Thursday, April 13, 2023

Unproductive ways to persuade transphobes out of the bathroom falsepanic they don't really believe in anyway

In June 2023, I saw a Twitter thread in which "Jake"-bunch-of-numbers expressed concern that "anyone can fake being trans" which would then cause two problems: they could "gain access to women only spaces and commit a crime" and it would "be recorded as a trans-crime when [in fact] no transperson had been involved". His conclusion: "there should be a verification process," and so he opposes "self ID" (i.e., the policy, as it is especially known in the UK, that people are whatever gender they say are, and trans people don't need to carry around approval).

What would the purpose of the verification process be? "To eliminate abusers." It wasn't clear if he meant eliminating direct crime toward someone in the bathroom (and how different ID cards for trans people would prevent crime) or the subsequent, collective, more abstract harm that would be caused to all trans people as a result of the cis criminal lying about being trans.

The possibility is that cis men could disguise themselves as trans women: "it is an opportunity" for them.

He clarified: "A whole class of people would have rights to enter women only spaces after a one time verification before officially transitioning." He added (without evidence) that "the vast majority of trans-women would have no problem obtaining" the verification, and consequently, "the opportunity for abuse is removed" (still, it isn't clear what abuse he means, as above).

If trans women aren't the problem (which he admits), then making trans women carry around blue verification checkmarks isn't going to do anything to stop cis men, who can also print out a blue verification checkmark and show it at the blue verification checkmark checkpoint.

Anyhow, I wrote more about him here:

Please read my article "How the bathroom verification cards would work". It's an 8-minute read on Medium.

Bathroom bans hurt cis people too. A cis person being harassed in a Walmart bathroom, 2016

July 15, 2023, Maya Forstater  tweeted: If you don't want to tell people your sex that is fine. If you don't want to do that you will have to stay out of spaces where you are required to declare your sex. In response, someone says: I see Maya has created a whole new universe, can anyone explain what a 'space where you are required to declare your sex' is, because I'm quite sure I've never had to declare my sex to enter any space in my life, ever?

In 1998, homophobes made the same "arguments" about gay people

1998 article arguing that gay people shouldn't be in locker rooms

Look here. It's the same hateful nonsense rhetoric:

Jordan Tierney tweeted April 3, 2023: 40 years ago, conservatives called HIV the 'gay plague' and said it was a punishment from God for homosexuality. 20 years ago, conservatives said if we allow gay marriage, ppl will 'try to marry farm animals'. today, conservatives say gender affirming surgeries are 'mutilation'

Cis gay people do speak up for trans people, and face heavy criticism by transphobes when they do so.

William G. Saraband tweets October 17, 2022: Hounding a gay man off social media, who has done more for LGBT+ representation and visibility than any castle-dwelling straight billionaire, because he had the temerity to say 'maybe we should listen to trans people, their families, and actual experts on the issue.' The transphobic movement has done nothing but re-energise some of the most blatant homophobia of old, constantly conflating LGBT+ people w/ abusers (straight cis men are, by far, the biggest group responsible for committing sexual violence & abuse). It's pure, unfiltered hatred.
actors in an old film

Thinking about this for no particular reason tonight, other than the fact that we need to have longer collective memories.

[image or embed]

— Jessica Kant (@jessdkant.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:21 PM

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