Tag: Trans Movement

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In general, I’m completely blase about the Trans movement. I just don’t care. Live and let live, as they say. And I saw a very interesting Tik-Tok that really explained to me that on an even a biological basis, the issue of “What is a woman?” is not nearly as cut-and-dried as one might think.

But.

My issue is not with Trans people or the Trans movement. My issue is with the very strict orthodoxy that has arisen around the issue among some on the Left, to the point that there can’t be any debate at all. I fucking hate orthodoxy of any sort because it limits one’s ability to think freely. And, besides, I’m generally too laid back to be partisan enough to be able to care about an orthodoxy in the first place.

The reason why the Trans orthodoxy is so troubling to me is its existence plays right into the hands of MAGA cocksuckers who see the opportunity to demagogue the issues surrounding the Trans movement. That, in turn, plays into the rise of fascism in America. I spend most of my time when I debate my Traditionalist relatives having to get past their belief that the “woke cancel culture mob” is going to destroy their Christian lives because they believe being gay is “a sin.”

If America had a functioning political system, we would sort out — in a way that pleased no one totally — what to do with the Trans movement. That’s how democracies are supposed to work. But just from my personal experience, I can tell you that there is a vast amount of disinformation flowing out of the Right Wing podcast echochamber. All kinds of conflated bullshit is bouncing around that echochamber, being warped and magnified along the way.

The whole situation is fucked up. While I don’t agree with my Traditionalist relatives, who I think suffer from a bad case of “gay scare,” I do understand where they’re coming from. And seeing them grow more fascist and radicalized because of the touchy nature of the Trans movement is very alarming to me. I really would rather not live in a fascist state because the people who would otherwise be the bedrock of any functioning democracy — Traditionalists — are being driven into the arms of fascists.