Published on 12, July, 2020
So another thread relating to trans rights has been locked under Rule 4 ‘Be Nice’ , but shouldn’t hatred directed at trans people be actually deleted? The thread was going really well with lots of trans, gender fluid and queer people supporting each other, but as usual the cis hets dive in to invalidate us. The mod response is not to target the prejudice but to lock the entire thread! This is wrong. Can we trans and queer and pride people on the spectrum not have a safe space here? I know the mods have a policy of non-deletion but this is wrong, were racist comments being made I’m sure they’d pounce on that pdq, but hate against trans people is unchallenged and left to stand. Apalling of you NAS!
Alice-nice-Alice said:but as usual the cis hets dive in to invalidate us
By lumping a large group of people together, who cannot help being what they are, and giving them all negative traits, you are committing a similar level of prejudicial thinking as those you decry. "Do as you would be done by" is a good maxim. I'm speaking as the parent of a non-binary child, whom I love greatly. I have no anti-trans axe to grind.
My prejudice, if that is what it is, comes from a place of persecution, the straight white mainstream absolutely don’t experience this, and I did not mention you at all, nor assert a personal axe grinding.
Actually, that's a point - I'm a 'cis-het' (more or less) and also have no axe to grind - the opposite. But I took the phrase as a short-hand for 'cis-het people - most often men - who feel the need to defend the majority as though it were under threat'. But maybe there's more precise way of putting that - the harmfully prejudiced or something. Racism would fall within that term too. But then I worry that the specific minority being spoken of by CF is getting side-lined. The intent was clear in their post even if the precise phrasing was not.
To be honest, I do hear many podcasters and the like catching themselves in a moment of self-awareness and saying 'and of course. as a straight white male, I'm the voice that most needs to be heard on this topic'. It's done with self-deprecating irony of course. And I should probably echo that now, and step back from this discussion to let testimony of the lived experience have room to breathe.