I don’t understand how wanting to use feminine pronouns for someone femme-presenting and “wanting to be a woman” is “forcing an agenda”? Is respect an agenda now?
Also, it seems like it would give her dysphoria to use he/him pronouns on someone who wants to be the opposite gender (although I realize pronouns =/= gender)
They don’t respect trans people, and they view using the correct pronouns as being “forced” to show respect. Pretty much just people being cruel as always
If you look at from a different perspective, it all makes more sense. Right now, you’re trying to apply the incorrect logic and an ethical consistency to anti-trans efforts. The anti-trans efforts are a test to move the Overton Window rightward. Trans and NB people are such a tiny minority. By targeting and othering that demographic, Conservatives are testing how much the rest of the citizenry will tolerate the next steps in fascism: targeting other minorities, miscegenation, segregation, concentration camps… whatever it takes to make a white xian US.
They’ve picked trans people as a “danger” so people don’t realise what the true dangers are (like having a fascist president, for example).
the behaviors your describing dont seem “obectively” problematic whatsoever, but there are two things here that matter:
- This goes against typical conservative ideas about gender roles (especially the more sexist conservative ideas)
- There is a label for this behavior: “Transgender” This label both allows people to defend “trans people” as a group of people or category, but it also allows one to demonize the group and endlessly produce lies and propaganda about a group of people that is frankly pretty small. And importantly a group that holds no social or political power, meaning it is the perfect target for far right figures who want to sell the people a scapegoat. Honestly, you could argue the existence of this label(or maybe its prominence as an identity) is only the result of “normal” peoples need to have labels for behaviors viewed as “weird” or different from the norms. Our existence as “trans people” fundamentally makes us people different from the norm.
There are other reasons too though.
By the way, I am not saying that “the category transgender is oppressive and we should stop using it” but i do hope for a future where queer people live in such peace to the point where there is no need to rally behind labels, where we can just exist with our behaviors, being ourselves.
Conservatives want a strict gender binary. They dont even like women wearing pants and would love to go back to the days when cross dressing was illegal.
In other words conservatives are the ones with the agenda. Trans people just want to live their lives in peace
If you’re genuinely curious, I can give you a glimpse into their rationality (though I strongly disagree with it).
Say, for just a brief moment, that you consider trans people to be mentally ill. Calling them by their preferred pronouns would be like giving a drink to an alcoholic–you’d be encouraging it, which would be to their detriment. And worse, you’d be liable to whatever diety might be displeased with your actions that caused someone else to continue in their sin.
Of course, that only works if you have a very poor understanding of both gender and theology. The real reason the bigots don’t like trans people is because it challenges their worldview, which is uncomfortable. And instead of facing that head on, they’d rather try to justify their current view.
The Oatmeal wrote a great info comic on this.
