How to Argue Against the New Anti-Trans Movement | Trans Realist

We Need to Identify the Source of the Problem and Respond Effectively

Today, I want to talk about an important problem: the increasingly extreme anti-trans attitude that has now become a dominant feature in the reactionary culture war part of the Right. The problem is getting so bad that, honestly, I have to say that I would be quite concerned even if I were not trans. Moral panics targeting minorities have a very troublesome history, which is why everyone should be worried about one that is clearly brewing. Moreover, the current anti-trans wave is increasingly showing signs that it is going to affect non-trans people too. Therefore, it is a problem that needs more attention. Here, I will examine what the problem looks like, what its root cause is, and how we can change things.

Part 1: The Problem

It all began as part of a 'pushback' against the excesses of trans activism, starting a few years ago. Back then, some trans activists repeatedly tried to cancel people they didn't agree with. They also began making demands that mainstream society change their language on many things, which was deemed to be unreasonable by many people. These developments brought together concerned parties from different parts of society, thinking they needed to push back against a movement that had become unreasonable. I, too, agreed that we should defend free speech, and I repeatedly stated my belief that such extreme actions were not going to help the trans community. However, we should remember that the activists described here are only a small part of the trans community, even if they are quite vocal. Many people involved in this 'pushback' were genuinely concerned about free speech. They had no ill will towards trans people, and they told me so repeatedly. However, others with an anti-trans agenda, often rooted in religious fundamentalism, were also riding this 'pushback' wave, hidden at first behind the more reasonable voices defending free speech. Over time, backed by powerful forces vehemently opposed to trans rights, these anti-trans people began to change the narrative, from concern about activist overreach, to seeing the whole trans community as the enemy, perhaps linked with other conspiracy theories on the far-right.

The increasing dehumanization of trans people allowed cruelty towards trans people to be normalized. After all, trans people weren't suffering people anymore, they were now enemies with a dangerous political agenda, who deserved whatever pushback that was coming their way. Anti-trans activists who openly state that they want to reduce the number of people who transition, and even one who stated that, in their ideal world, they want all medical transition to be banned, are now welcome as voices of common sense in trans skeptical circles. The fact that medical transition as treatment for gender dysphoria is medically indicated, and has a long history of use among adults with gender dysphoria, is basically never mentioned in these same circles. This has led to trivialization of gender dysphoria and the suffering it brings, which has led to real world effects, like Florida deciding to end Medicaid coverage for all medical transition treatments. Note that this applies to adult patients, some who have been followed up for many years, who have been assessed by their doctors as needing this treatment, because there is no other way to relieve their dysphoria. These patients receiving this treatment is certainly not controversial at all, from a clinical medicine point of view. Taking away others' medically necessary treatment is one of the most despicable things one can do, especially if it is to fulfill a culture war objective.

Moreover, the implications of this new anti-trans wave are now starting to spread beyond trans people. There is now an increasing fearmongering and demonization of gender non-conformity, which is affecting non-trans people too. Even some gender critical feminists have become concerned about this recently, which shows how bad it has become. Furthermore, there is now a very real concern that the rising anti-trans sentiment is fueling a return of religious right politics, that would have authoritarian implications in many areas of life, and not just limited to the LGBT community. As you can see, it is all becoming a major problem that those who are dedicated to free speech, free expression, and compassionate treatment for all, have rightly become very worried about.

Part 2: The Root Cause

To deal with a problem, we need to examine its root cause. Here, I believe the root cause is biased coverage. It all began with unfair coverage of trans people, which made us into the 'enemy' over time. The most extreme trans activists are highlighted all the time. Even the most unpopular and most uninfluential activists are given a platform to showcase their views, as long as it would reflect badly on the trans community. The coverage of trans issues also strongly skew towards the most controversial issues, with journalists, reporters and show hosts often encouraging an emotional response from their audiences. Meanwhile, the fact that 99% of the trans community consists of everyday trans people, who just want to relieve their gender dysphoria and get on with their lives with as little hassle as possible, is never mentioned.

Looking at the history of the problem, I believe left-leaning media was worse during the mid-2010s. At that point, the LGBT discourse on left-leaning media was captured by postmodernist voices, like those who thought that the very existence of pronouns were 'cisnormative', and old-school regular trans people with gender dysphoria were deemed not progressive enough for them. Back then, at least right-leaning media would feature some reasonable trans people, as a counterpoint to what was being platformed on the other side. However, as organized conservative politics began to take an anti-LGBT turn, right-leaning media stopped giving reasonable trans people a platform. Instead, they began to showcase only the most extreme activists, even more so than left-leaning media. Gender critical activists are often invited on to be the 'reasonable' voice, critiquing the 'trans movement' while normalizing hardline gender critical talking points. In contrast, while there are many reasonable trans people who are willing to talk about reasonable compromises, they are never given a chance to speak. All this contributes to a false picture that the trans community is full of extremists. The point is that, over time, we have been dehumanized, and turned into political enemies, as a result of this biased coverage.

Part 3: The Solution

The first step to change is to be aware of the problem. This is why I am trying my best to raise awareness all the time. The next step is to take action, to call out and push back against those who perpetuate the unfair coverage problem. No, it is not OK to repeatedly use postmodern gender activists as 'representation' of what trans people believe. It is not OK to pretend that gender studies 'experts' speak for us, and let them put words in our mouth. And it is certainly not OK to disproportionately feature the most radical trans activists because they bring in more clicks and revenue. In fact, I believe that media outlets that engage in this kind of behavior should probably be subject to a boycott, so as to correct for the problem of financial incentives, but that's another topic. We should also remember that basically all kinds of media outlets are currently guilty of the aforementioned behavior. Old school mainstream media, internet-based new media, progressive media, conservative media, so-called free speech media, they are all guilty, and they all need to be called out. Therefore, we need to push back against all of them, without discrimination. Only by acting to end this unfair coverage problem can the current anti-trans wave be defeated.

Free Speech People Need to Call Out Anti-Trans Bias | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article We Need to Call Out the Biased Coverage of Trans Issues by TaraElla.

As I said before, the best way to persuade the LGBT community to stop embracing critical anarchism is to demonstrate that the classical liberal approach works as promised in practice. In particular, the promise of free speech is that it will help everyone come to a fair and objective view of things. With truly free speech, the best ideas will prevail, and we can build a better consensus moving forward. However, for this to work effectively, ideas and perspectives must be placed on a level playing field in the first place. This is why de-platforming certain ideas and perspectives is bad. Whilst not as directly authoritarian, biased coverage can have a similar effect. This is especially true when it comes from media outlets backed by lots of money, that can easily drown out independent voices when they 'move in the same direction'. In recent years, the coverage of trans issues in many 'anti-woke' leaning media outlets has not been a level playing field, to put it mildly. There has been a strong emphasis on covering the most extreme parts of trans activism, while everyday, reasonable trans people who just want to get on with their lives are rendered non-existent. Consumers of this media often end up with very skewed perceptions of trans people. The skewed media coverage has essentially made us into 'the enemy', and a tool for negative partisanship, and dehumanized us in the process. This is very different from simply disagreeing with postmodern queer theory, or the tactics of certain trans activists.

We Need to Talk About Anti-Trans Cancel Culture | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article What Graham Norton Getting Cancelled Over Trans Comments Teaches Us by TaraElla.

...cancel culture can come from all sides, including from people who are not usually considered 'woke'. In this incident, Norton was basically cancelled for being perceived to be supportive of trans people and trans rights. The people doing the cancelling could be broadly described as 'gender critical', and these people are not generally considered 'woke' for some arbitrary reason. (Gender critical feminism is considered part of the 'non-woke' Left, even though it is a form of identity politics, for reasons I don't fully understand.) I guess this is why this incident has received lower than expected levels of attention, compared to say, last year's controversy over Dave Chappelle. Many 'free speech activists' who fought for Chappelle's free speech back then simply failed to come out and support Norton this time. Far too often, cancel culture that comes from the supposedly 'non-woke' is not taken as seriously. It's like how when, earlier this year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis used the power of the state to 'punish' Disney for speaking up against his Don't Say Gay law, and 'anti-woke' free speech forces didn't unite to oppose the move as some might have expected. This just shows how the 'woke' vs 'anti-woke' lens is of limited utility in defending free speech, and well past its expiry date, in a time when cancel culture can almost equally come from all sides. This is why it's time we moved away from a 'woke' vs 'anti-woke' narrative, towards a narrative that opposes cancel culture and defends free speech on the grounds of traditional classical liberal ideals.

Why Trans People Should Embrace Classical Liberal Norms | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article Dismantling Liberal Norms Endangers the LGBT Community by TaraElla.

What we need to remember is that liberalism has been responsible for basically all the social progress of the West since the Enlightenment. The liberal dedication to individual liberty, equality and the objective truth has been essential in the fight against arbitrary power based on superstition, which is what is at the root of the religious right's opposition to LGBT equality. The anarchist wish to overturn liberal norms would lead to the return of the pre-Enlightenment dark ages, and empower the religious right's authoritarian tendencies. It must therefore be resisted tooth and nail by those who support LGBT rights.

Why a Practical Reformism will Save Trans People | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article We Need a Normie Trans Rights Discourse by TaraElla.

As I have repeatedly said, trans people are caught in a philosophy war that has its origins in academia, which has nothing to do with our everyday lives at all. These philosophy wars have hindered public understanding and acceptance of trans people, by taking the focus away from trans lives and onto abstract philosophical questions. On this, the postmodern activists are actually just as guilty as the reactionary culture warriors and the most extreme gender critical feminists. The fact that postmodern activists are more interested in deconstructing gender than actually helping trans people in any tangible way shows that they are not our true allies at all. Liberals have a good opportunity here to expose the weakness of the postmodern arguments, and demonstrate the merits of reformism within the framework of ordered liberty. We simply need to provide a pragmatic pro-trans politics that puts the focus back on the everyday life needs of trans people, and help build the required consensus in society to achieve the necessary reforms. There is a better way to do the trans discourse than what exists currently, and it's up to us to make it happen.

How To Fix the Trans Rights Discourse | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article The Importance of Legal Recognition of Gender Identity by TaraElla.

Why Anti-Trans Culture War is Against Common Sense | TaraElla Clips

This is an excerpt from the article The Authoritarian Implications of the 'What Is A Woman' Wars by TaraElla.

To put it bluntly, normal people don't think of chromosomes or gametes when they interact with others. These things are in the realm of expert knowledge, not everyday life. Most people take a 'if it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck' approach to determine gender, which is undeniably the common sense position.

Under the 'if it looks like a duck' approach, many people already accept at least some trans women as belonging in the category of 'women', at least in everyday social situations where people are fully clothed. That trans women are genetically male is not even relevant in this most simplistic and most old-school of approaches.

On the other hand, the culture war activists are relentlessly attempting to supplant the 'if it looks like a duck' approach, forcibly complicating things by making people consider chromosomes and gametes where they are not even relevant. In doing so, it is destroying normal people's ability to ascertain and express reality, using commonly shared terms like 'woman' as they see fit.