[Actual effort post for once] We need to be hitting the hottest talking point about transphobia - birth control, menopause, and "male" menopause.
Synthesized hormones are one of the truly greatest wonders of modern medicine. It’s alleviated suffering and complications for millions of cis people around the world, let alone us trans folk. In this, we have a nuke against transphobic nonsense, and we need to get trigger happy with it.
For a long time now, hogs have been working towards getting HRT for all trans people banned in various states. I read an article recently where conservative Ohio local law makers expressly said that that was their intent to work towards and that banning it for kids was the first step, as well as their coordinated efforts to do the same in neighboring states. We’ve known for a long time that this is a pretty universal playbook, build the underpinning of your ultimate goal by passing less sweeping laws and gradually turn up the restrictions. Likewise, the tactics that they use in their rhetoric is to manipulate their emotions - tell people that kid’s genitals are being mutilated and it’ll get people riled up enough to not think critically about the premise. ‘Who doesn’t abhor the idea of children being abused?.. The blue haired communist abusers, that’s who!’
This framing of course does not hold up to scrutiny, and I’m not going to preach to the choir on why - the point is this, framing is powerful. Even more powerful, is if the framing simply reflects material reality. If trans folks are actually abusing kids, it’d be pretty damning and then they can say ‘see, bunch of sickos!’ or whatever. Propagandists have manufactured hoax situations out of whole cloth to try do this, and they frequently fizzle out for obvious reasons. Then the think pieces and op-eds come out and say ‘yeah, but what if they did abuse kids?!’ to keep this thought in the news cycle and spreading the brain worms.
This weapon however, is a double edged sword, and we can wield it to greater effect because we have material evidence. Remember the hog politicians in Ohio I mentioned? Yeah, these freaks love to tell on themselves and they have been for quite some time. The goal is this - abolition of synthesized hormones - especially birth control. I’m not putting so much effort as to search out the reporting right at the moment, but we’ve seen it time and again that that’s what they want. (CW: CSA/Incest reference in the following sentence) They regressed abortion in the US, and it’s created an uproar and back lash when people read about the law trying to force a 10 year old to give birth. People were rightfully sickened by this, and it finally hit home for some. When people see the horrors of what these policies do, they run the other way. And people will start to become alarmed when you are able to frame things into something that will directly impact them. Abolition of synthesized hormones would mean that testosterone and estrogen wouldn’t be able to help people through mid-life body changes. Low T sucks for men, low E is a part of the misery of menopause. In our conversations and rhetoric, we need to be hitting on this non-stop. Everyone knows someone who deals with these issues at some point, my dad is quite the hog, but being able to take supplemental testosterone has given him a new lease on life - he’ll be able to understand this at a deep level.
Likewise, if you have these conversations, we need to call these things what they are - gender affirming care. The cis are more like us than they know, and they will sooner or later feel the pain of a body that is not doing what you need it to do and be. This is humanizing and normalizing a fact of life, while connecting it to our fact of life. These are talking points relate to every age, every walk of life, every income strata.
The enduring philosophy is that of human connection, not destruction. We can win this this battle, we can liberate ourselves and others from the misery of the past, and we can create a better world.
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