In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
Democrats have forgotten their history. They like to say that trans rights are a "distraction." They forget that not only were trans people some of the first victims of the Holocaust, but that liberal papers like the NYTimes similarly dismissed Nazi antisemitism as a "distraction" as well. They predicted that, just like Trump and trans people, Hitler was just using Jews as a scapegoat to get elected. They thought that despite widespread antisemitism in Germany, it was just a campaign distraction. They thought there simply weren't enough Jews in Germany to make real oppression something worthwhile for the Nazis to pursue.
In pre-Nazi Germany, Jews represented about 1% of the population. That is the same portion of the population that trans people represent in the US today.
You only get action when you're living in a blue city, under a blue state, with a blue President.
If anyone on the stack is Republican, your civil rights dissolve in the face of bureaucracy and legalese.
Republican courts, Republican governors, Republican sheriff's department, Republican school board... anything is enough for Dems to defer and compromise on your liberty.
They won't even stand up for their own elected Congressional coworkers to use the fucking restroom.
With Trump in office, you're going to see Dems retreat from any kind of LGBTQ rights on a sweeping scale. Just wholesale capitulation, as they blame their electoral defeat on being insufficiently servile to bigots.
Yeah, like I said: little. It felt like they were content to do enough to get credit and then kick the can down the road until they were forced to do more. Now we enter an era that will likely strip back what progress has been made. In four years we'll be pushed back forty.
The Theatre Of Identity on both sides of the aisle in the US was always bullshit to try and get more votes, if done differently:
Most of the Democracts don't really care about Equality (especially not in the Wealth domain, though they pay lip service to the fight against a few non-Wealth inequalities), they care about themselves and the ultra-rich.
The Republicans don't care about America or The American People, they care about themselves and the ultra-rich.
Mind you, this is a pretty common pattern in other countries with electoral systems that boost a pair of "center" parties - there will be a "Right" one preaching some kind of nationalist pro-nation message and a "Left" one preaching anti-discrimination along racial/gender/sexual-orientation (but never wealth) lines, but they both serve the interest of the same people and will even get together to pass legislation that increases their own salaries, reduces the effectiveness of the fight against corruption or benefit some large well entrenched "regime" corporations who (by an amazing coincidence) employ in highly paid positions lots of politicians when they retire.
Yeah, I think dems don't take equality seriously at all. The cultural equality stuff they parrot is to distract from the fact that they'll never do anything to change the biggest inequality in the US, wealth and class. Even if it'd Freudian, in that they can point and say "see there? I want an equitable society" while ignoring the wealth inequality that is, statistically speaking, doing well for the college educated base they now encompass.
On my world account which I left a while ago I have various posts with like 20+ votes for and 20+ votes against because they were insulting/hurtful for the political tribalists but did actually make sense for those whose love for the tribe did not overrode their thinking ability.
Way too many people grow a purely emotional relationship with a politial party so never actually analyse what they do and have knee-jerk reactions to criticism of their beloved party, which paradoxically leads that party to become worse over time because in the absence of criticism of it, the shit done inside the party by the sociopaths than naturally seek power, goes on unchallenged and festers.
Granted, it's easier to analyse US politics from the outside, but I actually behave the same when it comes to the politics of my country and even the leadership and membership of the political party I'm a member of here.
Democrats were pretty cool about protecting trans people.
But thanks to non-voters and $hill Stein voters (along with tens of millions of “low information” Trumpledorks), Trump has all three branches of government at his disposal.
Considering Democrats are now complaining that their protection of trans people cost them the election, I wouldn't say they were all that cool to begin with. They use trans people as a political tool and then toss them aside the second it becomes inconvenient for them to support trans rights. Just look at how the Democrats have "defended" their newest trans colleague.
Specific people in the Democratic Party have made those complaints. The party has not. Your comment is no different than stereotyping a group for the actions of individuals.
The problem with democrats is that they always hold progressive action overhead like a carrot. "Vote for us, we'll establish trans rights/universal healthcare/codify roe v wade!".
Then they don't do it because they want to use it as a fundraising and election platform next go around. If they just did things when they had power people would be more willing to vote for them.
And yes, I know that there are Republicans and independents blocking progressive action. But that doesn't excuse the DNC from doing what I described above as well as constantly shitting on popular progressive candidates.
Voters: Not enough votes for Democrats, letting the people who want to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else come to power
Republicans: Hey now that we're in power, we're going to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else
Voters: You guys really fucked this one up, I can't trust you
When Kamala Harris was the AG for California she was forced to defend a lawsuit where a trans woman in prison for murder wanted the state to pay for reassignment surgery. I was told that by supporting Harris I was transphobic and I should just admit it.
Here's what I'll admit: trans people who didn't support the Harris ticket as if their life depended on it fucked up.
Seriously, "fuck Democrats"? Okay Dude, I can see you don't want to be cheered up - c'mon Donny let's go get us a lane.
The democrats did this to all of us. When you facilitate genocide for over two years, while calling the people protesting it violent antisemites, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people who need healthcare, housing, and student loan relief, and you end covid protections, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people expecting police reform and freeing the immigrant camps, and you increase deportations and endorse diverting covid funds to police budgets, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by promising to protect abortion, and then do fuckall even after the SCOTUS leaks their ruling early, you lower voter turnout.
Nobody except for the democrats had the power to change the outcome of this election. They had to chose between overwhelmingly popular policy and losing, and they chose to lose.
They never really could. The Democratic party likes to claim issues like same sex marriage and trans rights as if they had anything to do with it. Same sex marriage had to be fought for in the courts during a democrat reign. They used trans rights as a big talking point for 2024 yet made little attempt to safeguard them during the previous 4 years. They ignore their base then take credit for all their accomplishments. They now use lgbt issues as an anchor to avoid promising any meaningful changes. It's the same thing the Republicans have been doing with abortion. All I'm saying is, Bernie2028.
It's gotta be Alexandria Cortez. Bernie is just too old sadly. He's healthy and fitter than the other candidates who are younger than him, but he'll never win now. Our chance was 2016 and he got ratfucked.