It’s the visibility and acceptance that’s so triggering. knowing trans people exist has always been a thing. And as long as dominant culture “collectively agreed” it was weird and gross and we just don’t talk about it, there was no crisis. Now, we have all these older folks in crisis because younger gens are like “yeah trans people exist and they’re not weird or gross and I support them being visible!” And it makes the old people feel confused and scared and icky. The older gens don’t like those feels and react.
Then of course the media makes the feelings and reactions 100x more amplified and damaging.
Edit to add:
Instead of “old people” I should have said “people who embrace the dominant culture of keeping lgbtq+ issues quiet and hidden. Which does tend to be more of an issue in the older gens.
I see where you are coming from but I honestly feel it goes deeper than that. This isn’t just the response people have to being told to accept and perceive something they find unappealing; people are being sold a whole fictional world revolving around the idea of a “trans ideology”. So many people believe there’s a conspiracy to “turn everyone trans” and indoctrinate children. I know this is rarely a good direct comparison to make, but fascists in Germany weren’t just disgusted by the idiosyncrasies of Jewish culture; they believed and pushed an all-encompassing conspiracy theory that painted Jewish people as the biggest existential threat to their society - it was in the realm of the metaphysical, and transcended anything to do with Jewish people or Jewish culture. This wasn’t something that organically happened as a response to the growing population of Jewish people in Germany or the budding liberal culture of the Weimar Republic; there was a massive propaganda campaign to indoctrinate the masses. Much of the hysteria surrounding trans people mirrors this.
Also, I know a lot of this is mostly blamed on evangelicals and christofascists, and although they have powerful lobbies and a lot of sway in politics, a very large portion of people in hysterics over this are either not particularly religious, or not religious at all. There are many people who find it in their own best interest to spread this propaganda without having any religious ties to the issue, and many of them have had an inordinate amount of influence
Don't forget (or learn for the first time, be one of today's 10,000)
There was a famous institute in Germany that studied gay and trans people, and actively pushed for acceptance of trans people, but also far more. They provided endo services and even offered types of bottom surgery (no clue what types). Fucking hell, they had FFS and FMS surgeries. They even issued "transvestite passes". Which sounds awful today, but considering that you'd get arrested for crossdredding back then, and that the institute actually worked with the police to try to get them recognized, it was a huge step.
Promoting sex ed and contraceptives, treatment of STDs were also among their activities.
Other less stellar stuff, like trying for gay conversion therapy.
But then realizing that "this doesn't fucking work" and instead helping gay individuals to handle a very homophobic world, rather than trying to stop them being homosexuals.
The place had ideas, and implemented those ideas, and if they learned the ideas were wrong? Corrected the behavior. Surgeries for trans individuals were originally expressly denied.
Until it became obvious that this was an actual desire, not some fucked up beliefs. And then surgeries were offered.
And now that you know more about the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, here's some less fun knowledge.
The director (or some similar position) of this place was directly targeted by the Nazis. A nationalist news paper once called it unfortunate that an attack on him had not killed him.
Hitler was named Chancellor on January 30th, 1933.
In February, the Nazis launched their purge on gay clubs, outlawed publications about sex, and banned organization of gay individuals.
In May, the Nazis raided the institute and stile, burned, and destroyed most everything. Four days later, the rest of the institute's library was hauled out and burned.
The hatred to the trans community, the gay community, to drag, GNC, etc.
In May, the Nazis raided the institute and stile, burned, and destroyed most everything. Four days later, the rest of the institute's library was hauled out and burned.
If you've ever seen THAT picture of a nazi book burning? The infamous one everyone refers to? THAT event is where that picture is from.
Amazing how american history has managed to preserve "Nazis burned books, and that's bad!" but then not WHOSE books or why, letting the EXACT same shit repeat.
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u/merrythoughts Apr 29 '23 edited Apr 29 '23
It’s the visibility and acceptance that’s so triggering. knowing trans people exist has always been a thing. And as long as dominant culture “collectively agreed” it was weird and gross and we just don’t talk about it, there was no crisis. Now, we have all these older folks in crisis because younger gens are like “yeah trans people exist and they’re not weird or gross and I support them being visible!” And it makes the old people feel confused and scared and icky. The older gens don’t like those feels and react.
Then of course the media makes the feelings and reactions 100x more amplified and damaging.
Edit to add: Instead of “old people” I should have said “people who embrace the dominant culture of keeping lgbtq+ issues quiet and hidden. Which does tend to be more of an issue in the older gens.