The Republican War on Transgender People, Drag Queens, and Queerness in General

[padraig (u.s.)]

certainly deserves its own thread

there are so many pieces of proposed state legislation - 97 was the last count I saw - to ban gender-affirming care for minors (and not just minors, as some proposed laws extend the age past 18), ban trans kids from playing sports, and outlaw drag performances, that it's almost impossible to keep up with them

these Republican lawmakers didn't give any kind of a fuck about drag queens or trans kids before 2022 or so, and still don't, beyond the political capital they can squeeze out of persecuting them

it's such a blatant attempt to dog whistle the GOP base ahead of 2024 (and beyond) that it would make you laugh if it wasn't for its abject cruelty and the inevitable human wreckage it will leave in its wake

tho tbf it's not only about stirring up the base, it's also a continuation of attempt to police queer bodies and queer sexuality that American legislators (and tbc, Democrats are historically fallible there as well, if not more recently) have been engaged with essentially since the moment they acknowledged the existence of queer people at all

watching it unfold at the slow pace of the legislative process adds an extra layer of horror, like a slow motion car crash that you're unable to stop

actual links and data to follow at some future point but feel free to add your own

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

DeSantis, who unsurprisingly is at the forefront of this nonsense, and his most recent attack on gender-affirming care (for, let's be clear, legal adults, not minors)

Democratic AGs slam DeSantis for seeking info on college students receiving gender-affirming care

A group of Democratic attorneys general sent a letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday to urge him to cease his efforts to request information on college students in the state who are rec…

thehill.com

 

[IdleRich]

certainly deserves its own thread

Agreed, think it is so obviously happening that we (I?) end up never mentioning it at all, which is stupid.

 

[Mr. Tea]

An important part of the "it would be funny if it wasn't so awful" aspect is that so much of the homophobic and transphobic rhetoric is based on the supposed need to protect children from gay men (especially drag performers, apparently) and trans people, either because they supposedly want to infect kids with The Gay, or simply abuse them, when the number of Republican politicians and other high-profile right-wingers who've been credibly accused or actually convicted of sex crimes against young girls, or in many cases boys too, is just vast and keeps on growing.

So, Let’s Talk About Republicans and Sex Crimes

This seems like an appropriate moment.

slate.com

 

[Mr. Tea]

I just googled "republican sex offenders" and found this, the title of which say it all, really:

Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 32

This is the 32nd installment in the list of Republican sexual predators, abusers, and enablers who contribute to rape culture. These are people who abused their power or defended the abuse of power. These are not folks caught in consensual scandals...

www.dailykos.com

 

[version]

DeSantis

I don't like either of them, but he strikes me as more dangerous than Trump. There's some bill he's supporting that would allegedly prevent universities from offering courses based on “unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” which obviously flies in the face of the research component of higher education, if not higher education in general.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don't like either of them, but he strikes me as more dangerous than Trump. There's some bill he's supporting that would allegedly prevent universities from offering courses based on “unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” which obviously flies in the face of the research component of higher education, if not higher education in general.

No doubt he's fine with everything in the Bible being taught as, well, gospel truth.

 

[version]

I get the impression DeSantis and his Republican supporters are much more ideologically driven than the Tories are with regard to this stuff. With the Tories, it seems as though they just feel it's a hot button issue they can use but they don't really care either way. They just know it whips up some of their voters. With DeSantis and co. it seems to run much deeper, bound up with that particularly hostile and American strain of Christianity and the need for an Other.

 

[Leo]

I don't like either of them, but he strikes me as more dangerous than Trump. There's some bill he's supporting that would allegedly prevent universities from offering courses based on “unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” which obviously flies in the face of the research component of higher education, if not higher education in general.

One note: that bill only pertains to public colleges that receive state funding. He can't tell private colleges what to do.

That being said, he's fucking horrible, will be interesting to see how he does in a presidential primary and possible general election race. he's got a GOP majority in Florida that does whatever he wants, has never faced the harsh lights of national media scrutiny or been punched in the face by political attacks (Trump hasn't even gotten warmed up yet), could turn out to be a hothouse flower. He's also kind of whiny and not an engaging personality, might be hard to endear himself to moderate and independent voters who aren't all in on his neo-authoritarianism.

 

[version]

Trump's apparently floated the idea of calling him "Tiny D", also accused him of being a pedophile.

 

[IdleRich]

I don't like either of them, but he strikes me as more dangerous than Trump. There's some bill he's supporting that would allegedly prevent universities from offering courses based on “unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” which obviously flies in the face of the research component of higher education, if not higher education in general.

He's a really nasty piece of work who seems to deliberately pursue stupid and vindictive policies which I'm certain he can't really believe in himself purely to get the worst kind of people on his side. Stoking division and anger as a strategy. And transgender and gay issues are such an easy way to do it. Cynically deciding that he's lost the gay vote so he might as well be as nasty to them as possible. It's possibly a way to win votes but as a leadership tactic it's disastrous

 

[chava]

Good to see the Europeans are the grown-ups on this issue:

Even progressive Europe won’t go as far as America in child transgender treatments

Western and Northern European countries are generally much more restrictive in transgender treatments for children, with several recently becoming sharply more so.

nypost.com

 

[subvert47]

The American approach, “gender affirmation,” assumes gender identity is knowable from as early as toddlerhood, fixed as soon as it is declared and should be medicalized into permanence as soon as possible. It insists merely questioning a minor’s gender self-definition before often-irreversible interventions is harmful.

This is such bullshit, the very opposite of "gender affirmation", in which there are no assumptions, no set goals, save one: that a child's developing understanding of their own gender should be taken seriously, to the extent of exploring with them what it might mean, rather than telling them what it should be.

Anybody interested in this read Diane Ehrensaft's book "Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender Non-Conforming Children."

 

[DLaurent]

It's a 'wedge issue' that's been created from nowhere for political gain. Goebbels said "Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will". Same goes for loads of 'Wedge Issues', people would be thinking about something else if it wasn't for the political capitol behind it. The thing that bugs about it, other than having to put up with those with strong The Party Line opinions (ie. A man is a man and a woman is woman), is that it has nothing to do with equality, general health of the population, or anything similar.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

What is the Democrat position on the legality of incest?

 

[Leo]

Why don't you tell us?

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Either they are consistent and pro-incest between consenting adults who can use birth control or snuff out any misconception before they see the whites of its eyes OR they make an unprincipled exception and say it should be illegal, whereupon they can be called unprincipled.

The Republicans are missing a trick by not forcing the Democrats into being 'The Party of Incest' and taking the next election by a landslide.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Either they are consistent and pro-incest between consenting adults who can use birth control or snuff out any misconception before they see the whites of its eyes OR they make an unprincipled exception and say it should be illegal, whereupon they can be called unprincipled.

The Republicans are missing a trick by not forcing the Democrats into being 'The Party of Incest' and taking the next election by a landslide.

🤔

 

[DannyL]

Thanks for starting the thread. Agreed its horrific.

It reminds me of Reich's "emotional plague" in that its apparently driven by an absolute terror of sexuality, made *even worse* by it being queer, non-gender conforming sexuality.

 

[DannyL]

The cynical deployment of hatred and fear It reminds me of the way the Tories are using refugees.

Thus stuff seems to have less hold in the UK due I'd guess to the lack of a strong evangelical base. There have been a few anti drag protests but they've been easily swamped by counter-protesters (which is not to say the UK is free from anti trans or homophobic sentiment obvs)