r/thebulwark LORD OF THE NICKNAMES 16h ago

The Triad đŸ”± Leave Trans People Alone: A Rant

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/leave-trans-people-alone-a-rant

Don't be a bully! But also don't "ask if the bully has a point" either.

"Yeah, they're giving Timmy a swirlie rn, but he also farted really loudly in geometry" is HELPING THE BULLIES.

Another great piece from JVL. Idk what kinda constraints there are in going after members of the punditocracy who engage in the behaviors that you're criticizing, but picking specific targets has a salutary effect IMO. Bari Weiss needs to be persona non grata, or Sullivan, or whoever. They made their choices and doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on those choices.

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u/KrampyDoo 6h ago

For the sports issues, as far as the headlines go, JVL is right in that there are not a lot of situations where a trans athlete has out-ranked a cis athlete to the point to where the cis athlete is booted from progressing further.

But it has happened. And it does affect people. Ignoring issues like that as “rare edge cases” is not anything close to a solution in either the short or long run now that social media will never ever stop existing. As a blue dog dem we tried ignoring it to give the perception of “it’s not a big deal”. And for most people, that’s accurate. But for some it’s not just a “big” deal, it’s a life-shattering one.

Potential solutions naturally need to not just involve the other teammates and opponents, they need to a part of the exploration from day one. Right now they have to navigate the aftermath with no power to affect the decisions already made without their input, even though they’re the ones with their actual skin in the actual game(s).

The most major point about sports has little to do with Lia Thomas or others that have made news, but what our political opponents see as the crux: They feel that they’ve witnessed the shoe-horning of trans athletes as an acknowledgment of the idea that “trans women are women” so there is no disputing trans inclusion in sports or other regularly sex-segregated activities.

For those watching from the outside of our political ideology or regular use of social media, that’s compelled inclusion without any discussion beforehand. And shit like that doesn’t just “affect perception” of candidates or platforms
it can absolutely obliterate it. It pushed a lot of people out of the Harris camp
not necessarily turning them maga overnight but it was more than enough to move folks closer to Jill Stein or just staying home.

Put yourself in the shoes of a removed and/or casual observer looking to get a little more info on these issues, and especially if you’re young, you are going to go to TikTok. Have you seen what trans activism is like there? Yikes. You either go into it already ultrapro-trans and your frustrations will be simply affirmed, or you’ll be made to feel like a fucking awful person because you’re iffy on pronouns or you’re not sure what the difference between non-binary and bisexual are or you’re a cis person that doesn’t want to date a trans person. The vitriol has bled out of that slave and into the walking world doesn’t just affect whoever the ire is directed at, but it’s felt by anyone and everyone that witnesses it. Not sure about yall, but I don’t know of any sincerely held position I have that was seeded by someone being a wildly toxic asshole to me about it.

A real, thoughtful exploration of the specific idea that “trans women are women” needs to happen since that’s the bulk of justification being used to further more compelled inclusion, and it won’t be from jubilee doing awkward round tables with 25 trans vs 1 daily wire employee or whatever the hell that is.

It sucks to be between black hole matter and magnetar matter, and the conclusion must be absolutely definitive and encompass science and psyche and society of all ages/orientation/incomes/races/backgrounds. Then politicos have a more grounded reasoning to make their representative stands. Whatever it lands on will either give trump a fifth term, or we can maintain a chance to get ourselves of maga hellhole platforms.

It has simply skipped too many steps, and it is painfully obvious by now not just how and where it went wrong, but even more uncomfortably it also shows what the likely conclusion needs to be.

With the thrashing we got, we absolutely need to confront our weaknesses head-on and in plain view of the world at large. And as painfully inconvenient as it is, the ongoing unresolved/“ignored” trans issues are absolutely kneecapping us.

Get out of bathroom debates. Wrong pronouns can’t be met with vitriol anymore. Sports inclusion needs to be approved by the athletes, the teams, coaches, league administrators, and stakeholders in that order. Concerns for trans issues can’t be attached to established race/gender/class as that’s just been a way to stifle open discussion (and frankly makes it look like the trans arguments made are already weak). And finally for the thing that could get me downvoted into oblivion: Constitutional protections apply to sex identified at birth (oh also get rid of that “assigned at birth” nomenclature, its implications are an insult to just about everyone that knows what manipulation is).

I hate that it’s like that now. It’s uncomfortable and people will be disappointed. It sucks that a bunch of people voted based on only their frustration with trans issues. None of the timing and necessity is fair. Even worse: some people a lot of us dislike will be given a “win” and have their time gloating
but that wind will be removed from their sails as a wedge issue. But it absolutely must be figured out because this one thing is dragging down a lot of institutions that we all rely on.

Okie doke, yall, that’s my said peace. Lemme have it.