Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans attack transgender rights on RNC opening night
https://www.advocate.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-rncOpen linkView original on lemmy.world381
Comments76https://www.advocate.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-rncOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
A quick note on this thread:
The transphobic comments are getting out of hand. Lots of reports and lots of removals.
Now here's the thing...
The #1 thing I hated about fucking reddit were the mods who would go "we're locking this thread because it's too much trouble to moderate it."
My opinion then, and now, is "Oh, your volunteer gig is too hard? Go do something else then!"
So, no, I'm not locking the thread. At the same time, I'd advise against mocking the trans community.
I get it, back in the day, I thought all the "Dann Coulter" jokes were funny too. And assholes like Coulter and MTG deserve to have their own hate reflected back on them.
But when you do that with trans issues, you're making those issues a weapon and saying they're a weapon because of the negative connotations and that's just not cool.
So a little bit is OK then?
Nope, not really. But a little bit is easily handled. ;)
Why is the focus always on blaming other people for problems instead of fixing the problems?
Trans people this. Gay people that. Brown people. Immigrants. It’s somebody else’s fault. We’re doing it right, but those other people are ruining everything.
If it smells everywhere you go, it’s time to look under your own shoe. No plans. No policy. The party of hurting Americans.
Because they have no solutions.
They prolong the problem and obstruct solutions because they benefit from hurting people and don’t want that to end.
So they became the problem.
Because if they actually tried to fix shit, they'd have to recognize there are systemic issues that they benefit from. And then they wouldn't be the GQP.
Conservatives are fundamentally incapable of governing, because they have no ability nor interest in improving society. So they just make up problems to get elected, then steal anything not nailed down once in office. Well, that's the normal conservative aim, Trump also wants to make all of his legal problems go away.
Because their only real interest is funneling wealth upwards. Very few Republicans in power genuinely give a damn about any cultural war topics. No Fox News gasbag is choosing to live in Alabama lol. But the only way they can build a viable electoral base that supports stealing from the working class is by inventing and/or exacerbating working class divisions.
"Oh no, you're not unemployed because your boss outsourced your job, it's because, uh, that gay brown migrant took it!"
It's basically the aristocracy maintaining their old life style in a new disguise.
Recommend reading Eco's short essay on Ur-Fascism.
https://archive.org/details/eco_ur-fascism
Really, anything by Eco, just a brilliant author.
Fascism 101. Give the people a scapegoat to blame all their problems on.
Even more apropos!
Because if they pointed at the problem they wouldn't get elected. Any republican that points out any problem that isn't "minorities bad" swiftly retires or is primaried on the right.
I just want to go get a cup of coffee with another dude without feeling like I'm gonna get shot or worse.
just my 2c...
conservatives require hierarchy to exist. they believe it always did, does, and always will exists - that achieving any kind of equality on a large scale is a pipe dream and unnatural and impossible or even evil to strive for, because it necessitates "knocking them down" to do it. so, their focus is to ensure that they are not currently on the bottom of this hierarchy (fortunately, there's always someone to put beneath them) and to ensure that the bottom does not "rise past them" to leave them at the bottom (as anything promising equality may do). they rally around loud personalities that project power and control (even if it's not true) because just as there must be those beneath them, there must be those above them as well - they pick superiors that are the most personally relatable to them (in an arbitrary, per-person manner) so they can feel they are higher in the hierarchy than they are. after all, if you're just like this person who is obviously high on the ladder of society, you must be pretty well-off too, right? is this why the people they pick tend to be bigoted, unintelligent, and cruel? maybe.
the reason it's always someone else's problem is that the problem (in their mind) is that the people beneath them (their "lessers") are acting as though they're on a level of the social hierarchy that they don't belong. therefore, all social problems clearly have an obvious clause: "if only everyone else would just know their place under us, we wouldn't be having these conflicts." - it can't be them that's the problem, because that would imply there's some kind of issue that may suggest they're not as high up on the social ladder as they thought. gay/trans/brown/etc people want to be recognized as equals? it dilutes their position on the ladder. they would claw past others in this imaginary hierarchy by any means necessary, so of course they assume the "others" will too. no, it's an attack on them, they have to strike back!
gay nightclub shootings and anti-lgbt violence? "maybe they shouldn't have called attention to themselves as they tried to push us down the social hierarchy" someone (anyone) threatens violence upon them? "intolerable. inexcusable. they need to learn their place beneath us"
why do so many of them hate being called cis? because being labelled cis puts them at the same level as a trans person, who they believe is automatically beneath them by virtue of not being exactly like them. it is an attack on them, because they are not considered the normal, the default, as they believe they are. an identifier implies that differentiation between the conservative and the trans person is required, which implies it's not clear to everyone that they are inherently superior to the trans person. you may as well call them "poor powerless worthless scum who deserves to be exploited and abused" in their eyes.
it's maddeningly difficult to convince a hierarchy-addict that it's a delusion.
it makes being a politician for them pretty easy, too. just be relatable to the average self-absorbed person, and claim to do what's needed to put the inferior scum back below your voters where they belong so they can rise up to be superior once more. no surprise this interlaces very well with fascist and racial supremacist ideologies.
It's so nice having my rights be shat on on such a high profile stage. They really can't handle that trans people exist and have always existed, and they might even find some of us attractive.
I also really appreciate the article talking about the bullshit myth that trans athletes have some kind of advantage in sports. I don't usually see that.
Advocate doesn’t pull punches. They’re here to shit on conservatives and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community
Sadly that really is note worthy.
I think MTG is deeply jealous and threatened by the beauty of trans women and is drowning in a pool of her own internalized misogyny.
They're such losers... don't they have something positive they could do for their constituents? I've never heard of these people actually doing something to help their voters. It's just attacks.
But I'm also a spiteful, mindless piece of shit who has to be told what should make me mad, especially when it does not impact my day to day life. I enjoy joining the conversation when I hear people complain about our rights being stripped away because although my party has never once been "for" anything, only against progress, I need to pridefully let people know that I have absolutely zero critical thinking skills.
When your whole base is full of reactionaries, making attacks is actually fulfilling your voters’ desires.
Exactly, the modern R base wants cruelty from their representatives more than anything.
unironically, this hateful village idiot may be right.
gonna sign off for a while. I just cant stomach looking at the festering, gangrenous wound these people have opened up when I know it will destroy the lives of so many I care about.
No, he is not, because most of us hate him, but are at the mercy of a super broken electoral system. Only the assholes who support him deserve him.
you are absolutely right.
I just wish more of us did not allow ourselves to be purposefully distracted from our own self-governance
please stay safe.
So, those of you not voting for Biden because "reasons," thanks for condemning to death the LGBTQ+ community. And don't tell me that is hyperbole.
"But genocide palestine"
Im so tired of these people
It’s so frustrating that people can’t see this event would have been the same or worse under Trump.
Biden is in a no win situation on this one and he just happens to be the president on Oct 7
She's so pathetic. Her little giggles between sentences were just.. wow. She just loves getting praised
She looked like she'd been Joker gassed every time she smiled.
It was like watching a more evil version of Dolores Umbridge in the flesh... Which is fitting, because the woman who thought Dolores up is also a hateful, anti-trans biggot.
Vote every single transphobe out
Republican states are the worst states to live in, and instead of trying to improve their life and get nice things, they resort to attacking people for their problems. They want to remove and tear down agencies, the balances of power, and other programs and regulations because they are not happy with their own state governance. Instead of reflecting on their own cooked ideas, they are violent, hateful, and destructive, and don't realize without the nice things that took a long time to implement, they would have a dystopian hellscape. They would rather blame anyone other than themselves. And no strong leader figure promising a paradise is going to give you the solution, he's just Hitler, and history remembers how that turned out.
Why do they care so much? Like really, who gives a shit. A human is a human. These people are just assholes.
They don't. They full know well they're just saying what rubes want to hear. If a hell existed they're going to it for demonizing innocent people for profit.
The religious people think it’s their duty to prevent trans people from “sinning” and are likewise terrified their kids will become “trans sinners”.
I’m not kidding. It’s all religious based hate.
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
Party of blind hatred spews blind hatred, more at 11.
Which gender is she then?
Cuntasauras rex
Sleestak
Here’s is my agenda as a trans person: I want to have a job and live in a house. In my state, there are no legal protections for either of those two things. I have been fired from a job when it was discovered I was trans; I was unable to access any form of dv shelter when my ex took advantage of that to financially control me.
I don’t want to trans your kid. I don’t want to gawk at dudes in the loo. Just let me take my T and have a drivers license that won’t get me lynched if I’m driving through fucking Bokoshe.
“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” ~ Laurie Halse Anderson
Was anyone else creeped the hell out when she was smiling and pretending to be a nice person?
Not only was her fake smile uncanny, her snickering/giggling could be heard and it was weird af.
Shithead.
So, water is wet? No surprise here...
Removed, transphobia.
I'm not much to look at myself, but I think some wise man once pointed out that MTG has a very chimp-like appearance. Very neanderthalish.
Like she's in no position to tell us what a woman should be or what beauty standards or gender standards we should follow.
Removed, transphobia.
Lol
Removed, transphobia.
So what is the actual fucking problem with ensuring that trans individuals aren't discriminated against?
The ONLY real argument for anything regarding trans individuals is sports. Women's sports are divided out so they can compete equally. No sane person has a problem with ensuring that womens sports contains biological women throughout. And this affects FRAGMENTS of FRAGMENTS of the population (something like 0.15% when accounting for biological abnormalities)
Everything else, renting, jobs, retirement, loans, etc -- should abso-fucking-lutely be a protected class against discrimination. Trans people don't deserve to be treated differently just because you're scared of them. They aren't trying to convert your children. They aren't predators. They're just wired differently. That's all.
Regarding the sports bans, trans individuals do not generally get a significant advantage against their cis peers. In the case of trans women, they are often are at a detriment in sports due to the lack of testosterone in their body that's naturally there even in cis women. We haven't seen clear cases of trans individuals standing out against their cis peers consistently and the argument that excluding such a small group works both ways. Unless trans folks are somehow world-class by default, excluding them from their gendered sport is moot and if anything cruel.
One place I see compromise (at least with trans women, I have no idea how men's sports handles trans men since they need to take Testosterone) is requiring a certain number of years of HRT. Those who just started HRT might have an advantage, but after a few years they are around the same level as or further behind their peers.
EDIT: I'm a tiny bit more conflicted now reading some other comments I've seen you make. I feel like you're coming from a genuinely good place though. I hope you continue to expose yourself to different ideas and keep learning and growing. ^_^
EDIT 2: :barks like a sealion: iykyk
EDIT 3: My only regret is that I only have one downvote to give.
I'm supportive of trans people's rights to be left the fuck alone, and to be treated equally. But I also get that there need to be safe spaces for women to exist without some shadow-of-a-doubt in the back of their mind. Yes, that's exclusionary, but remember the "Man vs Bear" debate a few months back? There are lots of women who are legitimately less trusting of men than they are a wild animal who will maul your face off.
Yeah, I'm harsh with the way that I put things. I understand that; it's a result of the harsh environment I grew up in as a kid. People who were raised more tenderly probably don't like the way I speak about things. But I DO support LGBTQ individuals and their right to not be discriminated against; as best as I can reconcile that with my belief that women need places they can escape men entirely if needed.
I'm not a man, and your original comment seems to agree with that, but this says otherwise. You would never use this excuse if you actually saw trans women as women.
Then you should understand why I, a trans woman, would like to be included in the space matching my gender.
I grew up being taught to give guidance and tolerance to those who are ignorant or bigoted, but this is the end of my rope. Do better.
Removed, transphobia.
... "It's not if I see black people as people or not, it's..." That's how you sound to me. I hope you realize that.
You see me as worth less than the average person simply because I'm different from the average person.
Fucking bigot. From the bottom of my heart, fuck you.
Removed, beyond transphobia into a complete misunderstanding and miscategorization of trans issues.
Welp, let's do that thought exercise again, I'll take what you said and apply it to another, larger, more widely-accepted minority:
"A black person is never going to be entered into the 400 meter dash, that’s just how the world works. The sooner you accept that, the better. That doesn’t mean he should be treated with any less respect. But it’s not going to change the first fact."
Whenever I substitute the minority you chose, I find that you are vile and your opinion means nothing. You sound exactly like the racists and bigots that came before you.
EDIT: Also, I'm not your fucking mother and this is where I block you. If you want to be a better person, work on how you view the world. You can say you had an old-school upbringing, but we're actively watching that be pushed out of society because it causes more harm than good. Your survivorship bias and ignorance is not a shield, moron.
Au contraire. Because of HRT, a trans woman would generally have less testosterone than a cis woman. Some of the top-performing cis female athletes would be disqualified by rules based on
hiringhormone levels. And puberty-related changes that would prove advantageous can be avoided with puberty -blockers until fully transitioning as an adult with full HRT. And even then the trans female adolescent is at a hormonal disadvantage during that age range.So FEW trans people actually compete in sports to the level where this even matters. The fact that it even causes the general public to question the results of the sport is enough to not allow it. The whole spirit of competition is that people are playing on equal ground - and if it causes the public to question that equality, then it destroys the entire purpose. Sure, I hope that the public become more accepting of trans individuals over time, and that more studies are released that show they gain no advantage, but HRT is a rather new thing in human history. It's us toying with nature, and just like genetic engineering - should be disallowed in competition. If India found some new goal in CRISPR to edit the human genome for gain in sport, and they entered the Olympics, everyone would frown upon it. Not because of sex, but because of tampering with the human body. The stated goal of all sports is competition and recognition of the most fit in our species. Modifying the human body is counter to the spirit of it.
Only pure-blooded scotsman are allowed to compete. ^/s^
Also, if it looks like a sealion, talks like a sealion, walks like a sealion, and vomits shit up like a sealion, it's a sealion. If you don't understand, I don't really care.
Yeah the sealion is definitely barking, here's the same person in another comment:
Id love to see a source on the 50% number lmao
This isn't true at all. Women's leagues were created because men refused to let women play in the leagues that were already created. That's literally all there was to it.
That's not entirely true.
Some sports did allow women to participate, but only until a woman embarassed a man by winning. Then they'd be banned until women set up their own leagues.
When did that occur and in what sport? That seems like an interesting event in sports history, I would be interested to read about it.
Figure skating, Olympic shotgun skeet, and baseball, at least.
I meant when and in what sport "a woman embarrassed a man by winning" leading to gender segregation of the sport. Olympic shotgun skeet seems like an example, but that's a pretty esoteric "sport," so using that as an example to generalize about sports more broadly seems poorly conceived.
As I noted below, most major sports leagues in the US don't have and, with the exception of baseball (which wasn't because "a woman embarrassed a man by winning," it was just basic sexism/patriarchy), never had rules about gender segregation. Women have always been eligible to play in the NBA, NHL, NFL, etc.
Are you talking about a specific country or something?
The NFL has no gender-specific eligibility requirements. Anyone good enough to play NFL-level football can play.
The NHL is the same.
The NBA is the same, and women have been invited to training camps in the past, but none were able to perform well enough at the game to play in the NBA.
Women were banned from the MLB in 1952, but that was overturned in the 1990s, but no woman has been able to perform well enough to play in the MLB. Melissa Mayeux did make the international registration list for the MLB though, making her eligible to sign with an MLB team.
There are sports where women can be generally equal to men in performance (ultramarathon running) or generally better than men (target shooting), but they are less popular and less lucrative sports.
I'd like a citation on this if you would.