In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
You’re right that the answer isn’t easy, but there is one and the Democrats have known it for some time, they’re just not willing to do it. First, look at the driving force of anti-trans sentiment. It’s economics. Trump and the like redirect the righteous anger people feel about their economic situation towards minorities by creating a narrative that is easy to understand and plays into pre-existing prejudices. The Democrats could do the same thing but direct the anger towards the wealthy instead of minorities. People have pre-existing prejudices towards “elites,” and the narrative that the wealthy are the cause of your suffering has the advantage of being true. If the Democrats did this it wouldn’t matter if they also go to bat for the trans community, because the average “anti-trans voter” doesn’t actually care that much about trans issues, but are rather using the trans community as a stand-in to recieve their anger in the absence of a more compelling narrative.
Yeah, no. Economics isnt the driving force behind the anti-trans sentiment. That’s ridiculous
It’s tied in to the broad cultural narrative that Republicans create and reinforce through their media, which is designed for the purpose of transforming economic anxiety into anger at minorities. The trans community can be said to be collateral, since the Republicans don’t directly (keyword here) blame them for the state of the economy, but they represent the perception of “elites” who are culturally strange and different. The entire conservative narrative is about making the economic cultural. Bigotry is deliberately fueled by displaced anger. The anger must come from somewhere.