Proportion
Today, like every day, is trans day of something. This one is remembrance. Tomorrow is biceps and the next day is wood lice.
Cllr. Peter Kavanagh, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, paid tribute today to the county’s Transgender community and spoke about how they were disproportionately affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Mayor Kavanagh raised the Trans flag at County Hall in Tallaght to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, when the victims of transphobic violence are commemorated.
Trans people are disproportionately affected by the pandemic? Really? More so than mothers of small children, people with no money, homeless people, mothers of slightly bigger children, people who lose jobs because of lockdowns, people with health conditions that make them more vulnerable, teachers, nurses, doctors, migrants, prisoners? What makes trans people disproportionately affected?
“Trans people, especially young trans people, rely on their community for support. Lockdowns and restrictions have meant that accessing these communities hasn’t been as easy, and has disproportionately affected trans people who don’t get to be themselves outside of their community,” Mayor Kavanagh said.
But people who aren’t trans also rely on their community for support.
Is he saying that it’s worse for trans people because they don’t have such a receptive audience for their gender performances? Because if so, that’s an incredibly boutique luxury opulent gold enamel form of being disproportionately affected. It doesn’t stand out compared to having to take children out of school and figure out how to keep them safe while you’re at work, or having a parent or child or spouse die alone in an ICU, or being locked up with hundreds of other prisoners all hoping they won’t infect each other, or being a nurse or doctor worn to a frazzle and seeing patient after patient die gasping for air.
Mayor Kavanagh also cautioned against the rise of transphobia in the media, saying, “I’m old enough to remember the debates around decriminalisation of homosexuality, and it’s upsetting to see the same tired talking points coming to the fore in Irish media today. Since 2015, trans people have had the legal right to be who they really are, and we don’t need to ape other countries and platform discrimination and hate under the guise of concern.”
One, they’re not the same “talking points.” Two, trans people claim to be what they really are not, so it’s stupid to frame the issue as being about “who they really are.” Three, talk to some women. If men can take over everything set aside for women on the grounds that the men “really are” women despite the obvious and salient differences.
You forgot mothers with large children. Teens can be a problem for parents, too, especially if you have to deal with them, The idea that teens could take care of themselves have some merit, but it isn’t usually a question of can but will.
Yeah, trans are more affected by everything, Shooting stars affect them more. The possibility of Betelgeuse going supernova affects them more. The possible existence of other universes harms them more (unless those other universes identify as galaxies, and then they are welcome to add their letter to the alphabet soup).
Let’s face it, when you are faced with the reality that only women actually get pregnant, you are so much worse off than people dying of COVID, losing their job, or becoming homeless. There is just no comparison.
*snort*
*sproing* there goes my newest irony meter.
Socialising with people that mutually accept and hence reinforce each others’ fantasy lives, i.e. communal therapy sessions. Without that the fantasy weakens, sort of like a fairy when kids don’t believe in them (if I have remembered the metaphysics of Hook correctly, anyway).
Well trans activists certainly demand and exact tribute. In this case, it takes the form of a government official mouthing the patently untrue “most vulnerable and victimized group ever” platitudes. There are many more meaningful (and honest) things the Mayor should be honouring and commemorating before grovelling to solemnize this bullshit.
This empty little performance reminds me of the suggestion (I think I read it on Jane Clare Jones’ twitter stream) of adding to the annual reading of the names of all the women who have been murdered in the UK during the last year, the names of all the TiMs who have been murdered in the UK during that same time period. The number that would be so added would be ZERO. That too would be an empty performance. Literally.
Failure to keep food on the table and a roof over your head is nothing compared to the lack of an audience to applaud one’s Brave and Stunning Identity. They are nothing without their pronouns (and without the opportunity to force their use). Denying them their needed hits of constant Affirmation and Validation is like cutting off their supplies of food, water, and oxygen. It’s Literal Violence that’s Literally Killing them. Literally.
(Cue Lennon’s Cold Turkey).
Here’s another demographic that was particularly harmed by the pandemic: older people. Our village has a very high proportion of people over 80. Many have limited mobility. Few of them can drive. During the various lockdowns, the only conversations some of these people had for months – for months – were with the Tesco delivery driver.
That’s the thing about social capital, isn’t it? Those who don’t have much struggle to get more. Those who do, well, the rich get richer.
We used to know that, didn’t we? That seems like another thing we used to know but somehow don’t now.
Trans Day of Wood Lice?
Heck, I think I could get behind that celebration.
Well, at least the Wood Lice part of it, yes.
I should think that disabled people would have been far more disproportionately affected by Covid 19 isolation than people who wish they were the opposite sex.