Community > Politics and Government
TERFs and social conservatives team up to fight trans rights
dpareja:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trans-rights-bill-1.4113455
--- Quote ---It's almost a cliché, but nonetheless true: sometimes the left and the right, when they go far enough down their respective rabbit holes, wind up meeting in some strange common burrow and agree, as the wickedly ironic Dr. Frank'N'Furter put it, on the cause, but not the symptom.
...
Among the issues that remain, one of the most prominent is transgender rights. Granted, it's not as seismic as abortion, and it affects far fewer people – I'm not even sure I know a transgender person – but it's a hot topic.
Risibly, it was a prominent issue in last year's American presidential election. Republican so-cons cried in alarm about allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice, which is the guidance former president Barack Obama gave the nation's schools.
In the view of social conservatives, that invites sinister, perverted men to simply declare themselves women, then waltz into girls' bathrooms and locker rooms and satisfy all manner of disgusting urges.
...
As Canada's new law on transgender rights — Bill C-16, which seeks to shield "gender expression" and "gender identity" from discrimination or hatred — makes its way through Parliament, some feminist activists are warning that it goes too far.
Hilla Kerner, of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter, basically told a Senate committee this week that transgender women really aren't women, and threaten the existence of exclusively "female-born" spaces, such as rape crisis centres.
Women who are not born with vaginas, she said, do not have to suffer the second-class existence of "female-born" women. Instead, they could theoretically choose to be a man if they like, which makes them much more privileged.
Those who are not "female-born," she added, cannot "know the embarrassment of having our clothes stained with blood from our period, the anxiety of facing an unwanted pregnancy and the fear of being raped, and we know the comfort of grouping with other women."
Meghan Murphy, a founder of the website Feminist Current, seconded Kerner's remarks, criticizing the proposed law because "it treats gender as a personal choice."
Well. Republicans Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Donald Trump together couldn't have expressed that thought more perfectly.
--- End quote ---
Sigmaleph:
--- Quote ---the fear of being raped
--- End quote ---
well, it's good to know we're apparently immune to rape.
Id82:
The horse shoe theory in effect.
Tolpuddle Martyr:
Bigots buddying up with bigots of other tribes, even if they can't stand each other on other occasions. There are precedents, like US Christian fundies buddying up with Islamist fundies to thwart international aid attempts to provide reproductive health care in third world countries.
pyro:
Immune to pregnancy resulting from rape.
(as if that's the only problem with rape)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version