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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024

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I don't see much fuss about trans men using bathrooms

... Except for the law making it illegal in many states?

That seems like a fuss.

I seems like you're saying 'well Buck Angel can and should just casually break the law every day, it's no big deal'... Maybe if you're fighting for a law that you want lots of people to break every day, you should be fighting for a different law instead?

Listen, if people were passing bills that said 'You must have 1 year of HRT and FFS before using the women's room' in an effort specifically only to make sure trans women using the women's room mostly pass, that would still be contentious but it would at least be credible that that's what the laws are worried about and trying to fix.

That is not at all what the actual laws say, the actual laws say Buck Angel uses the women's room, and no one backing the laws in reality has any problem with that. The laws are anti-trans in concept, not just focused on a single set of outliers.

If the pro-trans lot didn't wave around Buck Angel every chance they got, I'd listen more attentively.

But since their 'sample case' isn't very convincing, I'm not bothered. I do think the illegal stuff was overdone, but on the other hand, if anyone now can predate - and yes, there are those who will take advantage - and there is no recourse because "well, it's the law and the ACLU took a court case and got a ruling", that does no favours to genuine trans people and only turns public opinion against them. That may be unfair, but it's how the world works.

I'll knock it back to you - which bathroom should the gay guy in drag use, as distinct from the trans woman dressed up like a clown, after drag queen story hour?

What everyone wants is a law that says you cannot use a gendered bathroom if you don't pass as that gender. It's just a hard thing to define so they usually end up making it over or underinclusive on some other criteria.

I straightforwardly disagree. Maybe 'everyone' here wants that, but that's not at all how the politicians behind these laws talk about them.

But either way, I say again: you shouldn't be passing laws that criminalize hue swaths of actions you want to be legal.

If your goal really is just about the small subset of trans women who don't pass, find some narrower way to enforce that. If it's too inconvenient to be worth the effort, then it's not worth the effort.

Don't criminalize things you have no problem with just for the sake of convenience.

No law is intended to make it illegal for TIFs to use the men's room, they're all designed to stop TIMs from using the women's room.

The laws are anti-trans in concept, not just focused on a single set of outliers.

They have to be written in a neutral language, due to the 14th Amendment and the 1964 CRA. You know this, and I know this, and so does everyone else. I'm not sure why you're acting dumb about this issue.

???

You are agreeing with me that all of the laws apply to trans men and force them to use the women's room, but saying that's ok and good because they have to be written that way (for some reason), so it's ok that they criminalize things you don't want to be criminal?

If so, that is not how I want laws to work, you should not be criminalizing things you actively want people to do on the assumption they'll just break the law and it'll be fine. That seems entirely insane to me.

And I don't know where your confidence that Republican lawmakers have no problem with trans men is coming from. That's not what their rhetoric says, at all.

You are agreeing with me that all of the laws apply to trans men and force them to use the women's room

I'm not agreeing with you at all. You are both correct and missing the point.

but saying that's ok and good

I'm saying it's ancillary to the real point. An externality, if you will, nothing more.

for some reason

For the same reason anyone has to put up with this delusional nonsense: 14A and CRA. Not just any reason.

so it's ok that they criminalize things you don't want to be criminal?

It's ok to create laws that have externalities, yes, and to still support those laws despite the externalities, especially if you find them irrelevant.

And I don't know where your confidence that Republican lawmakers have no problem with trans men is coming from.

These people are completely irrelevant when it comes to the controversies over sex segregation, in sport, in spaces, in restrooms. The problem is solely and exclusively with the men, not the women.