Thing is… that mentality has lead bigots to argue that LGBT people chose to be the way that they are and used that to attack them. The reality is that the only way that bigots will ever be dealt with is by hammering home the concept that people should be left the fuck alone regardless of whether they had any agency in being who they are or are the result of genetic differences. Any argument that doesnt include that message is susceptible to attack and at some level falsely concedes that bigots somehow would have a point if a genetic basis for being LGBT were found. They dont. Genes or not, LGBT people should be left the fuck alone and treated just as well as anyone else.
It’s not so much a mentality as it is objectively the truth though. Advocating for a genetically immutable cause for queerness does not do anything long term towards acceptance. We can see that in the modern wave of transphobia and homophobia. Arguing that we don’t have a choice to be this way is also fundamentally different from “we don’t have a choice because we have genetic abnormalities, or because we were abused as children”. We are the way we are and we deserve respect and human dignity. We deserve autonomy and access to healthcare that improves our lives. People who disagree with those things are not going to be swayed by patently false “cause and effect” arguments. The medical science shows that giving us access to gender affirming medical care when we went it shows massive improvements in our well-being and in our long term health. The science surrounding our care is entirely detached from any kind of malformed research into a reason why we are this way.
If someone only accepts you because they dont know why you are the way that you are, thats not acceptance. Thats a bigot that is one excuse away from attacking you.
What are you talking about? It is not my fault that they are bigoted towards me. There is no reason I am the way I am, I simply am a transgender woman. I shouldn’t be subjected to bigotry because discrimination is wrong. Like, youre asking me to pretend something is true because you claim that pretending that thing is true will appeal to bigots.
No I am asking you not to make definitive statements about something that you could be wrong about. And definitely do not use it as a basis for arguments for why you deserve not to be discriminated against. The rationale for why you should be treated with respect and dignity does not depend on whether there’s a genetic basis for why you are the way you are. That is a solid foundation. Betting that science will never discover something is not.
It’s not a bet it is you misunderstanding what being transgender is. Human cognition does not work that way. How we perceive ourselves is not attributable to definite factors. It’s coming up with an answer, that being trans is a product of biology or some early childhood environmental factor, and then working backwards in an attempt to discover what those things are. But being trans is not a product of those things.
There are scarcely any universal commonalities amongst trans people, and all of them have to do with how cisgender people and cisheteronormative society treats us. Some of us feel dysphoria and need hormone therapy and surgeries, some don’t. Some feel like they’ve known their whole lives, some were perfectly fine until 2 months ago. Some people don’t change much at all through transition, purely changing terminology and internal identity. Some people leave everything behind and become very different people after.
Gender variance is a part of human expression. Gender is an abstract concept that humans created. It’s come to impact so many aspects of our lives but it is still a concept we made up and attached to reproductive biology. We would thusly need to examine why cisgender people identify as their gender and come up with some scientific reason why someone has a gender at all. As though Gender is a product of some scientifically measurable process. It isn’t. It’s a part of someone’s personality. How and where it forms is different for everyone. Someone isn’t “not transgender” because they don’t fit some specific circumstances, being trans is purely an observation of the relationship someone has with their assigned gender. Someone is transgender if they do not identify with the Gender they were assigned at birth. Someone is cisgender if they do identify with the Gender they were assigned at birth.
Thing is… that mentality has lead bigots to argue that LGBT people chose to be the way that they are and used that to attack them. The reality is that the only way that bigots will ever be dealt with is by hammering home the concept that people should be left the fuck alone regardless of whether they had any agency in being who they are or are the result of genetic differences. Any argument that doesnt include that message is susceptible to attack and at some level falsely concedes that bigots somehow would have a point if a genetic basis for being LGBT were found. They dont. Genes or not, LGBT people should be left the fuck alone and treated just as well as anyone else.
It’s not so much a mentality as it is objectively the truth though. Advocating for a genetically immutable cause for queerness does not do anything long term towards acceptance. We can see that in the modern wave of transphobia and homophobia. Arguing that we don’t have a choice to be this way is also fundamentally different from “we don’t have a choice because we have genetic abnormalities, or because we were abused as children”. We are the way we are and we deserve respect and human dignity. We deserve autonomy and access to healthcare that improves our lives. People who disagree with those things are not going to be swayed by patently false “cause and effect” arguments. The medical science shows that giving us access to gender affirming medical care when we went it shows massive improvements in our well-being and in our long term health. The science surrounding our care is entirely detached from any kind of malformed research into a reason why we are this way.
If someone only accepts you because they dont know why you are the way that you are, thats not acceptance. Thats a bigot that is one excuse away from attacking you.
What are you talking about? It is not my fault that they are bigoted towards me. There is no reason I am the way I am, I simply am a transgender woman. I shouldn’t be subjected to bigotry because discrimination is wrong. Like, youre asking me to pretend something is true because you claim that pretending that thing is true will appeal to bigots.
No I am asking you not to make definitive statements about something that you could be wrong about. And definitely do not use it as a basis for arguments for why you deserve not to be discriminated against. The rationale for why you should be treated with respect and dignity does not depend on whether there’s a genetic basis for why you are the way you are. That is a solid foundation. Betting that science will never discover something is not.
It’s not a bet it is you misunderstanding what being transgender is. Human cognition does not work that way. How we perceive ourselves is not attributable to definite factors. It’s coming up with an answer, that being trans is a product of biology or some early childhood environmental factor, and then working backwards in an attempt to discover what those things are. But being trans is not a product of those things.
There are scarcely any universal commonalities amongst trans people, and all of them have to do with how cisgender people and cisheteronormative society treats us. Some of us feel dysphoria and need hormone therapy and surgeries, some don’t. Some feel like they’ve known their whole lives, some were perfectly fine until 2 months ago. Some people don’t change much at all through transition, purely changing terminology and internal identity. Some people leave everything behind and become very different people after.
Gender variance is a part of human expression. Gender is an abstract concept that humans created. It’s come to impact so many aspects of our lives but it is still a concept we made up and attached to reproductive biology. We would thusly need to examine why cisgender people identify as their gender and come up with some scientific reason why someone has a gender at all. As though Gender is a product of some scientifically measurable process. It isn’t. It’s a part of someone’s personality. How and where it forms is different for everyone. Someone isn’t “not transgender” because they don’t fit some specific circumstances, being trans is purely an observation of the relationship someone has with their assigned gender. Someone is transgender if they do not identify with the Gender they were assigned at birth. Someone is cisgender if they do identify with the Gender they were assigned at birth.