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| Six young people from the GenderCool Project gather in 2018 to promote trans awareness. |
Newspaper reporters quickly learn, if they're any good, to find their own stories. The only way to keep your job from devolving into an endless treadmill of zoning board meetings is to figure out what interests you and get busy. Otherwise, you spend your career being told what to do, and who wants that?
Thus in my younger days I'd scan phone books, looking for ... I wasn't sure what. Something unusual. Once I called a number listed in the Yellow Pages under "Currency engraving," only to find a sofer,or Hebrew scribe. I'd phoned hoping to see a Brazilian bank note being etched and ended up watching a man finish penning a Torah scroll with a turkey feather.
Once in 1992, I was browsing the classified ads in the back of the Reader and noticed a shop on Elston Avenue selling women's clothing in large sizes to men. "Now there's something you just don't see in the paper every day," I thought, and went over. Another key reporting skill: Go and find out.
I quickly realized this wasn't a story about dresses; it was a story about people. There was a community here, holding secret dances — I went to one — and maintaining safe houses. Because a guy couldn't keep his female wardrobe in the closet at home, where his wife might find it. Often, she didn't know.
The story "PRETTY, WITTY — AND MALE CROSS-DRESSERS KEEP CULTURE CLOSE TO VEST" ran over several pages in the paper. I'm proud of it, because there was no snickering. I used the pronouns my subjects preferred.
Not that I understood it all. The subculture that, in the 1990s, were men dressing as women, seemed to vanish into men who were women and vice versa. I didn't exactly get it, completely, but that was OK, because it isn't about me — another superpower of being a reporter. It wasn't my job to pass judgment.
When gays and lesbians got the right to marry, I wondered whether the trans community could slip through the door they'd kicked open. They did, for a while; then reaction set in.
Big time, with the past election, as Republicans ginned up harms to focus on, making fear of trans a central plank. "Kamala Harris is for they/them," one heavily-hyped commercial went. "Donald Trump is for you." If only public health care was given the same attention.
That not only won but framed the issue in such a way that many don't even realize how skewed it is. When we talk about trans, we talk about bathroom policy and fairness in sports, hormones and surgeries. Controversies, not people. Republicans who fall quaking to the floor if you suggest parents shouldn't bat the diphtheria vaccine away from their kids' arms suddenly are adamant they know best what care is right for youngsters they've never met.
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Nicely done, IMO.
ReplyDeleteFor the past nine years now, with every fear-mongering and de-humanizing utterance from a particular Republican and his many followers, I have thought to myself (or often shouted out loud), "No, they're human beings!" Whether trans or generally LGBTQ-related, immigrant-related, women's rights-related, people of color-related - it's been sad to feel that kindness and tolerance was losing the battle and even sadder now to know it lost. For now. You have perfectly described the attributes of a good journalist. Thank you and keep it up EGD or for as long as you can. And I hope that more people learn to see the benefit of finding the curious and non-judgemental journalist within themselves. I can't imagine it's good for anyone's health to be so fearful and hateful of other humans as a daily practice.
ReplyDeleteVery well said, 100% agree
DeleteWell said.
DeleteThank you! Sharing your understanding (and tacit support) of the trans community is as important now as it was then. Maybe more so.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head, Neil.
ReplyDeleteThe internet through facebook, youtube, twitter, x, and others, combined with the endless cacophony of 24/7 right-wing propaganda and news, becoming a source of revenue not news has become a place where the know-nothings are the only trusted voices.
Scientists and Doctors are no longer trusted for decades of experience in their fields. For some reason, a billionaire who has a literal brain worm is considered to know more than the entire medical community.
I will continue to fight for the rights of the vulnerable, the poor, and the voiceless. I will continue to spend the few dollars I have on American-made goods, quality journalism, and out of the pockets of the truly heinous. No Hobby Lobby, no Chick Filet, no Amazon, no x, no Meta, no Wall Street Journal, no Tesla. The list gets longer, and life gets harder... but i will not waiver.
May Emma Lazarus be my guiding light, the founding fathers and their constitution my true north, and the freedom to choose by my credo.
No Uline packaging, too
DeleteWe must somehow start teaching children empathy from a young age. The instinct to reflexively fear and hate the different is deeply ingrained by hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Empathy extending to members of the immediate clan is far more recent and the ability to extend it outside this tiny circle is basically a brand new invention that is still fighting for a foothold. Art, music, literature, columns like this are crucial, but often come too late, when a person consuming them is already set in natural ancient bigotry and may already be teaching it to their children.
ReplyDeletemark, the first sentence in your comment is an example of why we on the left lost this election . we far to often are scolds. telling others what to do. even if it goes against millions of years of evolution a theory they dont agree with. we dont see ourselves for who we are. we assume the moral high ground then complain when those on the other side do the same thing. then play the whataboutism card when we are called out on it. neither side willing to give an inch
DeleteIf liberals are scolds telling others what to do all while assuming moral high ground, what the giant H are the profiteers who use every avenue of manipulative marketing to inflame the rage of right-wing reactionaries and pseudo-religious in order to consolidate control over everyone's lives? No side was willing to give an inch? Really? Missed all the concessions to the ACA, border talks, environmental and safety bills, spending bills to avoid government shutdowns, etc? Whataboutism? Most MAGA mastered that before they were out of kindergarten yhen taught it to any late blooming bullies in middle school.
DeleteEvolution? Evolution is biologic adaptaion for survival. What you attribute to evolution is not genetic, but learned social behavior. Social behaviors are ingrained through repetitian. Emotionally adopted for survival through fear of abandonement, it is not a biologic genetic reaction.
DeleteI was tempted to just let it go, but I feel I need to dispel disinformation. Evolution indeed shapes animal (and therefore human) behavior, it takes active instruction to change behaviors conditioned genetically. Please the below primer from AI:
DeleteYes, animal behavior is significantly shaped by evolution. Through the process of natural selection, behaviors that increase an organism's chances of survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed on to future generations. This is because individuals exhibiting those advantageous behaviors tend to survive longer and have more offspring, who inherit their traits.
Here are a few key ways evolution influences animal behavior:
### 1. **Instincts**
- **Innate behaviors**: These are hardwired into an animal's genetic code and are present from birth. For example, sea turtles hatchlings instinctively move toward the ocean immediately after they hatch.
### 2. **Survival Mechanisms**
- **Predator avoidance**: Many animals have developed behaviors that help them avoid predators, such as camouflage, fleeing, or forming protective groups (like schools of fish).
### 3. **Reproductive Strategies**
- **Mating rituals**: Many species have evolved specific courtship behaviors to attract mates, like the elaborate dances of some bird species or the bright coloration of others.
### 4. **Social Structures**
- **Group living**: Some species have evolved to live in complex social groups, which can enhance survival and reproduction. Examples include the social hierarchies of wolves or the cooperative behavior seen in ant colonies.
### 5. **Learning and Adaptation**
- **Behavioral flexibility**: While some behaviors are instinctual, others can be learned and adapted. Animals that can learn from their environment and experiences can better navigate their changing surroundings and increase their survival chances.
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Main Results
You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be carefully taught
Evolution scientists are the first to warn that "to the extent" that behaviors are controlled by genes, they MAY evolve through natural selection. IF behaviors increase fitness, they are LIKELY to become more common over time. IF they decrease fitness, they are LIKELY to become less common.
DeleteThey do not claim most or all behavior is genetic in animals, nor in humans, but I see the easy out by claiming genetics . There are those who claim no one has free will either.
Ann A said it better than I can -- I'm barely awake yet -- but thank you for the column.
ReplyDeleteI looked for statistics on violence against trans people and found these figures from Advocates for Trans Equality, an organization I was previously unaware of but which seems well worth supporting.
https://www.transremembrance.org/the-data
I have and continue to point out to transphobics that there is one bathroom that everyone uses, regardless of gender, and no one even notices it: the one (or however many) in their home. Let people pee in peace, dammit!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the civilized European custom where you walk into a bathroom, and there's a gender neutral sink(s) in front of you, and then a couple of bathrooms that may or may not be labeled by sex. You can pee where you can, and then go wash your hands. Like it.
Illinois passed a law a couple of years ago, following NYC's law that requires all single person public toilets must be gender neutral. Not only does it eliminate that problem, but it also means there's usually an available toilet when one is in use, no matter what sex you are.
DeleteGlad to hear that!
DeleteI have never understood how the way one person lives her life affects anyone else (barring abuse and murder). All those married heteros fretting over the sanctity of their unions being sullied by same-sex marriage make no sense at all. Same as dithering about embryonic personhood all the while denying bodily autonomy to fully functioning adult women. I like the recent Minnesota quote: mind your own business.
ReplyDeleteHad to turn off CSpan this morning listening yet again to MAGA supporters ask why the DOJ, FBI and Congress haven't launched investigations into Barack Obama's homesexual liaisons, Michelle Obama's transgender surgery, Kamala Harris' citizenship, that the homosexual Democrats are the deep state working to overthrow Christianity in God's chosen land of America.
ReplyDeletehow awful
DeleteIt wasn't just on a national scale...it was used on the state level as well. "Sherrod Brown is for they/them," the ubiquitous commercial went in the last weeks of the Ohio senatorial race.. "Bernie Moreno is for you."
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard that, I got chills and feelings of dread, and I started thinking that Democrats were about to lose, because Ohio's deep red electorate would fall for the bathrooms-girls-sports-sex change nonsense ginned up by the Republicans.
Which they did. The three-term Democratic senator lost big. So now Jethro Vance is V-P, and we will have a scammer with mob connections in the Senate, and some other bozo who will replace Vance. Nobody knows who it will be. And the U.S. Senate has gone red, completing the trifecta. Fearmongering about "the other" works.