#trans youth aren't allowed to just live and be kids

[theissuewithred]

in my trans grief hours *autism yippee*

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

David Tennant interview at the British LGBT Awards, June 2024 (x)

Int: You being an ally to the community isn't something new. You've been doing it, but recently you've obviously really stepped up for trans and non-binary people in a time that's so, so needed. What made you do that?

David: I don't know that I feel like I've done anything that I wouldn't just sort of be normally doing. I mean, it's for me it's just common sense that there's there should be any suggestion that people aren't allowed to live the life they want to live and and to be who they want to be with and to express themselves wholeheartedly. I mean, as long as you aren't hurting anybody else, everybody else just needs to fucking butt out. I don't really understand why...

Int: ...it's controversial.

David: Yeah, there is and the thing... the thing, if there's something that's particularly sobering and depressing, it's that certain debates are being weaponized by certain elements of the political class, often for no... it seems it's not ideological so much as opportunistic. And I just think that's pretty disgusting, really.

Int: I couldn't agree more. What message would you like to send out to trans youth?

David: Please don't feel like you're not loved and that you're not accepted and that you're not... you know, most people in the world are good and kind and just want you to be able to be who you are. Most people in the world don't really care. I mean... you know what I mean?

Int: We're all narcissistic.

David: Exactly. Everyone's so self obsessed that really, the sort of noise that comes from a certain area of the press and of the political class is... it's a minority. It really is. And please don't let that make you feel diminished or dissuaded or discouraged, because, you know, you just... you have to be allowed to be yourself, and you are, and you are yourself and you must thrive and flourish, and we're all here for it.

Int: Amazing. I think, yeah, it's so important .I think sometimes it feels like there's so many people, but it is a minority. It's such a minority.

David: It's a tiny bunch of little whinging fuckers that are on the wrong side of history and they'll all go away soon.

Int: Like what happened with gay people 20 years ago.

David: When I was a kid, when I was a kid, exactly. You know, I was at school when Clause 28 came in and it all felt like being gay was something to be terrified of. And gay men in particular were demonised as paedophiles and now that just feels historic and ludicrous and, I mean, I don't see all those... all those battles aren't won, but we're in a very, very different place. And I feel like.I feel like history is on a progressive trajectory and it might get knocked sideways now and again by people for all sorts of reasons, which are often quite selfish and quite, as I say, not coming from a place of any sort of genuine belief system, but other than a place of opportunism. And that's something that we... I hope that in 20 years time, we're talking about, you know, these culture wars as something of the past.

Int: I believe we will. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, so.

David: Oh, good, me too!

Int: You are my Doctor.

David: Oh, thank you very much.

Int: But recently, obviously, you came back for the 60th anniversary and you got to work with Yasmin Finney.

David: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Int: What was it like working with her?

David: Oh, she's brilliant. She's fantastic. Yeah. And she's in the show again now, she's back in it, so that's fantastic to see. She's lovely, talented, cool as a cucumber, articulate, brilliant. I learned a lot from her as an actor and also as someone who, you know, who's become a sort of de facto activist just because of who she is and where she is, and she becomes a sort of symbol of hope, and she's wonderful.

[deadcitygazette]

I remember the summer of 2015 very well. I was working at Whole Foods that summer & had good times & good friends there. I remember the day that SCOTUS declared that gay marriage had been legalized at a federal level, thereby allowing millions of gay & lesbian couples to finally be able to get married. It was a wonderful & exciting time to be alive & I will always remember the smiles on everyone's faces. A truly monumental & joyous occasion.

Flash forward to now, the summer of 2023, 8 long years later. The Before Times ended over 3 years ago. Now we no longer talk about LGB, now we only talk about TQIA+. Specifically, we talk about the T. A lot. At least Conservatives are. Especially on Twitter. Except for this time, the latest rainbow campaign isn't promoting sexuality & marriage equality. No, this time they are promoting trangenderism & sex changes for kids.

To be extremely clear, I have been Queer-identifying my whole life. I've identified specifically as gay, bisexual, & pansexual at varying times throughout the 4 decades of my life so far. I also have an affinity for trans women if we're being completely honest here. So I have skin in the game & a right to say something when it comes to LGBTQ issues since I've been Queer longer than a lot of these young people have even been alive.

That being said, although I do support trans people & their rights to live, love, & exist in our society, I have to draw the line at involving kids in such matters. A lot of these surgeries, procedures & treatments provided as a part of gender-affirming care are irreversible & have the potential to sterilize their recipients, as this type of care is still experimental for the most part.

There's also the "social contagion" element to all this. While I believe there is such a thing as a trans kid, I believe that "trans" is also in vogue right now amoungst our nation's youth, especially in the big cities & especially in Blue states like California. So clearly there's a social contagion element where kids just want to be cool, or fit in, or receive special attention. I was a Queer teen once & I remember feeling all that.

So I know that a lot of these so-called trans kids aren't trans at all. 4 out of 5 of them are probably just gay. But an ideology & adults with agendas pressured them into thinking that the only thing that will "fix" them is to change genders. Because then they won't have those "shameful" gay feelings anymore because they'll have transitioned genders to be straight. And that is exactly what has become so chic nowadays amoungst the youngest & most vulnerable in our society.

Bottom line: We simply must do our best to protect our kids & youth from exposure to aggressive ideological movements that seek to indoctrinate the vulnerable with all sorts of extreme ideas about gender, race, sex, sexuality, religion & so on. There are people in this world that want to harm children. They are predators & they must be stopped.

But ultimately, I would have to say that people should be placed before ideology. People matter. Trans lives do matter. Black trans lives do matter. And these are real people who exist & live & breathe the same air as every other American. We must show humanity to our fellow humans.

So I would say the answer is to support transgender adults' rights to make adult decisions about their own bodies but protect "under 18s" from potentially harmful ideologies that can oftentimes confuse & irrevocably change them, oftentimes for the worse.

I don't know how you, the reader, will receive this. Hopefully, you understand that I fully support LGBTQ, especially when it is involving consensual adults & their rights to live & love how they see fit. I'm totally down with all of that as I am a part of the Queer Community myself. And trans men & trans women should be afforded the same rights as everyone else.

But, please leave the kids out of it. Kids are under immense pressure as it is from their own culture & peers. We don't need to be further trying to influence or manipulate them or worse, *groom* them into something they are not. Let gay kids be gay. Just because a boy likes other boys that doesn't necessarily mean he's a girl. Just because a teen girl likes dressing & acting "boyish" doesn't mean she should get her breasts removed at age 15.

Let gay boys just be gay.

Let gay girls just be lesbians.

Let children grow up free from ideological influences of ALL kinds.

We were born this way, remember?

Let humans just be themselves.

Show love.

Fight for equality.

Protect the vulnerable.

Learn to live free of ideologies.

Peace. Love. Tacos.

[stormsbourne]

what's WILD to me about posts like that one su one you reblogged is i do not understand how these like.... discourse people i guess. are so homophobic when so many of them aren't straight like??? i know i had a LOT of internalised homophobia when i was younger but it never came out like the stuff i see so often from people who are super into The Discourse.

There’s a few elements I think contribute here, some of which were around when I was a kid and some of which were not. Allow me to disclose my theories of what’s involved:

1) Internalized homophobia, absolutely. These kids see bits of themselves as being disgusting and want to ensure that they aren’t like the GROSS gays (rsug, bryan fuller, other various gay individuals they describe as just “having a creepy vibe” for no apparent reason) so they go to efforts to make it clear how much they hate the Gross Gays. How those gays don’t really count, because they’re bad. Not like us enlightened people on tumblr dot hell.

2) A lot of people haven’t learned yet that homophobia has a lot more to it than calling people slurs and voting against gay marriage. Obviously both of those things are homophobic, but it’s sort of like thinking misogyny is all catcalling and harassment and not recognizing things like the glass ceiling, gendered advertising, gender essentialism, compulsory femininity for women who don’t want to perform it, etc. So they imagine homophobia as the obvious bads, but miss the less obvious ones.

3) “How can you say I’m a homophobe, I’m gay/bi/pan/queer/etc” which is just, uh, naivete. Women are routinely misogynist to each other, gay people have all sorts of intercommunity discourse, remember the days of “monosexual privilege” implying that gay people had it ten thousand times easier than bi people, etc

4) And honestly this is the big one. Tumblr is an echo chamber. People shout their opinions into the void, but because of who’s following them and who they’ve chosen to follow, the void echoes back with “you’re so right!” and clap emojis and statements about how anybody who disagrees just isn’t a Pure SJ Powerhouse figure. And, uh, this is dangerous. The far left isn’t as toxic as the far right, but “everyone who disagrees with me is a false flagger idiot who eats soy” is sure all over the place in the right, and how they keep people from questioning or maybe changing their own views. “Everyone who disagrees with me is a problematic racist abuse fetishizer” is tumblr’s version. Maybe some of the people disagreeing with you really are terrible people, but this is the goddamn internet, you will find literally every kind of person here. Tumblr’s version of identity politics is so deeply settled because every time they say something like that they get feedback telling them they’re right, and every time they get someone disagreeing with them, the echo chamber ensures they dismiss it as bad and wrong. They’re not really gay or poc or trans or whatever, they’re pretending. That person with our views who said a bad thing once is actually a false flagger by our opponents.

I think all that stuff in 4 is also how we’ve gotten to this terrible fucking place where people are whining that tumblr banned a bunch of literal russian psyop trolls. What do you mean those people were political state-funded propagandists paid to cause divisive behavior and thoughts? well, what about SomeFuck2018 who once made a post I didn’t like? Tumblr will ban these state-funded propagandists who agree with me, but not the random weirdos that said things I don’t agree with?

(disclaimer tumblr please ban the fucking nazis but I seriously saw a post like “why does tumblr take this russian thing so much more seriously than randos pretending to be lgbt/poc/etc” and fam! the answer is that state funded propaganda is a more serious fucking thing! you’ll live if a rando is wrong but when a government is deliberately trying to mess with your thought processes it’s a whole other kettle of fish)

anyway yeah. It’s a nasty maelstrom of youth, naivete, misunderstanding of what oppression really is, and the biggest factor, which is that tumblr just cycles everything back to the start to tell you how right you are and how everyone who doesn’t agree with you is just a stupid idiot, or a false flagger from people you hate, or whatever else.