11 Comments
Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 3, 2023Liked by Akiva Malamet, Shikha Dalmia

I don't think the US removes 500k children from homes each year (but am open to being wrong about that) - maybe that's the total number of children in foster care?

Also, re: the state removing children from homes, I hope both participants in the conversation agree that is wrong whether it's for giving kids blockers/hormones (like in Texas) or for not giving kids blockers/hormones (like in Oregon and California).

This seems like an issue that would really benefit from lowering the temperature of conversation and not acting like the most marginal cases (both parents who want very young kids to transition and angry fundamentalists who disown their kids) are representative of the majority of trans people and their families.

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This article throws out all sorts of straw men and logical fallacies.

Trans people are not being demonized for being trans. TRANS PEOPLE ARE BEING DEMONIZED FOR RECRUITING LITTLE CHILDREN before sexuality should even be a discussion for children.

Additionally, the LGBT community make up a relatively small portion of society and the trans community make up a much smaller portion of society. Why are their rights being pushed to the forefront of the discussion while other much larger communities are being maligned?

This sort of partisan, short sighted, divisive journalism does more harm than good and literally greats a reason for the "right wing populism" you are opposing to grow.

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This article is, first of all, an astonishing example of just how badly the ACLU has lost its way. Here’s one example among many:

“The bills that were just signed by Ron DeSantis in Florida are pretty instructive here. He's signed a bill outlawing trans people from using the restroom, most consistent with their gender identity, threatening them with criminal penalty if they're caught using the wrong restroom.”

I am perfectly willing to admit that this is a complex situation with many competing interests. But the ACLU apparently believes that it’s a more or less straightforward issue of right vs wrong. The ACLU apparently believes that by allowing men/trans women into a space reserved for biological women (a women’s restroom) they are doing nothing more than expanding the rights of a persecuted minority. But it can just as easily be argued that the ACLU is, in this and other cases, trying to deny and erase the hard-won rights and private spaces of biological women.

If and when the ACLU wants to counter that “trans women are women,” they are no longer arguing for civil rights. In that case, they are promoting an extreme gender ideology that actively persecutes anyone who dares to dissent (JK Rowling states that she could wallpaper her house with the number of death threats she has received from extremist gender ideologues).

Just think about that absolutely head-spinning turn of affairs: the ACLU now appears to be aiding and abetting an extremist sect that actively fights AGAINST free speech. In all of our fictional dystopias, I don’t think anyone ever imagined a once noble organization losing its way in such a tragic, profound, and utterly counterproductive manner.

But it gets worse. These days, it always gets worse. The type of approach in the above quote involves the kind of gaslighting and the kind of reductive thought processes that typically define populist movements. And yet here, that sort of Leftist populism is promoted in a supposedly “un-populist” publication. I think even Orwell would sit back in stunned silence.

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Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 4, 2023

I'm a gay male. I've fought all my adult life to advance a recognition that there's nothing "queer" about same-sex attraction. I’m attracted to guys; I’ve never hidden that fact, and (as my parents raised me) I’m proud simply to be myself. I never signed up to "smash cisheteropatriarchy" in the name of some Brave New World.

It's said that sexual orientation is about who you go to bed with, while "gender identity" is WHAT you go to bed AS. Consider how insulting (and homophobic) it is to ask a gay male, "Are you the ’man’ or the ‘woman’ in bed?" That’s an affront to the very definition of same-sex attraction!

We repudiate "gender identity"; "Trans" people repudiate biological sex.

A person genuinely suffering from a brain-body mismatch (due to a neurological or hormonal anomaly) deserves the same decency, compassion and access to medical treatment (if need be) as anyone with a deformity or disability. That’s a far cry from “LGBTQIA+,” let alone “queer.”

"A loser's game"? Both sides in this so-called "culture war" are running a protection racket (jeopardizing all the acceptance that gay people have gained). Thanks, but no thanks!

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Most heteronormatives just want to associate with other heteronormatives. Standing up for the freedom to associate used to be a central attraction drawing people to the UCLA. Now that it refuses to stand up for free speech, is this another civil liberty they are discarding? Will they change their name to "standing up for whatever is kewl?"

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They're not asking for "equal dignity", they're asking for Uber rights and forced celebration of their lifestyles.

Typical communist method of changing the meaning of words just to confuse people.

Some things never change. ARP is not a libertarian.

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