Tag: gender

Fighting fascism – Day Eight

Today, I would like to talk about the administration’s efforts to tag specific groups of Americans as the enemy. I will further discuss the administration’s ongoing war on immigrants, asylum seekers and refuges in this Thursday’s blog. Today, I focus on the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community generally and transgender and nonbinry people in particular.

I need to start, however, with a full disclosure. One of my children is trans and the other is queer. One, born male, now uses female pronouns. The other born female uses “they” pronouns. We are very proud of our children and are completely supportive of their transitions and their lifestyles. They are successful, creative, generous and fully engaged people and we love them quite a lot.

We are also worried out of our minds about what is going to happen to them as we slip towards a fascist state.

The administration’s decision to remove transgender people from the military is essentially a case of designating certain people — because of their identity – not eligible to serve their country. Not because of what transgender persons may have done or even of what they think, but because of who they are. This is one step away from dehumanizing them completely. Next, they may be denied certain support, services and rights that are the entitlement of every American (Medicare? Medicaid? Social Security? Presumption of innocence?). They already have difficulty getting passports and visas based on their gender identity.

The administration has zeroed in on transgender people because they are few in number and thus they are a “test case” for the future designation of specific groups of people as unhuman (a favorite term these days of fascists, it seems). Going after transgender people is bad enough but if successful the administration opens the door to treating other groups in the same way. Down the line, we may expect McCarthy type campaigns against those fighting fascism! But that will come much later. In the meantime, there will be incremental steps – other members of the LGBTQ+ community, persons of color.

Many of you have seen this before. I think that it is particularly relevant to our times. I copied it from an article written by Jamil Salmi (definitely worth a read in its own right, by the way: a passionate discussion on the decline of academic freedom in higher education).

“ This is why I am always humbled when I think of Martin Niemöller, the German priest who, after initially embracing the racist ideology of the Nazi party when Hitler came to power in 1933, realised his errors and became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to the Nazis.

He was arrested in 1937 and spent eight years in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. After the war, he wrote the following poem to express his belated regrets (as reported by the British Holocaust Memorial Day Trust):

First, they came for the Communists,
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists,
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me,
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”

Here are some organizations that work very actively to defend the rights of transgender and nonbinary individuals, as well as other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

  Advocates for Trans Equality: Formerly known as the National Center for Transgender Equality, this organization focuses on policy advocacy and public education to advance transgender equality. Their website is here and they have an ACTION button.

  Transgender Law Center: As the largest national trans-led organization, it advocates for self-determination and justice for all people. Their website is here. Although they don’t have an ACTION button, they definitely do a lot to defend transgender rights and individuals.

  GLAAD: This organization works to promote positive representation of transgender people in media and culture. Their website is here.

  The Trevor Project: Offers crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth, including transgender youth. Their website is here. They have a government and advocacy page: they lead the fight against conversion therapy.

  Human Rights Campaign (HRC): Works to educate the public about the transgender community and provides resources for transgender and non-binary people to live their fullest lives. There website is here and they have a take . They have a petition dedicated to the issue of banning transgender persons from military service.

The ACLU has a petition on protecting trans freedoms.

You might want to consider buying girl scout cookies from a trans girl scout! It would count as an anti-fascist act, in my book. Check out this post by Erin in the Morning.