Trans activism, in this era, is a genuinely tragic case study in how social media can undermine the goals of a movement while pretending to serve it. The people in the trans activist space who seem to get the most oxygen from "allies" are people who pursue goals that are out of step with the needs of ordinary trans people--but they keep getting the oxygen, because social media runs on attention, and you will get either no attention, or only negative attention, from signal-boosting the trans activists who challenge the narrative.
If the medical scandal around youth transition breaks, and it renders performative support for trans people toxic, that radioactivity may (in the long run) be good for trans people in general, because one of the things damaging the group is the dominance of their activist wing by people who have attention-getting goals that HARM THE REPUTATION OF THE GROUP. Every success for youth gender medicine, every "win" for direct unfettered competition between women and trans women, is a loss for trans people.
The activists are an albatross for that cadre, but if the chickens come home to roost on this stuff, then the smart, reasonable activists may have a shot at flushing them out.
There is so much that is backwards about the ideology.
Several years ago, the Nigerian (feminist) writer who wrote Half a Yellow Sun was asked about feminism and trans women. She refused to parrot the line that transwomen are women.
Instead, she said that transwomen and transwomen.
She said that she respected this journey as a unique experience that comes with its own challenges. She went on to say that she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to deny that experience by suggesting that transwomen were the same as biological women (my words for the last part).
How naive!
It wasn’t enough and there was a controversy at the time. I’m pretty sure she has kept her mouth shut on this topic since. Not to criticize her for that.
I've always found the argument "we have to get these kids on hormones earlier, otherwise they won't be sexy!" to be very, very strange, and also found that people are generally not happy when you mention that argument is central to the drive for "youth transition."
Gosh, this is so obvious! But then, there is so much about the gender ideology/industry that is absurd, contradictory, gaslighting. The more I learn about it, the more I am convinced that it is driven by a desire to amass power, not to actually help children & adults feel better in their bodies. So this day of "visibility" makes sense from a power perspective, but does not make sense when you think of it from the perspective you are pointing out (wanting to "pass" and be left alone to live their lives). Human flourishing is not the end goal. As a Christian, I was seeing all of the anger against this TDoV landing on Easter, and at first I was indignant, but then I realized it was planned on that date a few years ago. And my anger led to my praying for all of those children who are floundering and searching for a solid base to latch onto, to fill their void. And for all of those parents who are terrified and devastated, as they feel their children being pulled by this evil force while the parents are doing their best to make sense of it and to do what's best for their kid, while not losing the relationship. Easter is indeed a celebration of the transformation that is possible, no matter our brokenness - hope is resurrected, we are renewed. I prayed that while all the petty comments were flying on social media, that the deeper message of faith, love and hope would be received by the many who are yearning for something they are trying to find in all the wrong places.
Was the intent really "a higher percentage of individuals who more easily pass in the cross sex role" or a higher percentage of men who more easily pass as women? I've seen no evidence that blocking puberty creates women who pass better as men. Instead, girls seem to want to avoid breast development and menstruation. I don't see evidence that puberty blocked girls look more masculine as adults.
(Please forgive me if the quote isn't exact. Substack for Android won't let me copy and paste. )
The cross-sex ideation cult will remain unrepentant until there is a cultural shift away from the sexualization of children. We've probably got another decade. As detransitioner Ritchie Herron says, it is up to us, lay persons, to do the work of the professionals. In other words, put forth the program of counseling to help patients reconnect mind and body. As a triply certified retired early childhood specialist, I offer the pieces of good training I experienced: thorough social history, recognition of balance as a philosophy of life satisfaction, recognition of charlatan groomers/cultic brainwashing, routines/habits of stability (mind-body movement learning, self-calming and sleep hygiene habits, cognitive behavior strategies for positive pathways in the brain). Two detransitioners have already told me this is what they needed. As well, announcements on the risks of "affirmation."
Very Nice piece. I like the idea of welcoming “trans visibility” which naturally includes discussing of what is seen.
This is one of a range of contradictions in trans. As many have said and I can confirm, all trans I knew in the 80's wished nothing more that to be invisible, literally passing for a woman. Women's bathrooms and spaces are predicated exactly on not being identified as trans. Fights against Olympic cheek swabs to identify sex is predicated on not being identified as trans. The list goes on.
A strategy for gay rights was to be open about being gay because when you knew a gay or lesbian person, attitudes changed drastically, generally In a positive direction. Gays and Lesbians were mysterious and scary, and took on heaps of abuse, and never enjoyed 1st amendment rights of assembly and speech and nobody cared, it affected nobody they knew, until they came out. Not speaking of marriage, speaking of telling someone that you were gay without threat of arrest, going to a bar without threat of arrest or blackmail, asking someone home without arrest or blackmail, a womyn's gathering without harassment from men pretending to be women.
The vast majority of the US now consider gays and lesbians unremarkable as orientation. Visibility worked
and same-sex marriage is just fine. Gays are generally friendly, and Lesbians no more threatening than Ellen de Generes.
I'm afraid for trans the opposite is happening. Visibility as a strategy is generally about drawing spectators into a sex fetish, claiming that freedom of assembly cannot exist for women, and freesom of speech must be replaced by compelled trans speech. By all means, let's have more visibility.
An increasing majority of the US knows that there are only two sexes, that ‘nonbinary’ is a fiction and compelling people to say otherwise is unacceable. More visibility.
A majority of Americans believe that women should have the right to assemble with only women in sports competition as well as in a lockerroom, and as well even for prison and the bedroom. More viability please.
The insufferable people who are visible using fanciful pronouns are isolated in work - don’t want to hire them - and socially - don’t want to date them. The entire sphere of dating, sex, even orgasm is a nightmare. Straight men don’t want to date men disfigured or not; straight women don’t want to date intentionally disfigured women, gays and lesbians only want their own sex, and all those groups generally don’t want any sex with such a person. Let’s have visibility please.
Puberty disrupting chemical damage means you will never enjoy the pleasure of orgasm with another person or even alone. More visibility please.
Men dressing as wildly unattractive women and claiming to be Lesbian is universally risible. More visibility please.
Millena-old treatment for puberty dysphoria of “just wait, it gets better” will lock back into place, after a number of people are flayed alive because of the medical atrocities going on. The more Americans know about the fiction of trans children the less they think it is valid. More visibility please.
Celebrity trans are too strange- men cannot pass for women easily at all and it always creates unnerving cognitive response. The Caitlyn version of Bruce Jenner is at all times a bizarre man in lipstick. More visibility please.
There was a joke circulating among lesbians in the 80’s I recall about Lesbians aspiring to look like 14-year old male juvenile delinquents (that shag). The Elliot version of Ellen Paige has managed to completely achieve the Lesbian look of a sad pre-pubertal 12-year-old boy. It’s unfortunate she didn’t realize surgery was not indicated. More visibility please.
Images of breast removal surgeries are repulsive, with Frankenstein stitches, scars: misshapen nipples and that pre-pubertal juvenile delinquent look. But
now "visible". More visibility please.
And lastly, the Jazz version of Jared "Jennings" who, lacking the imact of expected body modeling impacts of testosterone at puberty and cognitive maturation has turned into a childlile, estrogen bloated figure of parental atrocity fused witb infinite sadness. More visibility please.
Yes, I've always been confused by the passing vs visibility discourse. We can't "deadname" someone because that would undermine their ability to "pass." Yet many of them insist on being identified as "trans." Being publicly "trans" is not the same as "passing"--so which is it?
I see their ideology everywhere. With pronoun posted. The dumbest virtue signaling anywhere. With hearing medical professionals say ‘people with a uterus’ when referring to women. The world went mad and I don’t want to see this crap any longer.
And also one of the big problems is that parents have been terrified by the so-called professionals that their children will kill themselves unless they’re allowed to get the cross sex hormones and surgeries, so that is another reason people want children to move quickly to transition and this can be tragic.
Trans activism, in this era, is a genuinely tragic case study in how social media can undermine the goals of a movement while pretending to serve it. The people in the trans activist space who seem to get the most oxygen from "allies" are people who pursue goals that are out of step with the needs of ordinary trans people--but they keep getting the oxygen, because social media runs on attention, and you will get either no attention, or only negative attention, from signal-boosting the trans activists who challenge the narrative.
If the medical scandal around youth transition breaks, and it renders performative support for trans people toxic, that radioactivity may (in the long run) be good for trans people in general, because one of the things damaging the group is the dominance of their activist wing by people who have attention-getting goals that HARM THE REPUTATION OF THE GROUP. Every success for youth gender medicine, every "win" for direct unfettered competition between women and trans women, is a loss for trans people.
The activists are an albatross for that cadre, but if the chickens come home to roost on this stuff, then the smart, reasonable activists may have a shot at flushing them out.
Thank you so much for this post.
There is so much that is backwards about the ideology.
Several years ago, the Nigerian (feminist) writer who wrote Half a Yellow Sun was asked about feminism and trans women. She refused to parrot the line that transwomen are women.
Instead, she said that transwomen and transwomen.
She said that she respected this journey as a unique experience that comes with its own challenges. She went on to say that she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to deny that experience by suggesting that transwomen were the same as biological women (my words for the last part).
How naive!
It wasn’t enough and there was a controversy at the time. I’m pretty sure she has kept her mouth shut on this topic since. Not to criticize her for that.
Thank God for JK Rowling!!
"If trans people are to be visible, then passing is no longer either a requirement for happiness, nor a suicide deterrent"
You just dismantled the entire basis of early medicalization.
I've always found the argument "we have to get these kids on hormones earlier, otherwise they won't be sexy!" to be very, very strange, and also found that people are generally not happy when you mention that argument is central to the drive for "youth transition."
Gosh, this is so obvious! But then, there is so much about the gender ideology/industry that is absurd, contradictory, gaslighting. The more I learn about it, the more I am convinced that it is driven by a desire to amass power, not to actually help children & adults feel better in their bodies. So this day of "visibility" makes sense from a power perspective, but does not make sense when you think of it from the perspective you are pointing out (wanting to "pass" and be left alone to live their lives). Human flourishing is not the end goal. As a Christian, I was seeing all of the anger against this TDoV landing on Easter, and at first I was indignant, but then I realized it was planned on that date a few years ago. And my anger led to my praying for all of those children who are floundering and searching for a solid base to latch onto, to fill their void. And for all of those parents who are terrified and devastated, as they feel their children being pulled by this evil force while the parents are doing their best to make sense of it and to do what's best for their kid, while not losing the relationship. Easter is indeed a celebration of the transformation that is possible, no matter our brokenness - hope is resurrected, we are renewed. I prayed that while all the petty comments were flying on social media, that the deeper message of faith, love and hope would be received by the many who are yearning for something they are trying to find in all the wrong places.
Was the intent really "a higher percentage of individuals who more easily pass in the cross sex role" or a higher percentage of men who more easily pass as women? I've seen no evidence that blocking puberty creates women who pass better as men. Instead, girls seem to want to avoid breast development and menstruation. I don't see evidence that puberty blocked girls look more masculine as adults.
(Please forgive me if the quote isn't exact. Substack for Android won't let me copy and paste. )
The cross-sex ideation cult will remain unrepentant until there is a cultural shift away from the sexualization of children. We've probably got another decade. As detransitioner Ritchie Herron says, it is up to us, lay persons, to do the work of the professionals. In other words, put forth the program of counseling to help patients reconnect mind and body. As a triply certified retired early childhood specialist, I offer the pieces of good training I experienced: thorough social history, recognition of balance as a philosophy of life satisfaction, recognition of charlatan groomers/cultic brainwashing, routines/habits of stability (mind-body movement learning, self-calming and sleep hygiene habits, cognitive behavior strategies for positive pathways in the brain). Two detransitioners have already told me this is what they needed. As well, announcements on the risks of "affirmation."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRaVv70Gxr4&t=155s
And we have Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, out on the stump to make certain that more children have access to permanent harm.
It's all so unbelievable.
Thank you, Lisa. Well said.
Fantastic last line
I am still waiting to celebrate the trans day of STFU.
Very Nice piece. I like the idea of welcoming “trans visibility” which naturally includes discussing of what is seen.
This is one of a range of contradictions in trans. As many have said and I can confirm, all trans I knew in the 80's wished nothing more that to be invisible, literally passing for a woman. Women's bathrooms and spaces are predicated exactly on not being identified as trans. Fights against Olympic cheek swabs to identify sex is predicated on not being identified as trans. The list goes on.
A strategy for gay rights was to be open about being gay because when you knew a gay or lesbian person, attitudes changed drastically, generally In a positive direction. Gays and Lesbians were mysterious and scary, and took on heaps of abuse, and never enjoyed 1st amendment rights of assembly and speech and nobody cared, it affected nobody they knew, until they came out. Not speaking of marriage, speaking of telling someone that you were gay without threat of arrest, going to a bar without threat of arrest or blackmail, asking someone home without arrest or blackmail, a womyn's gathering without harassment from men pretending to be women.
The vast majority of the US now consider gays and lesbians unremarkable as orientation. Visibility worked
and same-sex marriage is just fine. Gays are generally friendly, and Lesbians no more threatening than Ellen de Generes.
I'm afraid for trans the opposite is happening. Visibility as a strategy is generally about drawing spectators into a sex fetish, claiming that freedom of assembly cannot exist for women, and freesom of speech must be replaced by compelled trans speech. By all means, let's have more visibility.
An increasing majority of the US knows that there are only two sexes, that ‘nonbinary’ is a fiction and compelling people to say otherwise is unacceable. More visibility.
A majority of Americans believe that women should have the right to assemble with only women in sports competition as well as in a lockerroom, and as well even for prison and the bedroom. More viability please.
The insufferable people who are visible using fanciful pronouns are isolated in work - don’t want to hire them - and socially - don’t want to date them. The entire sphere of dating, sex, even orgasm is a nightmare. Straight men don’t want to date men disfigured or not; straight women don’t want to date intentionally disfigured women, gays and lesbians only want their own sex, and all those groups generally don’t want any sex with such a person. Let’s have visibility please.
Puberty disrupting chemical damage means you will never enjoy the pleasure of orgasm with another person or even alone. More visibility please.
Men dressing as wildly unattractive women and claiming to be Lesbian is universally risible. More visibility please.
Millena-old treatment for puberty dysphoria of “just wait, it gets better” will lock back into place, after a number of people are flayed alive because of the medical atrocities going on. The more Americans know about the fiction of trans children the less they think it is valid. More visibility please.
Celebrity trans are too strange- men cannot pass for women easily at all and it always creates unnerving cognitive response. The Caitlyn version of Bruce Jenner is at all times a bizarre man in lipstick. More visibility please.
There was a joke circulating among lesbians in the 80’s I recall about Lesbians aspiring to look like 14-year old male juvenile delinquents (that shag). The Elliot version of Ellen Paige has managed to completely achieve the Lesbian look of a sad pre-pubertal 12-year-old boy. It’s unfortunate she didn’t realize surgery was not indicated. More visibility please.
Images of breast removal surgeries are repulsive, with Frankenstein stitches, scars: misshapen nipples and that pre-pubertal juvenile delinquent look. But
now "visible". More visibility please.
And lastly, the Jazz version of Jared "Jennings" who, lacking the imact of expected body modeling impacts of testosterone at puberty and cognitive maturation has turned into a childlile, estrogen bloated figure of parental atrocity fused witb infinite sadness. More visibility please.
Too much visibility is never enough.
Yes, I've always been confused by the passing vs visibility discourse. We can't "deadname" someone because that would undermine their ability to "pass." Yet many of them insist on being identified as "trans." Being publicly "trans" is not the same as "passing"--so which is it?
This is a very good point! Well done, Lisa!
I see their ideology everywhere. With pronoun posted. The dumbest virtue signaling anywhere. With hearing medical professionals say ‘people with a uterus’ when referring to women. The world went mad and I don’t want to see this crap any longer.
And also one of the big problems is that parents have been terrified by the so-called professionals that their children will kill themselves unless they’re allowed to get the cross sex hormones and surgeries, so that is another reason people want children to move quickly to transition and this can be tragic.