainer with this reaction:
"This is the type of organization that should get help via taxpayer money," which for him was sparkly generosity. Then he reverted to form: "But why add 'binary child' in the article?"
     The standard argument against gays standing up for their rights was that they were somehow flaunting themselves in the face of the public. When in fact they were just agitating to be allowed to do what everyone else enjoys — hold jobs, get married, raise families. 
     The same criticism is now applied toward trans people who manifest themselves and then are  slammed for existing, the idea that people innocently pursuing their own inclinations is somehow intolerable. The easiest way to try that is by pretending that their living causes some kind of harm to you, that stocking books urging tolerance is by definition recruitment, since your own kids' orientation is so lightly held, apparently, that a picture book about a penguin with two dads can send them crashing into the abyss of gender confusion.
     I considered my response, and then offered up: "Because the child was there, whether you like it or not."



10 comments:

  1. I'm not sick of the trannies because they exist, I'm sick of them because they think they have more rights than the rest of us!
    And their demands are causing a huge backlash against gays!

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    1. And which extra rights bug you? This sounds like, "Why are you hitting yourself?" to me.

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    2. Bullshit Neil!
      Those extra rights are to be seen as women, especially in sports, where they definitely have a huge physical advantage over women. Or get sent to a women's prison, where according to a recent news article, one of them, still with a penis & testicles knocked up two actual women in the prison.
      Or the one at the University of Pennsylvania, who swims, but couldn't compete against the men, so now he claims to be female & easily beats the women!

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    3. The kid I referred to was just sitting there, like anybody else. Remember, sports, bathrooms, etc, are the outlier, tough questions that haters eagerly grasp and wave around — the way they used to do with Islamic terrorism — trying to indict the rest. It's like me saying there shouldn't be church because Christianity turns out all these narrow-minded bigots (which, now that I mention it, makes sense). Your concern for prison conditions and the rules of competitive swimming notwithstanding.

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    4. Clark Street usually makes some kind of sense, at least as much as I do, anyway, but then every once in a while he (I'm guessing that Clark St identifies as a male and would prefer he, his, him pronouns) runs up the skull and crossbones on his mast and beware all, no quarter given. I confess some misgivings about trans women competing with other women, but i heard that swimmer explain the serious difficulties she had with gender identity even to the point of considering suicide and i could sympathize with her situation. In any event, surely the swimmer did not cut off her prick in order to win swimming medals. And there are rules to even the playing fields, some perhaps a bit overboard, like restricting the participation of trans women to those who transitioned before age 12. It's a different world out there, Clark St, in some ways a much better one. And keep on complaining, there's plenty of room for that too.

      john

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    5. Our expectations in this area are the definition of baked in, and so it's often unsettling, and demands a level of thought that some people just aren't capable of. What I find significant is that, now that the door is open, the trans spectrum is all around. I'm constantly running into people who feel permitted to manifest themselves in ways that previously would get them killed. To react like the right, and condemn the whole thing as perversion and plot, is not helpful. Of course there are real dilemmas in regards to athletics, etc. But those are tangential issues, waved by people who never made a stand for collegiate track rules before, and now suddenly care passionately. I'm glad Clark Street felt comfortable airing his qualms, and trust he'll consider the blowback. He isn't close to a troll, and is a welcome part of the community.

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  2. Yes, it is definitely a different world out there now, and the whole issue confuses and perplexes me, including the use of pronouns. So far, this old and out-of-touch geezer has chosen to deal with it by not dealing with it at all. I don't really know anyone who has transitioned, or who's chosen to manifest themselves in a different way.

    My wife and I do have a younger friend whose teen-age daughter is now dealing with trans issues, but I don't really know her. Her mother seems to think that the whole thing, at least as far as her daughter is concerned, is a kind of phase that some kids willingly choose to go through, even a fad...and she believes that many young people are not really trans at all and will "sort themselves out" as they get older.

    Both my wife and I tend to agree with her, but I found the topic to be as uncomfortable as hell. We were all on a harbor cruise, so I let the two women discuss the young woman, while I just stared mutely at the Cleveland skyline. I didn't want to open my mouth and remove all doubt that I was a fool. And I dealt with it by not dealing with it.

    At 75, that sometimes seems to be the best choice about more and more things...to sweep them under the rug. Or maybe it's just another poor excuse for insensitivity, and disregard for the feelings of others. It's probably similar to the way the gay community was regarded by so many a few decades ago. I have quite a few gay friends and relatives, and I consider myself to be what is known as an "ally"...but by the time the trans community receives the same level of acceptance from society, I will be long-forgotten dust.

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  3. "Because the child was there" seems like a pretty hard-to-argue-with reason to mention them.

    At the risk of appearing out of touch, if not on the road to being canceled, it seems to me that this comment-thread exchange points to why the acceptance of trans individuals seems to be more tenuous than what we've experienced in just the recent past with regard to gays achieving marriage equality, etc. I thought that the main reason public opinion on gay rights in this country flipped so rapidly in the last couple decades was because so many folks had gay family members, friends and co-workers. Unless I'm mistaken, that's not been quite the case when moving along past L, G, and B to the T, Q and + part of the group.

    "I'm constantly running into people who feel permitted to manifest themselves in ways that previously would get them killed." I can't really say that such has been the case for me, but I don't get around much... But the more folks become aware of and comfortable with minorities of whatever kind, the less resistance they will face, one would hope.

    As for the "real dilemmas in regards to athletics, etc .", I'm not sure "extra rights" is the way I would characterize what is being sought.

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  4. When I was growing up one never heard of transgender people. Then, at the U. of Chicago, I read a monograph by an anthropologist describing men with female traits in many so-called primitive societies. Some were persecuted, others revered and even given shamanistic status. I've since met a few. Quite normal in other aspects. Overall, it is good that all that is out in the open.
    Tom

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    1. And many Indian tribes tolerated some men opting out of a masculine culture and devoting themselves to feminine things -- I believe the missionaries regarded their dances as unspeakably obscene.

      john

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