Conversation With a TradTrans: Shared Concerns About BreadTube & LGBT Culture | TE Report Trans S3 E7

TaraElla: Hi everyone, welcome again to the special LGBT season of the TaraElla Report. This is where we showcase the diversity of views in the community, to show that diverse views do exist, despite what the activists may have people believe. Now, I don't endorse all the views presented on this show, but I think it's important to showcase diversity. Today, we have Louise, who is a self-identified traditionalist trans woman, or a Trad-Trans, as she calls it. She has some controversial views regarding where the LGBT community is going. And she's worried about the effect BreadTube and its associated culture may be having on the LGBT community.

Louise: Lately, I've observed that BreadTube has a particularly high proportion of LGBT followers. I've also seen people talk about BreadTube or its creators from time to time, in general trans discussion spaces. BreadTube really seems to have become a part of LGBT culture nowadays. What I'm most concerned about is how BreadTube seems to be bundling the trans experience, or LGBT identity more generally, with some very ideological, and in my opinion misguided, worldviews.

For example, the idea that marriage and family is somehow tied to the origins of homophobia and transphobia is commonly accepted as fact in BreadTube and culturally adjacent circles. But not only is this untrue, it turns LGBT people against marriage and family, two things that are valued by most people, for no good reason. We really don't need to do that, now that we have marriage equality. BreadTube seems to have its own views about justice, which is rooted in certain academic theory. However, for me, the biggest justice LGBT people can get is to be able to integrate into mainstream society with dignity, and thanks to movements like marriage equality, we have become more able to do just that. I'm worried that the BreadTube aligned LGBT community seems to be turning its back on all that.

TaraElla: Yeah, BreadTube style 'justice' is very narrowly defined, and we need a broader notion of justice that is rooted in what people actually want. Different people want different things, and that should be respected. As a communitarian minded person, I definitely see the importance of integration to many LGBT people. Also, as somebody who helped fight for gay marriage for over a decade, I'm honestly confused and frustrated by this change too. It's as if there's been a change of guard at the top of the LGBT activist establishment, and the 1960s style conflict theory based activists are in charge again. As I've often said, our gains over the past two decades were hard won, and I'm worried that this return to conflict theory would only lead to our estrangement from mainstream society. Of course, people who believe in conflict theory don't care about that. They probably enjoy being rejected by mainstream society, to a degree. But the important thing is, the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer the very real and very material consequences of their actions.

Louise: I mean, there's no reason to teach LGBT people to be anti-marriage and family, unless the goal is to make us miserable, lonely, and hated by mainstream society. I personally believe that things like marriage, faithfulness, getting along with the community, and the like are good for everyone. Now that the historical wrong of excluding LGBT people from traditional institutions has been righted, I think we should relish our opportunity to live in these institutions, and reap the benefits of the good life they bring. Of course, that's just my personal view, and I'm not forcing it on anybody. But of course, some activists believe that the personal is political, and even my personal lifestyle choices as a Trad-Trans can offend them for some reason. It's just unbelievable. One thing I certainly don't like about BreadTube is that they politicize everything, and seem to appreciate nothing. I think LGBT people already have a hard enough life; we certainly don't need the extra anger.

TaraElla: This I can certainly agree with. Not everything is political. What I had for breakfast this morning isn't political, and nobody should pretend otherwise. In believing that almost everything is political, radical activists submit everything to their critical theory analysis, and leave us no room to enjoy freedom over anything. This is why, sometimes, it just helps to be less critical, and more appreciative, in life. Apperciation of life as it is, is something the BreadTube community could probably have more of.