If Someone Says Your Identity Is False, Does That Change Your Identity?
Okay, the answer is clearly a resounding, "NO!" Even so, I will delve into this to see if we can elicit some useful observations about and responses to the attacks the Transgender community, and in fact everyone that doesn't fit the MAGA ideal of biologically real and superior human being granted all the rights and authorities vested in them by the great Drumpf!
Let's begin with the basics, using myself as an example. When someone, perhaps with a printed copy of an executive order to waive in my face, tells me I am not a woman but in fact a man, what changes? Having experienced this recently (😉), I have now a prepared list of my actual responses!
- My emotional state went through a few transitions before settling on pissed! I am so glad that I am a woman, because Hell has no fury...
- Being a little naïve, I dropped my panties in a panic to check, before I realized that genitalia has only a strong but not definitive correlation to gender identity. Even so, I heaved a sigh of relief to see that my surgical efforts had not miraculously reversed. I guess the great Drumpf is not all powerful!
- I called several friends who I suspected got the news sooner than I did, in case the transition takes time. Fortunately, we can all report that no change has occurred! Of course, this result is not conclusive without first completing a double blind study conducted for at least 5 years longer than it already has been studied.
(Sound familiar?) - My sarcastic inner raptor woke up, and the person who delivered the unwelcome proclamation of transmutation shrieked and ran away. The pen is mightier than the sword, and the sarcastic retort is mightier than the proclamation, er, I mean hexecutive hors d'oeuvre?
I guess, upon reflection, that I have no useful responses, because such would imply there was a kernel of logic and "biological truth" of utterances from the inexecutive hauteur. Still, I am deriving satisfaction in that more and more people are waking up to realize some actual facts.
- After only 8 days, it is clear that the felon who shall not be dignified actually really meant all the nonsense they said. [Apologies to all my enby friends, I use 'they' because I truly have no idea what pronoun best befits the felon who shall not be dignified.
- The remaining believers still in denial are now discovering that their expectations of returning to the "goode olde daies" are not to be fulfilled. For those who have trouble reading the latest Chaucerian English, that can be more appropriately written "gōde eald dagas".
- More and more people are not only finding their voices, but they are also finding or founding platforms to add their voices to our chorus! Check out: Lucid: Big-Picture Thinking about Threats to Democracy around the World
- Andy Borowitz is a seer! Hegseth Arrested for DUI After Crashing Tank Into Pentagon [Mark my words, it's only a matter of time, and in this case truth will be even stranger than fiction!]
So brothers, sisters, siblings, allies, and those who share our enemies, sleep well tonight, for tomorrow we fight! Let's ring the bell, the clarion call of freedom and the basic rights that naturally belong to all sentient beings.
Love and peace,
Saoirse