Over the past few years, an endless parade of “concerned” people (trolls) have trotted out the same statistic over and over again: 84 percent of transgender kids stop being transgender on their own. They have used this to justify everything from reparative therapy, to denying medical care to transgender teens, to suggesting that reparative therapy…
A Failure To Listen
This past week I was at the Netroots Nation 2015 conference. In the past, this has been one of my favorite progressive events, full of both energy and positivity. This year the theme was intersectionality within the LGBT movement. I am forced to report that we are failing at it. Horribly. This realization started with…
6 Ways to Not Be a Terrible Trans Ally
When our oldest daughter was 2 years old and in day care, she had a habit of taste-testing everything. Thankfully, nothing in the day care room was toxic, but we found ourselves dispensing oddly specific advice in the morning like, “Please don’t eat the green Play-doh today.” Similarly with supposed transgender allies, their most…
Two Americas for LGBT People
After the 2014 election we knew we would be losing ground for a couple of years. The crop of incoming conservatives featured many new, terrifyingly crazy anti-LGBT legislators. We were right to be worried. So far, we have seen states nullify all local non-discrimination ordinances protecting LGBT people. We’ve seen new bills granting special religious exemptions to ignore civil rights laws if…
Conservatives and the Transgender Time Warp
Since the TIME magazine cover story, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” there has been a distinct whiff of panic coming from social conservatives. The idea of transgender people, and their issues, being taken seriously in mainstream culture was seen as some far-off, almost-too-horrible-to-be-believed future. As a result, when this moment came, the right was left without a coherent,…