The Detransition Panic

Here is an intelligent and measured discussion on detransition. We should not use these people to deny others transgender care and most are not transphobic themselves which does not prevent right wingers from using them all as archetypes as to why no one should...

What we do

Trauma isn't always part of the history of every transgender person but I would say that would be the minority. A degree of self-hate can certainly seep in because many of us have been shaken to the core regarding disappointing our families and friends with our identities.

For the longest time I suffered from an internalized transphobia which tended to sometimes produce the effect of focusing on things I didn't like in other people. That has been chipped away at because I am only responsible for my own behaviour and once content with yourself you can wish everyone well without needing to agree with everything they say or do.

The most important thing is to work on bringing yourself to a place of self-acceptance by understanding what drives you as an individual which can only be accomplished through significant introspection. It is why I tend to focus much less on what people call themselves and more on what they do as the latter has much more significance. Our life of dignity and integrity is what counts.

All in all, my instinct to want to slap people is waning dramatically which makes me very glad.

Montréal sous la neige

 

Interaction

I need to examine my own mindset on things all the time. The young man was disheveled and wore tattered clothing and came to me asking if I could pay or his yogurt based product. I got and went to pay and at the cash he also asked for a large coffee but then I told the girl I would only pay for his parfait which turned out to be $5.18. This because of what I read to be his presumptious attitude.

He did not thank me or look at me which admittedly bothered me a bit when it really shouldn't have for I wasn't doing it to be thanked.

Large cities are increasingly full of people on the margins which is something I often reflect on and even if I went around giving of my own money it wouldn't make a ripple and only shrink my own finances.

I want to be part of the solution but I realize I don't have the fortitude to go into the trenches. I have worked hard, lived responsibly all my life and denied myself things to keep my bank account on the positive balance. Part of me thinks I don't owe someone else who has not done so, only that not everyone has the advantages I was given to start.

It's going to take a global effort where we all do our little share to make the world a better place and maybe as a start we can eliminate the hoarding of wealth such that the lion share doesn't belong to the top 10%..

Yes, that $5 was paid out gladly and yet the impact of the interaction stayed with me long after.

Oopsie

 

LGBT Conservatives featuring Contrapoints

Natalie Wynn adds her usual intelligent analysis here on the counterintuitive concept of LGBTQ conservatives who eat their own young as a way to deal with their self hate....

Feminine being

Once we do our mental homework we can become very comfortable as feminine beings; not caricatures mind you but instead wholly immersed people. I am more in touch with my core than I have ever been and that has relaxed me to an extent I had not expected. Such is the power of working against your grain and how much it can hamper you.

This process for me has been like leaving cult programming behind; programing which began from the moment I was born.

Slow moving coup

It's been fascinating to witness in real time how a population can fail to react to what is akin to a slow moving Coup d'Etat. The GOP, now turned into pseudo-Christian Nationalist authoritarian cult, is even openly telling the population that it intends to dismantle the structure of American democracy and yet it barely registers. If the latest polls are any indication, the front runners are unbelievably neck in neck.

Say what you want about Biden and the Dems, at least they are trying to keep the boat afloat instead of sinking it and at least are doing something to support the most marginalized communities. Contrast that against a Republican culture war onslaught which threatens to make the lives of many Americans completely miserable.

I continue to say that so many people on this planet are so hopelessly deluded and misinformed on even the most basic topics that it is no longer a wonder to me that despots are able to take hold of power. What you need to do is stoke the most base and raw instincts of the electorate using fear as the driving force which is precisely how Hitler was able to do it in the 1930's.

I've had more than my fair share of discussions with people that were so completely obtuse and misinformed that it left me despondent about their ability to make decisions with any type of critical thinking.

Sadly in politics it can often be a decision based on who can do the least harm rather than who is best suited for the job.

Heartening

I was waiting for the bus yesterday when two passerbys caught my attention only because one of them was a young transgender woman wearing lovely dangly earrings and speaking, without undue self-consciousness, in a rather deep voice. She was talking to her female friend during an animated discussion as they were headed for the metro entrance.

What struck me was that these GenZs perhaps don't realize just how uncommon this would have been when I was their age; something which I found rather heartening.

It's all relative

Postmodernism is ostensibly about relativism. The idea is that there are few fixed absolutes and we simply draw lessons from history to make conclusions about the nature of humanity. Many conservatives have a problem with relativism and indeed all greys and, although I do believe that fundamental truths exist, the people most bemoaning cultural change themselves do not seem to own exclusive insight on these same truths.

Go back and examine all the great philosophers and you will see sometimes marked disagreements between them which proves how elusive our understanding of our existence can be. I am simply of the opinion that we are to be humbled by the quality of creation and cannot know all. The mosquito does not comprehend the nature of the human and the human in turn is perplexed by the grandeur which constitutes our reality on this planet.

So I keep and open mind and think about advancing the common good and using reasonable assumptions to arrive at the best solutions possible for humanity while knowing we are limited and will remain so while we are.

The idea that humans are in progress of constantly improving seems to run counter to the evidence. But we can certainly keep trying.

In an instant

The pandemic had a very significant impact on many of us. Cocooned away in our houses, we were perhaps more easily prompted to examine our lives to date and make sense of them. I know I am here in large part because this marking event happened and I am not the only person to have come to revelations because I have spoken to others.

It is only when the merry-go-round is forced to stop that we can question why we were riding it in the first place.

I am certain that we are still living with the fallout only that it's now attained such subtle tones to have blended into a low background hum. The complacency we lived under before has given way to a more stark reality that things can change very dramatically in only an instant.