New Leaked Russian Documents

[CJD]

(07-21-2021, 09:11 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Fwiw, not to butt in here, but I completely respect your friends and I wish them nothing but the best.  Whatever it is that brings them happiness is a good thing, and it is of no inconvience to me.

I realize this a sensitive subject, so I hope I don't across in a way that seems mean-spirited or unempathetic.  I just think that because it's such sensitive subject that some common sense get lost in translation in some of these situations we see play out.  We can agree to disagree on that, but I would hope we can agree on the majority of everything else.  

I appreciate that. 

I remember when the legalization of gay marriage was first being discussed in the 1990s and 2000s, a really big talking point was "is being gay a choice, or are you born gay/straight?"

Now, it's fine to be curious about that. I know that I was. It's an interesting philosophical question. Are you in control of who you're attracted to? Or is attraction just something specific to the core of who you are and you can't help who you find attractive? You could even translate that questions to different things. Why am I attracted to women with certain attributes (hair color, skin color, body type etc)? Did I interact with someone at a young age that molded my sensibilities or is it just luck of the draw? 

However, curiosity was not the reason that this question (Is being gay a choice?) was so omnipresent in political discussions for 10 to 20 years. The reason it was a topic for discussion in politics is because anti-gay marriage people wanted to use it as a pre-cursor for denying gay people their right to marriage.

"Well, if it's a choice, then they can CHOOSE to stop being gay. Therefore, we don't need to change the laws to let them get married. Clearly, they were molested as children too, so let's get them in therapy as well. Maybe we can even convert them back to being straight once they get over whatever childhood trauma they experienced."

That is kind of the crossroads we are at with trans people. Is it fascinating to discuss the differences between gender and sex and try to figure out what makes a trans person trans? Of course. There are entire sociological fields of study on the topic. Is gender inextricably linked to sex or are they clearly delineated and fluid? These are interesting questions. 

But they stop being interesting when politicians start using them as a pre-cursor to take away the civil rights of trans people. Trans bathroom bills, denial of health care and hormones/puberty blockers, dehumanization in the media etc. These are the consequences of those who question whether sex and gender are really that different. And these consequences have real world, negative impacts on people. 

If I'm being honest, even if sex and gender were 100% the same in every way (which I don't believe they are) and trans people are just attempting to change the meaning of gender so that they can "pretend to be women," I wouldn't care. Just like I ultimately didn't care if being gay was a choice. What I care about is human happiness and egalitarianism. And marrying who you love (assuming consent) and identifying with the gender they are more comfortable with is, undeniably, a more healthy lifestyle for gay and trans people, respectively. It doesn't affect me in any way and they are happier for it. 

Transgender people exist. It doesn't matter if people disagree with their definition of gender or whether or not they're "really a woman." They are who they are, no matter how many times people attempt to misgender them. And, in my opinion, JK Rowling's tweets were damaging to the trans life experience because, given her huge platform, they probably caused at least a portion of the trans community some issues, even if it was just an argument with their family or the broader impact of society thinking trans people are "mentally ill" or stupid because JK Rowling implied that they think sex doesn't exist.

I hope that makes sense.