In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
We largely couldn’t in the first place, but thanks for the heads up. There was a hope, sure. But little trust due to little action.
It’s a matter of degree. I felt a heck of a lot more protected than I had previously. Action? Not as much as there should have been but hardly zero.
Yeah, like I said: little. It felt like they were content to do enough to get credit and then kick the can down the road until they were forced to do more. Now we enter an era that will likely strip back what progress has been made. In four years we’ll be pushed back forty.
They are political creatures. I wouldn’t say they were “content to do enough to get credit” so much as lacking the courage to do more. But I’m also not going to blame them for doing what they think is most likely to keep them elected even if I vehemently disagree with that.
A shocking percentage of the US population is transphobic and the answer is not to expect politicians to put votes on the line to “do the right thing” (LOL) but to work to ensure they don’t have to because that transphobia goes away.
How the hell does 1% of the population get 50% to stop hating it and believing bullshit about it
I feel like you are thinking in absolutist terms. We do not need every person to accept our right to exist, only enough to move policy and cultural-level acceptance forward. That is already happening, slowly but surely. In my lifetime we’ve gone from “lock em up and give em a lobotomy” to being able to be safely visible most of the time and for it to be common to state pronouns.
It’s not perfect and it’s not where we need it to be but it is light years ahead of where we were. And this progress, even if things get forced back for a time, is inevitable.
Maybe I am thinking about it in absolutist terms, but im also young. I see nimbyism stifle housing in blue states and conservatives having a ton of kids and fear the country will only get redder. In my lifetime, we reached gay marriage only ten or so years ago and things are already being pushed back far further. Roe, a ruling made decades before I was born, has been overturned and set abortion law back just as far. I think having lived through most of it, you may be biased; but progress is not a guarantee. Things can always go backward, and there’s no limit to how far
Yes, there totally is a limit. Look at public sentiment and polling on questions of support for trans rights. This has shifted dramatically for the better in the last 10 years and that’s a cultural shift that doesn’t suddenly disappear just because a vocal group temporarily gets their way. People who support us don’t suddenly become transphobic over night. I’d argue big cultural changes like this do actually ensure that progress is guaranteed.
Even on abortion law, the response in many states was positive and many state-level protection were put in place in response. And even where they were not, a significant majority of the population is in favor of strong protections for reproductive rights.
There’s a lot of noise made by a very vocal minority. Think about why the country “swung right” and what that means. When asked what they support in a neutral context it turns out many people who voted Trump actually more strongly support Democratic party policies and are not actually right wing. They voted out of ignorance and out of frustration. Or many of those who were frustrated didn’t vote. These are solvable problems - solvable through advocacy and education.
The way I look at the current situation is to see the MAGA movement as an extension of the Tea Party crap. This is in many ways the last gasp of a heavily white supremacist Christian Nationalism that can be more vocal and influential than their numbers would suggest. Their views are solidly minority views and don’t actually have broad support. But they win elections and influence politicians by being incredibly well organized and politically active.
My hope is that rather than throwing up our hands and giving up, this period will spark more engagement and activism in the trans community and in progressive circles generally. Because frankly we’ve gotten complacent and a bit lazy and worse, we bicker constantly. These are literally the only reasons the MAGA cult has even been able to take hold at all.
You only get action when you’re living in a blue city, under a blue state, with a blue President.
If anyone on the stack is Republican, your civil rights dissolve in the face of bureaucracy and legalese.
Republican courts, Republican governors, Republican sheriff’s department, Republican school board… anything is enough for Dems to defer and compromise on your liberty.
They won’t even stand up for their own elected Congressional coworkers to use the fucking restroom.
With Trump in office, you’re going to see Dems retreat from any kind of LGBTQ rights on a sweeping scale. Just wholesale capitulation, as they blame their electoral defeat on being insufficiently servile to bigots.
This is so easily disproven and it’s not the way our political system works. If it were, a single Republican in congress would kill a bill.
No, it’s not and frankly that level of hyperbole isn’t constructive.
What do you mean “retreat from”? If you mean being vocal on that stance I’ll bet you a cookie you are wrong. What kind of cookie is your favorite? If you mean being actually able to effect any positive change, you are only right up until the midterm elections next year.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
~ Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass
Edit: I’ll share cookies with you anyway.