“I’m currently getting emails now from families that I saw several years ago, before I started my residency, asking, 'What should I do? Should we leave the state?' You know, very big, big questions. 'Is my child going to be safe? Can they take my child away?'
@TexasObserver I'm sure you know all these things, feel like saying it anyway.
I suspect the people at the very bottom of this don't really care if a kid is trans or not. They're just using the people who think it's bad to be trans.
Same with gay marriage. And the people who are shutting down abortion, and taking aim at birth control. Shutting down folks getting vaxxed or wearing masks. Folks seeking treatment for AIDS. Homeless folks. Folks that need the ADA (I'm disabled). Or with "pre-existing conditions (I have leukemia and LC -- who doesn't have LC now btw). Or folks voting sensibly about policy. ... public schools. And libraries. And Black, Brown and Red people. Seniors (I'm 74). And any woman (me there too) not in the kitchen, barefoot and of course pregnant. Religions not the same as theirs. Advocates for clean air, water, soil and food, sensible health system, and some reasonable temperature ranges. Advocates for a functioning biosphere. Advocates for public transit, reasonable working hours and conditions, workplace democracy ... And on and on. All this is to be liquidated for the good of the coming empire. It's all one strategy, and the current tactics function something like the Gish gallop.
Arguing with them about a child's health care is a bit like arguing, say, about your right to go to the park today, with an invader who's there to set fire to your schools, hospitals, museums and grocery stores, kill you, and steal your car, your house, your kids, your salt, your iron, your wheat, your undersea methane, your lakes and rivers, and your land. Oh, and no, you can't go to the park today, and have you changed your passport yet? Let's see your papers.
This a war, an actual war, that has casualties, increasingly some fatal, a war with people who believe that they are loyal denizens of an empire and that you and I (I'm trans) are not. And that if we cannot be successfully colonized, maybe the babies they will make us have can be. If those kids happen to be, and remain, trans, it's a waste of resources where the up and coming empire is concerned.
This is what we're dealing with, ever since the Powell memo if not earlier:
The grand scheme is comprehensive:
"The [Bush] aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'." -- Ron Suskind, 2004 qtd in Wikipedia.
If you beat them in court, that's a good thing, it's a short-term win. But that's why your opponents want to take over all the courts, and are well on their way to having done so. After that, there are few options remaining for us gentle types.
Oh, and that's why they're so into making guns "widely" available.
They know we're the ones mostly not into buying those.
Thank you for your time. Really, really appreciate you. Sorry to run long.
@Moira thanks I understand (also trans and disabled) where you are coming from, I think. We are at war against fascism, I agree with you. Very scary times and I am sure from the perspective of someone your age, you can really clearly see a lot of the trends that are coming to a head right. We will fight together for a better world. - Kit
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