Queer May 10, 2023 at 9:00 am

Who Do People Want Enforcing Anti-Trans Policies?

The aim of the trans rights movement in 2023 isn’t to get every American to read Judith Butler. It’s to kill these draconian anti-trans laws that cruelly target our community, particularly our young people. streetphotojournalism

Comments

1

Is it really shocking that results of a poll can vary widely depending on how the question is phrased? This is why one should always take polling with skepticism and question when the media or pundits declare something as absolute. TS themselves have a habit of pushing out headlines based on a couple responses in a poll that when looked at more closely show something completely different.

The main question I have for this poll and this subject in particular is that friction seems to be around two specific topics. Care for children and fairness in sport. You can decry conservatives politicizing these issues as part of a broader attack but progressives share the blame in the polarization of this issue. You can read it in this article. If you don't fully support 100% of the progressive position you are anti trans or transphobic. I don't believe questioning the merits of puberty blockers for children or fairness in sports is anti trans and I have yet to see one law the does anything to infringe upon the rights of someone who is of age. It's a dog whistle to get the progressive base motivated. Looking at the polling it would seem most of the respondents agree with those sentiments. Do with that what you will but the continued insistence that anyone who questions these two things is transphobic and should be shouted down is doing more to polarize this issue than any of the laws being passed.

4

that'd be a
BINGO Alex:

it's ALL in
The FRAMING
of the Question
or the Discussion

that commandeer's
the Outcome

and we've got
Corps Americana, llc
framing Most of OUR Issues

tellng us what to think
plus owning "our"
Law Makers

eventually it all
trickles down
on we the
Peeps

Some Day!
I'm gonna Be
a Billionaire, Too!

& won't That
be fun

5

@2 Because Republican political strategists noticed that scapegoating Muslims and Latin American refugees wasn't riling up the base quite as much as it used to, so they went looking for yet another disfavored and powerless group for Real America to hate -- and voila!

6

@2. Pay attention.
This is a lesson in advertising.
It has far less to do with how hot a topic is for real people with actual problems,
and a lot more to do with stoopud 1st world entitled bored souls and what they
click on to get them out of their bored existence. As if a wealth of local activities
are less interesting than sitting inside staring at screens.

I don't give a flying fuck for self aggrandizement. I want the potholes fixed, the
SR99 Northbound on-ramp fixed, and Politicians' eyes on the damned ball. I am
interested in NOT spending money re-constructing Admiral Lighthouse feeder
streets vs. fixing ANY of King County's deferred maintenance debacles. We need
enforcement of Food and Beverage Codes, funding to maintain our schools, and
these pinheads focus on this fertilizer.

This is how media, in a shrinking print advertisement market, who can't write a
meaningful article to save their lives and still keep their jobs, get paid. They do
what their editors say, and produce bird cage liner and fish wrap.
DO BETTER THAN THIS.
It might be well written, but it isn't worth publishing.
If I had a subscription, I'd have cancelled it.
Move on.

7

I'm currently on the Missouri side of Kansas City and we are heartbroken.

8

Yeah... I have some thoughts about polling. I guess I'll start with the most on-topic thing (aside from "trans rights are human rights"), which is to say that whenever someone asks me if somebody should be allowed to do something, the first thing I do is ask myself if I have any right to prevent them from doing it. If they try to do it, and I don't feel comfortable physically pinning them down to stop them, then they should be "allowed" in the sense that they don't need my allowance.

Polls are difficult to get right. Even with the best techniques we have, communication is so complicated and isolation of variables so difficult that we can't run controlled experiments like we do in physics, and so we understand it in less detail. This is not a disparagement of practitioners, this is simply an observation of the challenges they face - their work is far more difficult than the work of a physicist. So there is a much wider margin for error. And that's when we use the best techniques we have - in my anecdotal experience, it seems common that pollsters will ask for demographic information before the main topic of the poll (including reputable pollsters like Gallup), in spite of the well-documented effect of stereotype threat.

In spite of the limitations of our best techniques, I am not against polling in principle and I think it can have some benefit. I also think that it is worth improving, and I don't preclude the possibility that polling techniques will eventually get to the point where they are on level of physical analysis - though I doubt that will be in my lifetime.

But the way that we use polls fits into this cult of numbers that is dominating our society and causing a lot of harm. In many different areas, we think that if we can just quantify everything, add and subtract the right numbers from each other, then we can arrive at mathematically perfect solutions to problems. This is most explicit with the tech industry's obsession with using algorithms to automatically find the "best" solution without repeated, ongoing, and explicit human input, but it can be seen in the way we react to polls as well. Polls can give us interesting information, but it is no substitute for having in-depth discussions with a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds and critically thinking about the information revealed in those discussions and how they interact with each other.

9

@2 - the Republicans are terrified that with Roe overturned, their Taliban pals won't be as motivated to turn out to the polls and vote against their own interests as they were. They needed another reason for Jesus to tell people to vote against Democrats.

10

@1 is correct.

11

The only people who really object to abortion are the religious neurotics. Everyone else - even those who identify as "pro life" - realize that things happen, and they want to make sure that they have an out.

The trans issue is made more complicated by the "other" nature of it. Most people don't know a transperson, so they are easy to villainize. My sometimes idiotic sister and I discussed this and her main point was "I don't get it". I told her she doesn't have to "get it". I don't get why she dyes her hair, but I don't try to restrict her from doing it. Her clownish hairdo doesn't affect me at all.

(she also believes that doctors perform abortions in the delivery room, but she's grudgingly pro-choice, so I let that one go. We were both raised Catholic, but she got it worse than me, having gone to Catholic grammar school and college. Poor thing can't spell to save her life, but she has beautiful handwriting)

So it's a matter of visibility, but there just aren't that many transpeople - and some of the more prominent ones aren't doing the community a favor (I'm looking at you, Jenner). If falls on us "woke" people to advocate and ally. To explain the basics, over and over, and with patience. Even if - like dear sister - they don't "get it" they can come to understand that transpeople are not a threat.

12

@11: Caitlyn Jenner has it right. How dare you disparage her.

13

@11 - Make that "please don't disparage her." My apologies.

14

What exactly does Jenner have “Right”, Raindrop dear? Her position seems to be “I’ve got mine, screw you”, and recently has come out for “parental rights” and says the country is “oversaturated” with transpeople.

I won’t call her by her first name, because I don’t think she deserves that respect, but I won’t deadname her. Maybe we should just start calling her Aunt Lydia.

https://www.newsweek.com/caitlyn-jenner-trans-community-oversaturated-1795397


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