dandelion

I figured you didn't intend offense, and I'm not offended - just mulling over your comment and realizing several things struck me as a little wrong upon reflection.

I still think you're probably right overall that the current anti-trans moral panic (and the anti-trans activism that led to it) has resulted in the average American thinking of gender-affirming care for minors as "controversial", and that this average American also probably thinks that gender-affirming care for minors is a part of a trans rights movement.

I think gender affirming care for minors has more support than trans participation in sports, for example.

EDIT:

In 2023 69% of Americans believed trans people should only be able to play on the team of the gender they were assigned at birth, according to this Gallup poll.

In 2024 62% of Americans oppose banning gender affirming care for minors in this Gallup poll.

EDIT2:

It's also a little weird to call gender affirming care for minors a controversial part of a "trans rights movement" when it's primarily supported by the mainstream medical organizations. Of course the trans rights movement wishes to oppose anti-trans legislation to ban such care, but gender affirming care for minors is not a fringe, controversial practice being pushed primarily by trans rights activists.

Here is a list of the links to statements by the medical organizations supporting gender affirming care, which includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Psychological Association, etc.

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of providing gender affirming care, and the only "controversy" comes from objections pushed by anti-trans activists who lie, make bad faith arguments, and appeal to pseudo-science and debunked theories to advance their cause.

😭

For a second I thought these were places to escape the country from ... you know, for reasons.

honestly I think it is less about health or safety and more about the disgust people feel - it really might just be irrational and nothing more

ah, maybe I had it backwards, maybe it was a 2 point lead that Trump had over Harris? Anyway, thank you so much for the link, that's really helpful!

72 million voters voted for Trump, that's not equivalent with embracing Trump's hatred. Trump's base is bigoted and hateful, but that doesn't mean every voter is. A lot of them seem clueless, by all accounts. I think a lot of them were just voting against the incumbent because they were upset about price gouging and inflation.

I think Harris had a 2 point lead among male voters age 18 - 29. Where is the 2% stat from, I would like to learn more (if it's convenient to share).

Adoption isn't an option when there is a miscarriage. Women are dying because miscarriages can't be properly dealt with due to anti-abortion laws.

Example: https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban

MSNBC was reporting that Harris lost support among the youth compared to Biden in 2020: Biden had a 24 point lead among voters age 18 - 29, and that was cut in half to a 13 point lead for Harris.

Among young men, Harris had only a 2 point lead, but among young women Harris had a 36 point lead - so it was heavily dependent on gender.

Moving away from age, it was also surprising that Biden had a higher margin with women than Harris ended up with. Biden's lead with women outstripping Trump's lead with men, but Harris's 10 point lead with women was matched with Trump's 10 point lead with men.

yeah, for context I'm a trans woman, this is my community - I personally know trans women who have conceived of themselves as just femboys, and I've struggled myself for decades with that kind of denial.

Regardless, I consider it a matter of harm-reduction to protect their right to HRT which does require clinicians acknowledging those people are trans. Denying they are trans and are really cis men does undermine the legitimacy of their access to HRT, since it requires a diagnosis and prescription. The way we conceptualize them can have consequences in healthcare contexts.

Furthermore I think we should be prioritizing supporting people embracing what they are and working past that denial (which clearly comes the socially oppressive conditions we find ourselves in, especially the hermeneutical injustice trans people experience and the pressure from transphobic stigma to remain closeted).

Just like the way the gay community tries to help people who are closeted without just forcing them to come-out (just like "men who have sex with men" I pointed out above), we should be clear-headed about the reality that this is closeted behavior while being polite, patient, and supportive as they work through that denial.

Meanwhile, insisting femboys on HRT can only be cis men because that's how they identify comes across to me as particularly ignorant of the reality of how we as trans people struggle to conceptualize themselves and what that process commonly looks like. There is a lot of variety in trans experience, but there are also patterns and trends that emerge, and this greentext captures a very common story of how trans women conceptualize themselves.

I appreciate that you are so sensitive that you are defending the way someone is identifying, that is definitely the right way to go. My point is not to force a perspective on someone, but to clue you into the larger trans context of the greentext which your comments made me think you were oblivious to. Maybe I should have approached that educational moment in a better way, so I apologize for being so glib.

Hope you take care as well - thank you for your response and for being so considerate, it would be nice if more people were like you.

Her steps to the right might earn her votes from the educated white neoconservative crowd, I don't think moving further to the left aligns her with swing state voters even if I wish that were the case.