Hi I’m trans and living in the US right now, in Seattle one of the best places to be trans in the US. Don’t come here if you’re trans. Don’t travel to anywhere in the US, not Seattle, not anywhere. If for no other reason than to stop giving tourism money to us but if you’re trans then yeah it’s getting spicy.
All my trans friends who have had to travel are reporting increased pat downs, getting questioned by TSA, and bags being opened regardless of their documents. If you get clocked you may be delayed or searched.
For any trans people looking to get out of the country be careful. So far my best idea is to get to a state with enhanced IDs, use that to hop the border to Canada by land without having to physically hand your passport to a US agent, then fly out from there.
Stay safe everyone
Most of us are cool with ya’ll, but yeah, too many who aren’t, so please stay the fuck out until its safe.
Also to add, there is an unfortunate number of Liberals who are quickly walking back any support for trans folk.
Not only do these people fail as allies and as compassionate human beings, but they’re also very stupid if they don’t see that defending trans rights is the front line of the fight against fascism right now, and we all need to be there fighting it. They’re not going to stop at taking rights away from trans people. It’ll be you next.
They can’t see that attacks on trans rights are also attacks on cis rights. I think that’s part of the reason why Rep. Zoey Zephyr and Rep. SJ Howell were so effective at stopping a couple pieces of anti-trans legislation in Montana yesterday. They talked about the fact that the legislation would potentially effect cis people as well as the fact that it’d take “parental rights” away from parents. They also did it in a way that created a narrative which both cis and trans people can identify with, creating a common ground to further convince people that the legislation was wrong. And it was successful. They got a number of Republican lawmakers to switch sides, despite the fact that the GOP prides itself on being in lockstep. They even had a Republican lawmaker make a stand too, saying that the people introducing this legislation were basically just wasting everyone’s time.
People say, “trans rights are human rights” and they’re serious. We embody the extreme of gender non-conformity that cis people occasionally dabble in, and when you start taking away our rights, you start taking away cis rights too.
In what way are liberals walking back support for Trans? I’ve seen the comment from Gavin Newsom about athletics, but does that mean he has walked back all support? Or just in that one area?
Walking back support in one area is walking back support.
It ain’t that complex. As soon as concessions are made, the far right demands more because there must always be an enemy to crush completely for the in-group. Who will then pick a new enemy when it comes politically convenient.
So in your opinion it’s an all or nothing thing? Like, you can’t question one area without going full bigot?
In many ways it is. The actual science on trans athletics supports policies like those sports agencies have typically used - allowing people to compete if they’ve been on certain hormonal treatments for a specific period of time. Cis athletes also have advantages and disadvantages, relative to each other, based on testosterone level. Trans women on HRT are well within that range of performance. In many sports, trans women are actually at a disadvantage to cis women, due to the fact that trans women tend to have lower testosterone levels than cis women.
In other words, the science is completely against sports bans. There is no logical reason to do them. The truly scientific solution is to consider sports on an individual basis, and let the sport figure out what advantage/disadvantage trans folks might have. Then, if that advantage/disadvantage is well within normal player ranges, then competing is fine. If not, if it’s an individual sport, maybe a handicap system. If it’s a group sport, well maybe rules about how many trans people can be on any one team. Etc. You start at a position of aiming for fairness. Then you only prevent people from competing if a clear advantage can be justified. In other words, the complete opposite of blanket sports bans.
With sports bans, you’re not meeting someone halfway on an issue of great scientific debate. You are simply caving to irrational bigotry. People think trans people are gross, so they want to hurt them. That’s really the root of this. And you can’t compromise with someone that isn’t actually trying to craft good public policy. Two people can compromise on tax rates or the generosity of government benefits. But how do you compromise with someone that just wants to hurt other people? Their desire to hurt others isn’t going to end. They’ll just want more. Compromising with bigots only emboldens them.
