Op-Ed: Conservatives and The Transgender Menace

Social conservatives see you, and I, as a menace and threat to their very way of life. The TG community sees itself as oppressed, misunderstood, and fighting for its rights. The difference between these two perceptions is where the trouble begins.

From the social conservative point of view the fight for bathroom rights gets cast as men dressing as women to use the lady’s room for nefarious purposes. They find it unbelievable that we might just have to pee. Rather than accept that transwomen are women, they have to find some explanation that makes sense to them. Since male conservatives couldn’t imagine in a million years wanting to dress as a woman, unless it was for some (alleged) comedic purpose, they are totally unable to understand that some people who were born with male bodies feel more comfortable or have more fun presenting as women. The idea of women wanting to dress and act like men is also completely incomprehensible to them unless they cast it as women trying to grab “male privilege.”

(Of course there are those among the conservatives who do understand the urges and needs that people on the transgender spectrum feel. They feel those things too and they are called hypocrites. They indulge their passions in private while publicly railing against trans people.)

The general lack of understanding by the conservative mind manifests itself in other areas. Conservatives often believe that poor people enjoy being poor and getting handouts from the government instead of working. They ignore that poor people are poor because there are no jobs available (or so low paying that assistance pays more) and that the educational system in the U.S. has failed to provide the education people need to get good jobs, if they do exist.

Conservatives will tell you with a straight face that being homosexual is a “lifestyle choice.” In their worldview everyone is heterosexual. If you chose to have sexual relations with someone of your own sex you must be perverted, or deliberately making an effort to affront “right thinking” society, and you could easily be returned to your default hetero state with the proper therapy. If the therapy doesn’t work then you are quite possible possessed by the devil. They never ask why on Earth anyone would embrace a “lifestyle” that made them subject to the kind of scorn, ridicule and violence that gay people have been known to attract.

People running away from the drug wars of central and south America appear to conservatives as disease ridden criminals who are coming to the United States to take away U.S. born worker’s jobs. In their minds the immigrants are all drug mules and they leave headless bodies in the Arizona desert. The idea that these people might value the American dream and want to make a better life away from constant danger does not find a spot in the conservative brain.

With so much of the conservative worldview dictated by this type of thinking it’s no wonder that the recognition of transgendered people as legitimate humans who were born that way does not fit into conservative thinker’s thought patterns. TGs must be up to something. They must be gay men who are out to trick heterosexuals into having sex with them. They must be sexual predators who are using women’s clothing as a disguise so they can go places where only women will be. They must be doing it to cause confusion and unrest. They (the TG community) want to get the conservative establishment all flustered while they take more of America away from the “real Americans.”

Conservatives view laws to protect the civil and human rights of members of the GLBT communities as giving “those” people “special rights.” We, on the other hand, see the legislation that says we can’t be discriminated against due to our gender identity or presentation as protection from people who seek to deny us our rights, or our lives, in violation of the existing laws of the land. The conservative feels that since we are perverted, or trouble makers, or engaged in some nefarious activity that it should be fine to deny us the rights that all other U.S. citizens are entitled to. When you make someone “other” it becomes easy to take away their rights.

Anti-discrimination laws are attempts to clarify that the rights everyone has can’t be taken away just because you happen to believe that a trans woman is somehow not legitimate. If it’s a human right then every human is entitled to it. If it’s protected by law then every citizen is entitled to that protection.

Thinking on the part of the conservative element that sees right for GLBT people as “special rights” leads them to think in that way about other things. They feel that our President — whose legitimacy they also dispute — has some scheme or “long con” that he is working when he takes actions to assure trans people’s rights. They see his moves and the steps taken by the Department of Justice to stop discrimination against the GLBT communities as a great example of how the current administration is giving America away to perverts and troublemakers. (Soon people will be marrying trees and dogs!) Of course many conservative politicians know that the President and the administration are dedicated to protecting the rights of all citizens and that laws or executive orders enacted to protect TG rights will do nothing to diminish anyone else’s rights, but they will use the administration’s steps to protect GLBT rights as a political tool to enflame their conservative base with allegations of America sinking into moral decay and degeneracy.

Conservatives by nature enjoy a world where everything stays the same. The houses look the same. Everyone has the same haircut and wears the approved attire for work and play. Men are breadwinners and women are in charge of the home and the children. All runs as it should and everyone knows their proper place. Laverne Cox is not on the cover of Time challenging people’s perception of gender. The T word itself does not appear in the newspaper, on the evening news, and the president certainly never utters it or sticks up for “those people.” To conservatives it would be a much better world if the GLBT element stayed underground. We, along with the other letters of GLBT, shake the foundation of the conservative world. What they don’t admit, and most don’t understand, is that we’ve always been here. And their heads would all explode if one day everyone who is still in the closet announced to the world that they are a G, an L, a B, or a T. When that day arrives, or sneaks up on us, and no one discriminates against transgendered people because of who they are, on that day the conservative mindset will be shattered. So maybe they’re not paranoid. Maybe we will change their world. I think it will be for the better.

Tags: Angela Gardner, conservative vs liberal, culture clash, featured, opinion

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion