I’m saying this as someone on the right - and someone who has zero issue with trans people themselves. My problem isn’t with individuals. It’s with the way activists, academics, and political strategists deliberately collapsed multiple, unrelated groups into one giant category called “trans,” and now everyone in every political tent treats that category like it’s a single, coherent population.
It isn’t, and it never was. Progressives pushed the umbrella because it created a unified political bloc.
The right attacks the umbrella because it’s easier to criticize a monolith than deal with nuance.
And the media - all of it - uses the umbrella because it’s a simple narrative that doesn’t require explaining anything.
But this collapse has consequences.
You can’t make rational policy when you pretend that
traditional transsexuals with lifelong dysphoria,
people dealing with trauma or psychiatric distress,
people whose relationship to gender is erotic or performative, and people adopting “trans” as a social identity…are all the same thing. They aren’t. And the public reacts to the loudest, most visible subgroup - not the tiny population that actually needs medical transition to survive.
There is a massive rise in people identifying as “trans women” who have no interest in integrating socially as women. Their motivations and needs are not the same as traditional transsexuals. Ignoring that difference is dishonest.
But here’s the part that matters to me, as someone on the right who actually pays attention:
If we don’t untangle these groups, the people who genuinely need estrogen and medical care are going to lose access to the treatment that keeps them alive. Not because of anything they did - but because the public is reacting to the most extreme or fetishistic examples and assuming that’s the whole story.
I don’t have to be trans to see that some people genuinely shatter without proper medical care. That’s not ideology. That’s reality.
If we want sane policy, we need honesty. Not slogans.
Not denial. Not flattening everyone into one category.
Just the truth: different groups exist, they have different needs and pretending they’re all the same is hurting everyone.
Sometimes I wish I’d been dumb enough to transition so that I could’ve been one of the earliest detransition influencers and first detransition comedian.
I've always been in between both political parties. Both the right and the left hate me. I'm a sex worker, but I've personally been the target of a bunch mass cancellation attempts by the left during the woke wars. I thought the BLM protests were kinda dumb (based on a factually incorrect premise), I think most people protesting Gaza are people who suspiciously seem to not care about other human rights violations, some worse and better documented.
It's one thing when dumb leftist mobs make false, easily disprovable claims. It's another thing when the current administration does it. I have WAY higher standards for the people in positions of physical force over us, the people who control the military.
The current administration appears to be hacking away at some of the things I thought everyone found sacred - our rights, our freedoms, and in some cases the process of democracy itself. I dismissed a lot of the early fears around this because they came from leftist factions who were hysterical about extremely stupid or false things, but I am increasingly horrified to find out that on this specific topic they unfortunately were right.
We've moved past this being a normal left vs right issue - this is now entering the kind of territory that both left and right should agree is too far. We need our battlegrounds fair, our use of force measures, our leaders trustworthy. Even if we disagree with them hugely there should be some level of integrity. For example I think Mamdani is economically insane and will destroy prosperity in NY if given the chance and my heart breaks for the city - but he still plays fair, and as far as I can tell hasn't behaved in unethical or dishonest ways.
I want the right to have a better leader, and I want the right to recognize they need a better leader, one that can fight illegal immigration and protect gun rights and keep taxes low and still, also, be a good person who takes the institution of government to be sacred. Otherwise the right will fail in the long term. This is not a winning strategy.
@Gaynotqueer1 To take his question seriously, what if, in order for the officer to claim someone is trans, they have to get two other women to affirm they believe the person to be trans?
But also, how often is Anyone being strip searched by transit police??
@TruismsT@JoEllisReally I agree with your point, and here’s a great article on the matter: https://t.co/kwM8MczV9E
But did you really need to start off by saying “ridiculous take” & end w “do better”? Let’s just be kind so people are more likely to remain open to our points & just make the world nicer.
@SwipeWright It’s so aggravating that this person won’t even consider the Open category. Even if it is mostly “cis “men in the category, calling it open allows for the dignity of trans women to not have to call themselves men while playing the sport.
@Stlvixen@atensnut To which sick ideology are you referring? What does the “like you” refer to?
Sincerely questions btw. I don’t really know much about the OP.
@Evening_Speaks@BriannaWu I know plenty of ppl who call themselves TERFs & several ppl who self-ID as GC who are not awful like this. & I know some trans activist types who aren’t. It does seem to be true though that labeling yourself as 1 of these is correlated w/ not being nuanced or compassionate tho
Why We Must Never Argue Over Religion
Paul declared, "The servant of the Lord must not strive" (ll Timothy 2:24). The word strive means to argue, quarrel or be contentious. We are to "earnestly contend for the faith" (Jude 3), but we are not to be contentious about it. There will be false teachers who are cunning and crafty and who "lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14), but we must not argue with them.
• How Jesus avoided arguments about religion
The woman at the well said to Jesus, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain: and you say that in Jerusalem is the place men ought to worship" (John 4:20). Jesus knew that arguing over the right place to worship would be futile because this woman was living in immorality. He focused on that, and she brought the city out to hear him! When the unbelieving religious rulers asked Jesus provocative questions, He did not argue. He gave irrefutable answers, self-incriminating questions or wisdom that made their questions look foolish. He also pointed out the vile immorality in them.
• We must recognize and reject the wrong kind of questions
Scripture identifies three types of questions:
1. Foolish questions. These questions have no answers. Theologians once argued over how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.
2. Unlearned questions. These questions do have answers but our finite minds cannot comprehend them. Why did God "create evil"? (Isaiah 45:7) is an example.
3. Learned questions. These are questions that have answers, and we should ask them. i.e. "Why did Jesus have to be crucified?"
Paul warned, "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do produce strife" (ll Timothy 2:23).
• We must be qualified to teach those who are in error
Rather than arguing, we are to teach those who are living in error and be patient with them. "In meekness instructing those who oppose themselves: if God might give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" (I Timothy 2:25). In order to be an "instructor," we must be a mature believer who is skilled in using God's word. An immature believer who tries to argue with a skilled deceiver will be defeated. "For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to those who are of full age, in other word, those who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:13-14).
• Those who persist in arguing over religion are immoral
False religions are primarily designed to promote or allow sexual immorality. Even though they have the moral law of God written in their heart, they reject it. So, they are fighting themselves. By a warning "God may give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth: and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will" (verses 25-26). After two warnings stop talking, knowing that he is in immorality and he condemns himself! (Titus 3:10-11)
Bill Gothard, Ph.D. (https://t.co/75323uUskr)
Picture courtesy of Blaine A. White under https://t.co/rCYVmDdj0p