Where Do You Stand and Why?

When it comes to politics I’m often accused of being either a Dumocrat or Repubutard depending totally on the particular subject being discussed. I feel this is because of the crazy level of polarization we have reached here in the U.S. when it comes to politics, which often makes rational discussion virtually impossible. In my view as an independent, it seems like politics has almost become a sporting event with people supporting their “team” regardless of what that side is saying and either ignoring or somehow justifying that position no matter how out there it may be. There does come a point though where I have to wonder if literally anything will shake someone out of their deeply held belief. This goes for both sides.

I really want to clarify that what I mean by independent is that I hold a variety of views that would typically be assumed to be held by one side more than the other and that I don’t fall in line on one side of the political fence. For example on gun control I would definitely fall more on the typically Republican side while on women’s rights I sit strong on the Democratic side. I’ve voted for both Republican and Democratic presidents. At the state and local level I am all over the political map.

Now, after all that I have to admit that I will absolutely be voting Democrat this year no matter who wins the primary. In fact, I will be voting Democrat right down the line and encourage any LGBT person or ally or rational human being for that matter to do the same. I can no longer look at the current Republican party and consider any current candidate as a rational choice and I wonder how anyone can, let alone any LGBT person.

As I’m sure many of you do, I have hardcore conservative Republican friends on Facebook that are inexplicably also LGBT. This just boggles my mind.

Of course I can’t go too much further into this subject without mentioning Caitlyn Jenner who has publicly supported Ted Cruz despite the fact that Cruz would consider her an “abomination.” Her justification is that she thinks “We need jobs. We need a vibrant economy” because presumably we are on the brink of economic disaster that can only be fixed by Cruz’s “brilliance.”

In any case, she and other LGBT Republicans may have a more difficult time hand waving away the fact that Republicans have now added anti-trans resolutions to their national platform that target, you guessed it, bathroom and locker room usage. Worse, it targets our youth by focusing on schools. From the resolution:

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee calls on the Department of Education to rescind its interpretation of Title IX that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students;

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages State Legislatures to recognize that these Obama gender identity policies are a federal governmental overreach, a misinterpretation of Title IX policies, and an infringement upon the majority of students’ Constitutional rights; and

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated.

In reading this GOP resolution it seems as direct and potentially hurtful of any anti-trans stance to be found anywhere in the United States. How can any transperson simply ignore this blatant hate?

You might wonder who, that besides Jenner, are the transpeople that can justify supporting an organization that clearly despises them and is working against them? In my opinion and experience they are likely similar to her in that they had the benefit of living a privileged life for a long time or they still have the option to return to that privilege at will. There are exceptions for certain, but that has been my experience.

So, where does this all leave us? Do we just abandon our brothers and sisters, writing them off as a lost cause because they are entrenched in a worldview that is self-destructive? This may surprise you, but I don’t think we either should or need to. In fact, I think even someone as clearly far entrenched in their view as Caitlyn Jenner can be shown the fallacy of their thinking. I have had reasonable success with this with many different types of flawed and deeply held beliefs that people hold by using the Socratic method of reasoning.

I feel that everyone can really benefit by learning the Socratic method of dealing with people that have a deeply held belief (no matter what that is). For those not familiar, the Socratic method is basically learning to ask the right questions to get the person to figure things out for themselves. You do not counter their arguments or attempt to correct them. I won’t kid you, this can be incredibly tough to do.  Another key thing is to not be adversarial and intend to truly try to understand how they reached the beliefs that they have. If the belief is indeed flawed, they will eventually realize it themselves once you have helped them examine those beliefs.  This takes some learning and patience, but you can change virtually anyone’s belief with it over time, perhaps even Caitlyn Jenner’s.

Notes: 

Example of the Socratic method:

Jenner — “I don’t feel like they are out to get us. Every conservative guy out there believes in everyone’s rights.”

Reply — “That’s interesting, I did not know that conservatives were supportive of trans rights. Can you help me understand by pointing out a couple of examples of how conservatives have supported trans rights?”

Full GOP resolution can be read here.

Tags: Caitlyn Jenner, featured, opinion, politics

Category: Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics