I will also point out that just on the last page of this thread we are seeing the conflation of several issues. Drag isn’t the same As being transgender there are drag performers who aren’t even gay. Yet we see over and over again the two conflated. We also see mention of outrage over Bud Light making a “gay beer can” which doesn’t directly deal with transgender. These just show how this is about he specific issue but a general culture war pushed for ideological gain.
What's puzzling is this. You'd expect the GOP to use these tactics to get voters to polls. They don't have as many powerful wedge issues to drive evangelicals and motivate them, so this could be one of them. But the people who are up in arms aren't even evangelicals. The whole thing feels like there is something darker here. America is a place people can be free without fear of persecution. Or so is claimed.
These are some of the changes that have taken place in the past few months in hundreds of bills that have been passed or are being considered. They will cause more suicides in a group that is already at risk and greatly impact their lives. These changes include: Censorship (removing books, references, discussions, etc.) Banning from all sports, starting in kindergarten Not allowing use of bathroom of their choice, starting in kindergarten Threat of prosecution of parents for "child abuse" Pursuing teachers for support Criminalizing public drag performances Removing or restricting access to medical and psychological healthcare Stripping Medicaid coverage for such care ... Given the scope and speed, I think someone made a political calculation that being anti-LGBT would be a winning issue, and convinced Republican lawmakers as a whole to strongly pursue it.
I am noticing a lot of transgendered women are embracing negative and in some cases oppressive stereo-types and are saying that is being a woman. First, being feminine is not the same as being a woman, and the idea of the feminine idea is oppressive to women - that can be expectations to be demure, to be submissive, wear make up, dress up and the like - that is not the same as being a woman or a female. Wearing a dress, make up, etc. is not what makes someone a female and that is what I mean when I say that transgendered women can push oppressive stereotypes of women. I don't know any female that think that transgendered women should be stopped from dressing feminine or attempt to pass as a woman, and largely live their lives as women. I have heard some pushback from some women with in-tact transgendered women using the restroom or locker room, but this hasn't been the majority of women I have spoken to. Where I have seen a strong push back from females has been the use of the word "woman" or "female" used in relations to a transgendered woman. I also have spoken to females that do not like the term "cis woman" and feel that they should just be called women and the term for males that want to be women, should be referred to as "trans women" and not "women". Other issues I have heard are over terms like "chest feeders" and "people that can become pregnant". There is a lot of misongany and entitlement with the female trans community - but I hope over time that will be worked out. The debate at this point should not be whether trans-sexuality is real or not, and it should not be over sexualized (I am seeing a lot of people overly sexualizing transgendered people and that is disgusting and not appropriate), it should be about being respectful to both the trans and cis community. There are very very little issues with transgendered men and I believe that is because they lack the entitlement that those that were raised male have being in a patriarchy.
Making everything woke isn’t a way to ‘expand your market’ Like selling pure wheat bread to people who have a gluten allergy won’t work
There is a difference between having concerns or questions about trans-genderism and what a lot of Republican lawmakers are doing. I think that the Republican lawmakers have really misread Americans when it comes to the issue of trans-genderism. There are certainly some Americans that are very transphobic, but I believe that the majority of Americans perhaps have passing thoughts that they don't understand it, or perhaps don't even like it - but they are not in support of a lot of the draconian measures being taken and being discussed. Most Americans want to be left alone to prosper and believe that others that are not a physical threat should get the same. The longer that this drags on as a major topic, the more we will see Americans get annoyed. I am not sure why the Republicans are not discussing inflation, the war in Ukraine, the housing market and other topics that are more important to the day-to-day lives of Americans.
Did you see what my post was referring to? It was referring to activists dressing up developmentally challenged young people as transgender. This here, in case you hadn't clicked on the tweet in the post I was responding to: It is highly doubtful that the people being dressed up like this fully understood what they were being told to do. These are the top reactions by people under that tweet: I agree with these comments. It's sick to subject these developmentally challenged young kids to this. That's why I said "these activists are sick" (the ones who are abusing these children for that). Again, how does that mean I am not letting someone live the life they want to live? Do you think that transgender activism means you can abuse developmentally challenged young people like that, for your own agenda? And I saw your article that you found after a Google search. It's part of the activist agenda to of course put out articles which defend this.
https://reduxx.info/drag-show-tour-of-people-with-down-syndrome-prompts-criticism-confusion/ Drag Show Tour of People with Down Syndrome Prompts Criticism, Confusion ByShay Woulahan January 9, 2023 A performer with Drag Syndrome. Photo Credit: MASHABLE “Drag Syndrome” – a touring drag show featuring people with Down syndrome – has sparked outrage and confusion following the publication of a video intended to promote the group. On January 4, US-based media company Mashable uploaded a video to Twitter highlighting the drag show. The short film, entitled “Born to dance with an extra chromosome,” shows interviews and performances with several drag queens with Down syndrome. The video also includes an interview with the creative director of the drag show, Daniel Vais, who ostensibly does not have Down syndrome. Vais founded “Drag syndrome” in 2018. In 2020, Vais gave an interview where he was asked what his most memorable performance was, Vais recounted how one of the drag queens, “Horrora Shebang,” opened a show by shouting “Good evening, b****es!” Drag Syndrome, which is described on its website as being a “drag collective featuring highly addictive queens and kings with Down-Syndrome” tours across Europe and is currently performing at RuPaul’s DragCon UK 2023 in London. The troupe was previously featured at DragCon in 2020, and earned a profile in British Vogue. Drag Syndrome also sells merchandise on their website, and currently has over 81,000 followers on Instagram and an incredible 558.1K followers on TikTok. Despite their renewed popularity, Drag Syndrome has been performing for years, and drawing criticism for just as long. In 2019, a venue owner in Grand Rapids, Michigan actually cancelled the troupe’s booking, citing concerns about “exploitation.” Peter Meijer, the owner of the Tanglefoot Building, issued a public statement, writing: “The involvement of individuals whose ability to act of their own volition is unclear raises serious ethical concerns that I cannot reconcile.” Reacting to Mashable‘s short film on Twitter, the response was overwhelmingly critical. “This is abuse. This is exploitation. This is disgusting. These individuals cannot consent to this, they likely are not even able to live totally independently. No words,” one individual said. “As a special needs parent myself, this is disgusting,” another wrote. Reporter Tatiana Passaic asked a question many others also seemed to have: “Who exactly is the target audience for this?” Other netizens compared the show to historical “circus freak shows” which often exploited people with physical or intellectual disabilities. In the 20th century, some parents of children with disabilities would sell their children to the circus, where they would then be ridiculed and exploited for profit. Circus “freak shows” would often showcase people with dwarfism, intellectual impairment, or Down syndrome. According to the Mayo Clinic, “almost all people with Down syndrome have intellectual disability or low IQ, which includes difficulty learning and trouble with activities of daily life. These difficulties can be mild to severe.” Both adults and children with intellectual disabilities are known to experience higher rates of abuse and exploitation, an issue that has been exacerbated by social media and the internet. Drag shows have been mired in controversy over the past year due to an increase in “drag queen story hours” aimed at children, “family” or “all-ages” drag shows, and drag shows which feature children. Videos have gone viral showing children witnessing sexually explicit performances. One video from July of 2022 that was widely circulated on social media featured a toddler being led through a bar by a half-nude drag queen with breast implants. “Drag queen story hour” (DQSH) is a growing trend which involves a male performer dressed as a caricature of women, often in a highly-sexualized manner, reading books to children. The events inspired multiple protests during 2022, particularly from conservative groups and concerned parents who blast the practice as indoctrination and the sexualization of children. Detractors often describe proponents of such events as “groomers.” Critics of DQSH have been called a litany of slurs equating them with “bigots,” yet protesters have been singling out venues that host drag shows involving children while passing over adult events that adhere to age requirements. Opposition to DQSH has also been accused of motivating a mass shooting at a gay night club in Colorado in November 2022 which resulted in the deaths of five attendants. Prominent LGBTQ+ activists have argued that the use of the term “groomer” online has led to an increase in violence towards the community – despite the fact that the shooter responsible for the killings identities as “non-binary,” and no official motive has yet been announced by investigators. In addition to drag queen story hour and drag shows aimed at children, there has also been an increase in child “drag” performers, often called “drag kids.” One such “drag kid” who uses the stage name “Vanellope Craving” was mentored by an adult drag performer who was later arrested after it was discovered that she had “utilized the internet on numerous occasions to distribute and exchange pornographic images of children” and “engaged in creating child p*rnography and uploaded it to the internet.” Debates about the ethics of DQSH and similar events have become a hot topic in the media, particularly in the US and the UK. Many legislators in the US are now attempting to ban such events. In Minnesota, legislators have introduced a bill that states public libraries will lose state funding if they host drag queen performances for children. Similar bills have been proposed in both Missouri and Tennessee. ---------------------- This comment sums it up quite well: You, @DonnyMost saying "they are willing participants" is like saying an underage girl was "a willing participant" in sex. The whole point here is that the ability to consent is not the same as that of a fully functional adult.
First of all, **** off. Second of all, all you've done is just post articles and tweets of people being angry. Finding people on twitter who agree with you is not evidence to support your point of view. You haven't proven anything about the circumstance surrounding these people or their consent or lack thereof. Yeah, of course. You have been on this hobby horse ******** all over trans people for months. Yes, sometimes somethings are legitimately problematic, but you paint with a very broad brush and often times you catch people in your net whom are just living their lives and not harming anyone, and yet you choose to go out of your way to ridicule them. It's really offputting, small behavior.
I posted articles and tweets of people who disagree with these activists. If you cannot cope with differing viewpoints on this without resorting to aggressive obscenities, then you are the one with a problem. You are the one being angry - see above. Yet, that's exactly what you did. You posted one article that claimed "they are fine with it and enjoy it" as evidence of this being ok. I responded by quoting an article that showed a differing viewpoint. I stated that I find it highly doubtful that people with down syndrome can validly consent to being treated like circus animals. That made you very angry and you resorted to a vulgar attack. Basically, you have already lost whatever argument you were trying to make.
Careful, @DonnyMost might tell you to **** off for not agreeing with him. He might tell you that not agreeing with this practice means "not letting people live their life".
You insinuated I was OK with rape, so yeah, I should be angry. That's really not cool at all and I stand by my words.
I did not. Reading comprehension would be your friend. I said the argument you made that "they are fine with it" has one thing in common with the argument some make in the case of statutory rape, which is that - in my opinion - neither minors nor cognitively impaired people can validly consent to certain things. Other examples would have been: Minors cannot consent to buying hard liquor. It doesn't matter if "they are fine with it". Etc. In my opinion, being dragged out there in drag is one of those things a person with down syndrome probably cannot validly consent to (I would have a lot of doubt that they actually really want to do this, I would think they just "want to be agreeable"). Others clearly see this differently, but I don't think that having that opinion makes anyone a bigot or warrants being told to **** off.
It seems like they want to be one of the girls but never realized how nasty women can be among each other. Pecking order and attention are among the top values women are taught in most home, whereas boys... Maybe they thought they could remain having the gay male friend status, but now it's all weird because they themselves are also figuring out how tf things will turn out for them. I imagine a high maintenance trans friend for a woman is less an accessory and a condition to carry along. The anti women messages from more vocal trans isn't surprising as they've likely been in a world of hurt, alienation, and confusion. Some probably gave up on order and politeness and will carve out a piece of theirs by any means necessary, which also means reverting back to their male privilege whenever it's more convenient (and also degrading in their eyes).
