[Serious] That Trans Thread

[Rev. Rye]

These days right-wingers are running around with a gotcha "what's a woman " as if they have the ultimate weapon way of delegitimizing Trans people. The obvious counter is simply to point out that as far as gender is concerned woman is simply a self-identifier this has the utility of covering all women and avoiding needless stereotypes. But the right, of course, dislike this and insist that their definition which conveniently excludes Trans People is the only right one because it's been the definition for a long time (argument from antiquity anyone?) but I have yet to see them come up with an actual objection to this definition.

I believe their objection is that chicks with dicks are icky. They used the same objection for homosexuality.

I suspect that there's a lot of reasons. And the sad thing is that the "chicks with dicks are icky" argument is probably the closest there is to a legit argument (at least if the trans person in question is one of those who thinks that having genital preferences for sex is transphobic).

But I think the big reason transphobia became more blatant in recent years is because the right's seen that they're not going to win their fight against homosexuality, and fighting "transgenderism" is the next best thing. Caitlyn Jenner coming out as trans and increasing trans visibility probably helped accelerate this trend.

Another thing to note: the white evangelicals who've made up the Republican Party's base for years has developed increasingly strong emphasis on strict gender roles. And thinking about how trans folk fit into those rigid categories is too complicated for them, so the trans folk have to go.