padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
without a doubt. it's only in the last couple years that I feel I've been able properly wrapped my head around the issues, and a fair bit of that had to do with sorting out my own sexuality and self-image. it's not like the queer community is a monolith either - besides (some) lesbians and (some) trans women, there are also issues between cisgendered gay men and trans people, gay men and women (of all kinds) in general, etc, aside from the inevitable divisions around race and class.It's a difficult subject to think with, if you don't have "skin in the game" so to speak
it's not like trans people are immune to criticism, of course. but it's really only in the last few years like that trans people have really started becoming culturally visible other than as freaks, objects of disgust, etc, and that visibility is much less far along in terms in creating access to a better standard of living for trans people. Laverne Cox is great but she's an extreme outlier, let alone Caitlyn Jenner. I know so, so many people who do or have done sex work for primary or supplementary income. not to paint (voluntary, ofc) sex work as evil, or shame sex workers, but it points to the frequent difficulty of finding other employment and stable living situations.
in that context it's especially galling to see an extremely rich woman with vast cultural power to take the lines Rowling has, which I imagine contributes to the opprobrium of the response. I don't want her to be cancelled, in any event. she's wrong (in seeming good faith tbf), but she's not dangerous in the way a neonazi is. she should be refuted and held responsible for what she says. preferably in a non-toxic fashion, but that seems inescapable in the medium, tho I'm no Twitter expert.
like many of these things, it's also a distraction from more important issues, like trying to create concrete improvements in the lives of trans people
as always that's much more difficult to achieve than fighting on Twitter, especially in the middle of pandemic, Trump, etc
tho also, words are important, politics is indeed downstream of culture, and you have to advocate ideas against retrograde attitudes