Tag: politics

Trump and change

Hello, people of the future!  I wrote this in 2016, way before Orange was even inaugurated.  I feel like a fool for believing anything I wrote here, but I’m not going to change the past by removing this article.

 

The ball is in your court now, American Republicans.

I normally avoid politics and other controversial topics on my blog, because I have always felt it is important to keep my audience focused on the technical. Our common ground is unifying and allows us to look past our differences and learn from one another. I feared that if I started talking about politics, people would look at me differently, and I’d lose some of that audience. They wouldn’t trust me and I wouldn’t be able to enrich their lives.

I feel like that part of life in America is over now. President-Elect Donald Trump talks outlandishly, without filter or censor. People love him, people hate him, people think he’s a joke, people think he’s the best non-politician the political world has ever seen. As for myself, if I have learned a single thing from Mr Trump, it is that the world will not end if you speak up and say what is really on your mind. And perhaps this is a good kind of change. Without open discussion, we can’t ever heal the divisiveness that permeates the entire country’s political landscape, and indeed, the entire world’s. There is a not-too-distant past where the words ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ were words that describe someone’s political views, and were not used as slurs or to denigrate someone. Perhaps now that the precedent has been set, we can have open and honest discussions with one another. I’m not sure if that is where we are headed or not. I can only hope that we can learn to be respectful of each other’s differences.

Mr Trump has said some things I agree with; per I Side With, I agree with almost 30% of his policies. It’s not perfect, but it isn’t exactly a disaster either. (For full disclosure, I only had just over 70% of agreement with Clinton.) He has also said a great deal of very offensive things. He has said things that have made some of my friends sick, depressed, and suicidal now that he has become President Elect of the United States. I urge these people especially to remember that first and foremost, Mr Trump is a showman. He knows how to pull in ratings, and was a reality television star. He may think less of Muslims than he should, but I don’t think he will actually have every last one deported back to their homelands — especially since some of them were born and raised in the United States. He may think far less of women than he should, but that thinking is common in men from his generation. His objectification of women and misogyny is of course never acceptable, but women have had much worse oppressors than he ever could be.

I have friends of many classes. I have friends who are very well off — the typical Silicon Valley millionaire. I have friends who are destitute and live pay stub to pay stub, and would likely go homeless if they had even a small hiccup in work. I have friends who are in minority classes: African-American people, transgendered people, people with disabilities. We are all Americans. We all deserve a place in general society. Our society is built on the fact, not opinion, that everyone is created equal. There is room in the United States for the rich and poor, and the different races and religions that comprise this great country. No matter who won the United States election this year, our society has been broken, is broken, and will remain broken until it is healed.

Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, other party members, independents, and even those disillusioned with the political system as a whole: society will only begin to be fully inclusive when we all learn to love each other. We have to work together. We have to stand up for what we believe in. Conflicting interests only break people into hate when they do not bend to compromise. I plan on writing letters to my state Senator, who is a Republican, and telling him my concerns going forward. I will have my voice heard. My Senator will, of course, have to balance my voice with others in our great state of Oklahoma. But together, I feel that we can find common ground and be able to find peace and happiness no matter what our political views.

Mr Trump. You promised to make America great again. If you can set an example with moderation and fairness, balancing differing viewpoints to create a clear path forward, you just may be able to succeed. I did not vote for you, but I still wish to work with you to create a common good for all of the United States.

How trans-people are really people, like all of us

Having spent a considerable and unfortunate amount of time around bigoted people, I came to a rather interesting train of thought that I want to share widely.

Let me start by asking you a simple question: would you treat a woman differently based on whether or not she had an appendectomy performed? What about a man who was born with six toes; would it change your opinion of him whether or not he had it removed? For the vast majority of people, and even the bigoted crowd that inspired this train of thought, the answer would be a resounding no: who are we to judge someone based on a corrective procedure they had to repair a defect with their body?

Okay, now here’s a similar and still simple question: would you treat a woman differently based on whether or not she had her penis removed?

“Stop,” I hear some of you calling. “That is a completely separate subject,” you ration. Why?

What makes the correction of a birth defect involving sex organs any different from correcting birth defects or ailments with any other organ? Are we, as a culture and society, so hyperfocused on sexuality that we can’t accept some people have congenital genital defects?

I have begun to wonder why trans equality and trans rights are even being discussed or even exist; that is like stating we need kidney failure equality or diabetic rights. They are all life-long conditions, involve a part of the body being defective, and often require surgery. What is so offensive, so different, so awful about a person having incorrect sex organs? The fault lies with those people who ‘other’ people who suffer from transsexuality, labelling them and saying they are different or somehow less of a person due to a birth defect.

There have been numerous studies that have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the brain can develop independently of primary sex organs, and that the brain can and does sometimes end up with the wiring of the gender opposite that with which a person is born. It is not a “mental disorder” in that there is no psychological problem; the brain is that of a man or woman, in a woman or man’s body. Why should it matter what organs they have?

You can argue that reproduction is a factor, and you may even be right for a few years; but there are numerous research programmes being done as you read this to find a way to reproduction for people with all manner of reproductive organ troubles. Transsexuality is a subset of that; but some women are born without ovaries, some men are born with undescended testes, and so on. Why should we treat people who were born with the wrong set of organs any different from people born with any other problem?

The way I see it, the labelling itself – the fact that people who have this “condition” are considered a different kind of person – is the problem. It is a medical disorder akin to spina bifida or cleft palette, not a label or category of people. I would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would discriminate against a person for having cleft palette; after all, it isn’t their fault, they were born that way. Why should we treat transsexuals any differently?

To a final point, some may also claim that you must have the surgery performed to count as a “true” transsexual. This belief is wrong for a number of reasons. In the same way some people cannot have cleft palette corrected – their body may not be capable of undergoing surgery; they may be allergic to anaesthesia; they may not be able to afford the cost of surgery; and in some communities where healthcare is not readily accessible, they may not even know that a treatment even exists. The same factors can apply to a man with a vagina or a woman with a penis. Some of these people are still able to use hormonal therapy (also known as HRT) to correct at least some of their attributes to more correctly fit with their gender and feel better, while others are unable to obtain even that small amount of help. Instead of ostracising them, we should be embracing them. We must begin to acknowledge that we as a society should be caring for those who have real, physical ailments instead of antagonising them.

After all, wouldn’t you want compassion if you had a birth defect? What about a birth defect that perhaps even persisted in to adulthood or even beyond? Open your heart and mind, and show your fellow people dignity and respect.