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Transphobia, Texas

So do y'all know the vlogger Lady Emily? She does a lot of YouTube about YouTube itself, it's good

She got her gender change court order through this week! She was posting about it, she was so happy

…and then this morning—
indiepocalypse.social/@tamitha…
Texas DPS stopped granting drivers license changes (and if you try they put you on a List)

And now despite having the court order in her hand, she can't actually get her ID updated.

Huffpo interviewed her:

huffpost.com/entry/texas-gende…


Texas' Department of Public Safety has just enacted a policy to refuse to change gender markers on state licenses and will create a database of all requests.

This is a really insidious way of creating a "trans registry".

If you are trans and live in Texas, you might want to get the fuck out. If you have the means.

dallasvoice.com/breaking-news-…


in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas
Cis people might not know this, but you don't just change your gender once, you have to do it over and over with govt offices, all with different policies, then do it again with a bunch of civilian entities like insurers. *Sometimes* once you get one fixed you can use that as "proof" to show to all the others, sometimes there are extra steps. I've never heard of a state not honoring its own court orders though. That's usually the "nuclear option" (and usually most expensive).

reshared this

in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC

This next thing is me speaking for myself. I don't know if Lady Emily would approve of drawing this line.

It's really really hard for me to look at the biggest rollback of trans rights of my lifetime, with state Republicans showing just incredible ingenuity in not only reversing government procedures we won access to during the Obama era, but actually outlawing shit that's been happening legally since the 50s.

…And not notice it happened under a Democratic president. 1/2

in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
And then it's really hard to not notice. That I look at the DNC. Which I have on my second monitor right now. And notice how *absent* this is. The emergency in the trans community is not an emergency outside the trans community. The DNC has smiling applause lines like "Republicans should not be telling us who to love!". Nobody looks at the streaming audience and says "America's own state governments are trying to eradicate an entire group of people. Did you know that?" 2/2
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
(No, I wouldn't expect to receive any sympathy from Palestinians on this.)
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
And like, I do believe Harris will be better than Biden on stopping trans eliminationism. It's not Biden is doing *nothing*, it's just Biden has been not… doing much effective. I have reasons to think Harris will do more and be more effective. But it feels w w i e r r d, this compromise, where we can get support from Dems, but in exchange it's all done silently. If Harris turns out to be a trans ally, it'll be something she sneaks in the back door *after* winning election.
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
This might even be the best way to do it! Some of the most effective pro-trans work under Obama was done as quietly as possible. But there's a problem, like…nobody does any selling. Rs are standing up there trying to sell people on hate 24/7, entire Presidential campaigns claiming tampons are a transgender plot. Ds seem to fear that trying to proactively convince people that transes are real people will only inflame bigotry. Okay. *But when do they get convinced, then??*
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
we need more cis accomplices doing our marketing. Not allies, accomplices.
in reply to Rylie, daughter of Salem🏳️‍⚧️

re: Transphobia, Texas, DNC
@Specialist_Being_677 totally agree all dems should go beyond "love who you love" platitudes and explicitly make an election promise to dedicate themselves to passing the Equality Act. While <80 days is going to make it hard to dive into legal weeds, supporting the EA already matches the party support for women while implicitly supporting trans rights without needing to counter as much median voter ignorance or misinformation spread by transphobes.
in reply to Neblib

re: Transphobia, Texas, DNC
@Neblib @Specialist_Being_677 I agree there's limited time both in this election and at this particular DNC to talk about literally everything there is to freak out about. But the thing I'm describing is kind of a long-term trend. It's yet to be seen if we can expect a different tenor under President Harris.
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC
this thread has stirred up a lot of feelings but first and foremost I just want to… apologize, I guess? On behalf of cis liberals, to the extent that I can? I can think of so many logistical, demographic, strategic, structural, and resource-constraint reasons why this might be happening but whatever the reason any explanation just comes off as “wait your turn for civil rights, please, just another couple of decades”. It’s fucking unacceptable
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC, ukpol

We just had half of an election campaign built on that hope in the UK. The Labour Party, who were going to win by default, promised somewhere between nothing and authoritarianism lite, and a decent section of the commentariat thought/coped that they were just hiding their power level and would go left once they were safely elected with their landslide. (Instead we got Wes Streeting.)

Even if true, what’s the point in representative democracy at that point?

in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas, DNC

Honestly I don't think there's gonna be a major change in the national rhetoric on trans people until progressives in a dem majority congress force an argument on the issue

Same applies to narrative on immgration

in reply to Unk

Transphobia, Texas, DNC

@unktheunk does there exist a faction of progressives in the democratic congress who consider this issue high priority?

do the progressives we do have have the ability to force arguments within the Democratic caucus? :(

@Unk
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas
yeah the quotes in that piece about the state's executive branch supposedly having legal concerns with its own courts' rulings, that's quite something.
in reply to Irenes (many)

Transphobia, Texas
@ireneista yeah this detail is the one that hit me hardest too. It is one step away from LEAs just fully ignoring their civilian oversight. I realize this is probably catastrophizing a little bit, but from a procedural perspective, it is quite literally the collapse of the rule of law. Maybe even an insider coup? It’s chilling.
in reply to Glyph

Transphobia, Texas

@glyph @ireneista I don't think it's catastrophisizing at all, really. If an executive has a disagreement with a court order, then there's avenues such as lawsuits and appeals --- ignoring the order is pretty much worst case.

As is so often the case, hating trans folks is the wedge used to justify a hell of a lot more than hurting only us.

in reply to Cassandra Granade 🏳️‍⚧️

Transphobia, Texas
@glyph @ireneista As a side note, it feels really shitty to be hated so much that not only are a lot of folks willing to throw us under the bus, they're willing to hurt the hell out of themselves as long as we get hurt worse.
Unknown parent

mcc
Transphobia, Nebraska
@ausrine I'm really sorry.
in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas
I am so sorry that the Republicans in our state are persecuting transgender women and men.
It is inexcusable and reprehensible that the DPS is ignoring court orders at the request of the corrupt attorney general. Even worse that they are participating in tracking when folks simply try to exercise their rights.
in reply to Roy Adams

Transphobia, Texas

@roytoo Thanks.

I am from Texas and although I like it where I live now, it feels pretty bad that like… I'd like where I live to feel like my own choice. Not something I do because I can't go back.

in reply to mcc

Transphobia, Texas
I'm glad you're living in a better place now.
I too wish Texas was a place that could be a viable and welcoming place for you and everyone else to visit or live.
We will keep working and striving to make Texas a better place but it's definitely a hard fight.