Brianna Wu
I don’t disagree. And you know my position on sports and reinstating medical safeguards - especially with women’s spaces. But in this discussion, it’s been lost that we face an ASTONISHING amount of discrimination. And most of us are deeply damaged from years of gender dysphoria. Somewhere along the way, we became framed as superpredators. The reality is we have an incredibly serious medical condition and bigots enjoy making our lives worse.
Jack
I would like to stand confidently with trans people against the wave of hostility, discrimination, and legal and policy attacks they are facing from the right wing, to defend freedom of form and the value of treating people with compassion and dignity. I would like to do so without needing to take stances that are both wrong and dumb, like “androgens are an irrelevant concern in women’s sports and it is bigotry to act otherwise” or “it is right and good for leftists and activists to hurl abuse at moderates.” There are approaches to trans activism that include people like me in the coalition, and approaches (like the one exhibited by the good David Roberts) that create intractable opposition. I am not an embryonic prog waiting to be guided by my moral betters towards enlightenment. Nor am I a child or a rube to be lied to or pandered to by politicians who reluctantly look for ways to make concessions to the “Bigotry Of The Mainstream.” I am a pragmatic centrist who looks for ways to be honest, hold to my values, and work towards common goals with anyone willing to work with me. Some Democrats have leaned towards being quiet about the issue and focusing on other things. That’s a bad idea for multiple reasons: First, the Trump admin’s approach towards trans people is deeply hostile, and it is right and good to stand on principle in defense of groups others treat as scapegoats and punching bags. Second, honest moralism, handled with respect towards others, is both more authentic and more productive than dishonest, focus-grouped caginess followed by sweeping policy changes implemented without real debate. There are multiple paths for trans activism to take moving forward. One is the approach progs have taken so far: find hardline and often indefensible stances, demand full adherence as a loyalty test, and aggressively smear and other everyone who deviates. This has been a losing path so far and frankly deserves to be a losing path. It is both tactically and morally wrong. The other is to find a more inclusive path, one that takes the morality of moderates seriously, addresses tradeoffs candidly, and allows and encourages frank conversation, all while emphatically refusing to throw trans people under the bus or excusing/encouraging the Trump admin’s approach. Not only do I expect this approach to be more electorally effective than the hardline prog approach, it is more moral than that approach. If progressives cannot help but treat the majority of Americans, including people like me, as moral monsters, they will not just lose elections, they will relegate themselves to a bitter fringe that deserves to lose. There is a better way.