IMO most American evangelicals have abandoned Christ’s teachings and made politics into their golden calf. One op-ed I read put it that people’s religion once informed their politics; Now politics informs their religion.
I’m hopeful that the silver lining of this awful cloud will be to cause more people to realize that trans issues are not a matter of morality or policy, but of people’s humanity.
But even more, as I see my daughter retreating to online private school because of the anxiety presenting in our public school has caused her (and mindful that even this imperfect and lonely solution is not available those not lucky enough to have the means) I hope that the brightest silver cloud will be people in the center - and even some non-extreme right - finally looking at the nation that the Mar-a-L’asshole has given us and thinking ‘woah, woah, wait! We just wanted someone who understood how we felt ignored! We didn’t vote for this shit!” Yes, the pendulum swings back, but, I have this plausible dread that it’s going to keep swinging in the current direction into a very dark place. With the conservative-packed SCOTUS, (and it’s not only overturning Roe,) but with a justice making a normally unnecessary dissent to the court’s declining to hear the Missouri juror bias case just so that he can broadcast his intention to overturn Ogberfell, and Christian Nationalists prepping extreme policies for a possible trump administration - ughh; sorry. When I’m riled up, my grammar goes all to hell, and clauses wind up clinging together, refusing to leave each other for a new sentence.
I guess the point is, we’ve been repeatedly asking Trump’s casual supporters “okay, NOW is it too much? Has he yet - will he ever - cross the line in your estimation?”
When I look at Nex’s smiling face in those photos, I picture - I hope - that there are at least some lapsed magas whose hearts break to think about what happened to her, and why it happened. And finally, maybe, decide that a ‘forgetful grandpa’ who will at least surround himself with experienced, sane, advisors is the lesser evil to a wannabe dictator.
I wish I could share your optimism about a wave of change following this, the newest tragedy, but I can’t.
Within the lgbtq community, trans people are a sliver of a sliver of the population, will one more of their lives extinguished bring a tipping point? A polarizing effect that crosses the boundaries between cisgender people unto true acceptance?
No matter how much losing Nex hurts now, and it really fckin hurts, and no matter how much losing the following Nex Benedict will hurt?
I don’t see any amount of trans deaths, regardless of race, that will make the vast majority of humanity actually care at all.
I absolutely understand your pessimism. When I was standing in the rain with just two -- TWO -- other people to morn Rita Hester a couple weeks after being in the middle of a crowd of thousands morning Shepard, I was equally cynical.
I've said in the past that I could never trust the world to mourn my death or the death of someone like me the way that they mourned Matthew Shepard. The truth at the time was even more bleak: I was **certain** they would not.
But the world turns. Things are so much different now than they were in 1998. Some of that change is negative (it's hard to be the target of the right wing, in 1998 we were much more under the Republican Party's radar) but so much is positive. It's terrible to hear parents tell me how much they fear for their trans and non-binary children in the schools, but in 1998 there was hardly a parent who gave a fucking damn. I'm not happy that parents are afraid, but that's still a positive change from parents who didn't care, or worse, would bully their children themselves.
I can be wrong just like any other human, but I see the signs of something important coming after Nex's death. And while the pessimistic case makes a lot of sense, I'm still crossing my fingers for the optimistic case to play out.
Remember that Shepard's death didn't lead to immediate policy changes. What it led to (in the immediate sense) was a change in the public's sympathy for the struggle, and THAT, over time, led to changes.
As a reformed terf dyke, my heart is once again shattered.
No Person should EVER be targeted for who they know themselves to be.
It has become cliché to say, "Jesus wept". Thogh not a Christian, what I rake from his teachings ( not Paulist propaganda) was that he welcomed Everyone, and said he brought only 2 commandments, the second being to love your neighbor as you do yourself.
These self-defined Christians have strayed so far from that command. If tgey are so filled with anger and self-loathing that they feel they have to attack anyone not like them, they should do us all a favour and drink the KoolAide themselves.
IMO most American evangelicals have abandoned Christ’s teachings and made politics into their golden calf. One op-ed I read put it that people’s religion once informed their politics; Now politics informs their religion.
I’m hopeful that the silver lining of this awful cloud will be to cause more people to realize that trans issues are not a matter of morality or policy, but of people’s humanity.
But even more, as I see my daughter retreating to online private school because of the anxiety presenting in our public school has caused her (and mindful that even this imperfect and lonely solution is not available those not lucky enough to have the means) I hope that the brightest silver cloud will be people in the center - and even some non-extreme right - finally looking at the nation that the Mar-a-L’asshole has given us and thinking ‘woah, woah, wait! We just wanted someone who understood how we felt ignored! We didn’t vote for this shit!” Yes, the pendulum swings back, but, I have this plausible dread that it’s going to keep swinging in the current direction into a very dark place. With the conservative-packed SCOTUS, (and it’s not only overturning Roe,) but with a justice making a normally unnecessary dissent to the court’s declining to hear the Missouri juror bias case just so that he can broadcast his intention to overturn Ogberfell, and Christian Nationalists prepping extreme policies for a possible trump administration - ughh; sorry. When I’m riled up, my grammar goes all to hell, and clauses wind up clinging together, refusing to leave each other for a new sentence.
I guess the point is, we’ve been repeatedly asking Trump’s casual supporters “okay, NOW is it too much? Has he yet - will he ever - cross the line in your estimation?”
When I look at Nex’s smiling face in those photos, I picture - I hope - that there are at least some lapsed magas whose hearts break to think about what happened to her, and why it happened. And finally, maybe, decide that a ‘forgetful grandpa’ who will at least surround himself with experienced, sane, advisors is the lesser evil to a wannabe dictator.
I gotta stop posting comments at 4am 🥹
Good lord. I’m so tired I used the wrong pronoun. Shit. I really do gotta stop posting at 4am.
I wish I could share your optimism about a wave of change following this, the newest tragedy, but I can’t.
Within the lgbtq community, trans people are a sliver of a sliver of the population, will one more of their lives extinguished bring a tipping point? A polarizing effect that crosses the boundaries between cisgender people unto true acceptance?
No matter how much losing Nex hurts now, and it really fckin hurts, and no matter how much losing the following Nex Benedict will hurt?
I don’t see any amount of trans deaths, regardless of race, that will make the vast majority of humanity actually care at all.
I absolutely understand your pessimism. When I was standing in the rain with just two -- TWO -- other people to morn Rita Hester a couple weeks after being in the middle of a crowd of thousands morning Shepard, I was equally cynical.
I've said in the past that I could never trust the world to mourn my death or the death of someone like me the way that they mourned Matthew Shepard. The truth at the time was even more bleak: I was **certain** they would not.
But the world turns. Things are so much different now than they were in 1998. Some of that change is negative (it's hard to be the target of the right wing, in 1998 we were much more under the Republican Party's radar) but so much is positive. It's terrible to hear parents tell me how much they fear for their trans and non-binary children in the schools, but in 1998 there was hardly a parent who gave a fucking damn. I'm not happy that parents are afraid, but that's still a positive change from parents who didn't care, or worse, would bully their children themselves.
I can be wrong just like any other human, but I see the signs of something important coming after Nex's death. And while the pessimistic case makes a lot of sense, I'm still crossing my fingers for the optimistic case to play out.
I'm very concerned that in the OK political climate the manner of death issue is going to be muddied one way or another.
But I hope you're right -- I hope this horror focuses people's attention on the very real ramifications of vilifying CHILDREN.
“𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯.”
Just fucking mind-blowingly, disgustingly, evil.
We love you and are here to support the trans community in any way we can.
*sickmad*
I love you. Back to the Alphabet mines to come up with more synonyms for "vile melonfucking Bluetooth-enabled assgadgets".
It's not going to happen, is it?
Eh? Maybe. I'll keep plugging away.
"Largely missed in the reporting is another fact, that Benedict was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation."
also a synecdoche.
“There’s dangerous consequences when common sense is vacated,”
like, such as that cishet white men get a little bit less attention and may have to shut up from time to time because their opinion isn't relevant.
I hope you are right -- I have nowhere near as much hope as you that this latest murder will lead to changes.
Remember that Shepard's death didn't lead to immediate policy changes. What it led to (in the immediate sense) was a change in the public's sympathy for the struggle, and THAT, over time, led to changes.
I gotta agree with your opinion here, Crip. This episode hits as a gut punch to all sentient beings.
I remember all to well the process Teh Gheys were dragged through and while obviously not the same, look at what happened over time.
the current era of extreme pushback will end eventually and there's no going back.
plus, in the end what really counts and gets shit done aside from activism is solidarity.
As a reformed terf dyke, my heart is once again shattered.
No Person should EVER be targeted for who they know themselves to be.
It has become cliché to say, "Jesus wept". Thogh not a Christian, what I rake from his teachings ( not Paulist propaganda) was that he welcomed Everyone, and said he brought only 2 commandments, the second being to love your neighbor as you do yourself.
These self-defined Christians have strayed so far from that command. If tgey are so filled with anger and self-loathing that they feel they have to attack anyone not like them, they should do us all a favour and drink the KoolAide themselves.
I shall hope for a different outcome, but you are correct that the anti-QT Christians are not very Christ-like.