Support Thread for Marginalized Groups in the US

[Jwb]

I take your point, Steph: probably a bad choice of words. It's pretty damn scary though, because hyperbole or not, what the hell are they doing? If people want to leave the country then they should be able to. To be perfectly callous about it, if they don't want "those people" in the USA, why are they making it so hard for them to leave? Surely they'd be facilitating such an exit?

Kind of academic in Lexi's case, as she and her hubby have made the decision to stay for now, but even so, it rings a chilling bell that recalls the past. I don't understand the logic. I know why it happened originally, given the plan they had, but why stop them leaving now?

from what I'm reading,  it has to do with not wanting to put the "correct sex designation" on passports and other documents.  So the seeming motive for a move like that is similar to the motive for banning them from the military, bathrooms,  sports, whatever.  They want to reverse the clock on trans people being normalized. It doesn't seem to be about keeping people in the country.  They will issue you a passport, just one with the wrong gender, from what I am reading.  It's just about making their lives more difficult, it seems.

Yeah I responded with that. If someone doesn't even want to address you directly you think they are gonna respond to you now? When they didn't even want to directly call you out in the first place? Just let the shit go it's old news

Well tbh I don't post with the expectation that he must respond.  That's up to him.  I responded for the same reason you're wasting your time lecturing me about how I shouldn't have responded to a post that I already responded to.  Because I refuse to keep my unproductive thoughts to myself,  just like you pal.

[Lexi Darling]

Yeah, the passport thing seems mostly to fuck with us and cause confusion and humiliation, but I think it's very likely that bad actors across the country will use the "birth sex" on our IDs and passports to justify forcing us into the opposite gender's spaces and enforce any drag bans under state laws. While I also think the Final Solution comparison is unwarranted as of right now and I think it's very very unlikely we'll get to that point, we're only one month into this regime; this stuff can easily be a springboard to worse stuff, and since the EO and its resultant policies aren't being meaningfully challenged at the moment I wouldn't get complacent. But yes, it's important to stay grounded.

Another related thing is the SAVE act that was recently introduced, which, if it passes, will prevent anyone who has legally changed their name to something that doesn't match their birth certificate or passport from voting. So anyone, trans or otherwise, will have to spend a couple hundred bucks on a passport with the right name but wrong gender, just to vote. So many trans people are destitute and barely scraping by, not to mention the millions of lower income married women. I'm fully expecting many people to not even pay attention to that if it passes and get turned away at the polls.

They're fucking with us all, because we're ants and they're sadistic third graders with magnifying glasses on a summer day.

[Lucem Ferre]

I care because I'm a hateful petty man, and you know this.

 

[jimmy jazz]

I lol'd as well.

[Trollheart]

Yeah, the passport thing seems mostly to fuck with us and cause confusion and humiliation, but I think it's very likely that bad actors across the country will use the "birth sex" on our IDs and passports to justify forcing us into the opposite gender's spaces and enforce any drag bans under state laws. While I also think the Final Solution comparison is unwarranted as of right now and I think it's very very unlikely we'll get to that point, we're only one month into this regime; this stuff can easily be a springboard to worse stuff, and since the EO and its resultant policies aren't being meaningfully challenged at the moment I wouldn't get complacent. But yes, it's important to stay grounded.

Another related thing is the SAVE act that was recently introduced, which, if it passes, will prevent anyone who has legally changed their name to something that doesn't match their birth certificate or passport from voting. So anyone, trans or otherwise, will have to spend a couple hundred bucks on a passport with the right name but wrong gender, just to vote. So many trans people are destitute and barely scraping by, not to mention the millions of lower income married women. I'm fully expecting many people to not even pay attention to that if it passes and get turned away at the polls.

They're fucking with us all, because we're ants and they're sadistic third graders with magnifying glasses on a summer day.

Yeah well they should remember there are millions or billions of ants in the world, and once they get into your clothing, food, house or bedding they're damned hard to get rid of. Also, magnifying glass can be turned on the user.

[Lexi Darling]

As per my post in the LGBT thread, I'm taking a leave of absence from political and current event discussion. My mind has been getting easily overloaded when I engage with articles and discussions on those topics and it's really taking a toll on my mood, even IRL. I'm more irritable and on-edge and it's affecting the other people in my life. I'm going to try to get more zen for a while. I've used a blocking script to hide the political subforum so I don't make a mistake like the one I made earlier today. Especially on the topic of trans stuff I've felt obligated to engage in those discussions and debates for years because I want to push back against misinformation and disingenuous rhetoric and not let it go unchallenged. But it's worn me down over the past 3 years and it's tearing my head apart trying to keep up with all of it. I'm trying to discipline myself to just put it out of sight and out of mind. At this point I'm sure everyone here knows my stances on things anyway. Just letting everyone know where I'm at right now.

[Trollheart]

Absolutely right. Nobody could say you have buried your head or not stood up for what you believe to be right (and what is objectively right). I feel the same, in a way, about my Trump journal. It's just, well, depressing, and that's only a distant reaction from me. I can't even imagine how it's affecting you. So you're doing the right thing. Step back, leave the chaos behind. Think about fluffy kittens and rainbows for a while, and a world without Trump and MAGA.

[Lexi Darling]

I came across this article this morning, which I certainly agree with.

I'm really starting to unravel a bit, I'll be honest. Seeing all the shithead """radical feminist""" quislings' reactions today, them laughing at our pain, celebrating the erosion of our public safety and human dignity, and cheering on another step toward our removal from public life, it just kind of broke something in my brain that people can call themselves feminists and be so cruel as to delight in the state-sponsored suffering of queer, trans, intersex and GNC people, and of course trans stories, and our thoughts on these things that are being done to us non consensually, are given zero public platform; we are being treated like a deformity, covered up, shoved aside, talked to and about but never with.  The institutions that have the power, influence and authority to make decisions on matters of our health, safety, common respect, and even continued public existence , are all largely made up of people who hate us and want us to suffer. And the weight of all this is crushing me right now.

A big part of it is the timing. A year and a half ago I got married and was ready to settle down and enjoy my life; after 15 years of working shitty retail jobs, drug problems, having few irl friends, and struggling with transition related issues, I felt like my life was finally on track to make all the hard times worth it. I want to grow old with my partner and have the quiet suburban life I'd always dreamed of, and right when it felt like I was finally there, some pigheaded brutes decide that a political priority is to rip that away from me, delighting in it all the while. I wasn't supposed to have a normal life, I'm an other. A tranny faggot who can never be allowed to exist in society as anything more than a freak, a blemish to be smoothed over by conservative patriarchal conformity.

And I'm by all means one of the more privileged trans people; most of the people the conservatives are fucking with are broke, neurodivergent, abused and traumatized, abandoned by their families, unable to advance any career except turning to sex work, the list goes on. These are the people whose lives are being ruined because we dared to take medicine for our dysphoria and be ourselves, the people they don't want us to be. TERFs dare to paint themselves as heroes, as any different from the Trump brand of obsessed hate, but they're all the same; mean-spirited heartless bullies. I don't enjoy living like this, having to see their smirking faces and read their meaningless platitudes about "basic biology" all while I'm consoling my friends and talking them down from the edge on a regular basis. The powers that be in the US and UK are absolutely obsessed with making life miserable and unsafe for us, and it's steadily sapping my strength and squashing my usual upbeat and cheerful energy.

10 years ago it looked like trans people were making social progress; even the first bathroom bill in 2017 was largely ineffectual. But now that feels like a distant memory. I feel like ever so slowly the light in my heart is being snuffed out and my default state is becoming one of fear and sadness. I just want this nightmare to be over. I just want a normal life.

[Guybrush]

@Lexi Darling 🫂😢 I don't know quite what to write except I wish society and life was treating you better. If you need someone to talk to, I wanna be there for you ❤️

[Lexi Darling]

@Lexi Darling 🫂😢 I don't know quite what to write except I wish society and life was treating you better. If you need someone to talk to, I wanna be there for you ❤️

Thank you, I really appreciate it. I just needed to vent, getting that out in writing has been helpful for my mood today, as has your gesture of support and kindness. <3

I'm trying my best to occupy myself so I can take my mind off the news, and I'm trying to avoid reading the particularly nasty elements of the news so I can focus on following the stuff that will directly impact my life. All I can do is keep living my life as close to normal as I can, and right now, that's enough.