LGBT
Related: About this forumTrans* rights in the United States. See a problem here? A shocking chart
Can't we even guarantee BASIC human rights? In 2012?
Editting to thank William because it looks like we'll get there! http://www.democraticunderground.com/113713732
William769
(55,150 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)I'm doing backflips of joy right now!
William769
(55,150 posts)WillParkinson
(16,862 posts)That basic human rights still need to be fought for.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)the right to live is such a minimal standard that I don't understand that puritanical hatred, the obsession with preventing people from living their lives.
The older I get, the more ashamed I am of how regressive our country, as a whole, is.
To deny people the right to housing in 2012! To have to fight for the right to work in 2012?
These things pain the soul.
HillWilliam
(3,310 posts)I hope the various corners of the LGBTQ community lock elbows and move forward together.
Remember the movie "Lilo and Stitch"? There's a phrase in there we use in our home all the time. It goes "Ohana means 'family'. 'Family' means no one gets left behind."
That ought to apply here.
TriMera
(1,375 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)As a Feminist, I want the Feminist movement to get on this also, not just the LGBTQ community. And the NAACP and all the other organizations that say they care about equality because this crosses all lines. I can't imagine anyone not being outraged over this, but then again.
I never saw "Lilo and Stitch" but I love your quote. What is it about? If you don't have time, I can google it.
HillWilliam
(3,310 posts)whose parents died in an accident, but her big sister is taking care of her. She finds an alien creature she at first confuses for a dog. Hilarity ensues. When they try to take her new friend away, she declares him "family". The phrase is repeated often throughout all the Lilo movies.
Lovely escape stuff. Even in such as that, one can find a pearl of wisdom if one looks.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)against transgender persons in these states may be primarily directed at trans women.
And this discrimination towards trans women may possibly be a ramification of the widespread misogyny so prevalent within the large (relative) conservative populations of these states.
For this reason, (and for reasons of simple human decency, naturally) , I believe that feminist organizations have a very strong (because trans women are women and are extensively victimized) self-interest in actively promoting transgender equality.
And it really does cross all lines.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)I have no basis to disagree and knowing how sharp you are about this, I'd like to understand why you think this may be primarily directed at trans women?
My main experience was with my cousin (male) trying to cross over. He felt so isolated, misunderstood, persecuted, ostracized and hated that he killed himself.
What he suffered was so ghastly enough, I don't wish it on any human being.
Please help me understand because this is personally really important to me.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)(Caveat: There is no claim of being "sharp" about anything on my part. I really don't know anything, I just think about things and form opinions derived from my experiences and my thoughts. But thank you for the compliment, and thank you for posting this info and thoughts on the subject here.)
I'm sorry, Catherina, but I'm involved in a creative project right now and can't give this my full attention and it warrants full attention, IMO. So I'll post this essay that somewhat explains my thinking. It is obviously very easy to transpose the homophobia that is discussed in the essay with transphobia. I'm not Catholic, but IMO, this author does a pretty good job of outlining the relationship between misogyny and homophobia/transphobia. I'll get back ASAP and discuss. Gotta go!
I'm so very sorry about your cousin. These types of tragedies are all too common an occurrence among trans folk.
Also, the gender of your cousin is not clear to me from your post. Was she a MTF trans woman, or was he a FTM trans man? No offense meant; I simply don't know how experienced you are with trans issues.
Misogyny and Homophobia
There was and continues to be a profound connection between misogyny and homophobia in our culture. Misogyny is defined as a fear and hatred of women. It manifests itself psychologically in the repression of everything in the psyche that is tradition- ally connected with the feminine. Among other things, this includes all emotions, feelings of compassion, all spiritual feelings, all dependency, and all need of community. In the future I would prefer to refer to misogyny with the word feminaphobia.
Over sixty years ago, G. Rattrey Taylor in his classic book Sex in History (New York: Vanguard Press 1954, Chap. 4, pp.72ff.) attempted to expose some of the culturally conditioned attitudes on sexuality. He found a universal phenomenon in cultures based on a patriarchal principle. These cultures with few exceptions tend to combine a strongly subordinationist view of women with a repression and horror of male homosexual practices. The institution in todays culture which continues to hold on to the clearest expression of that form of patriarchy, including its homophobia, is the Roman Catholic Church.
In contrast, those cultures based on a matriarchal principle are inclined to combine an enhancement of the status of women with a relative tolerance for male homosexual practices. Taylor concludes that the tradition of the Christian West has been fundamentally based on patriarchal culture. This may help to explain certain striking anomalies from an ethical viewpoint in that tradition.
One of the most remarkable of these anomalies is the almost complete disregard of lesbianism in western Christian tradition. Although the Holiness code in the Old Testament, for example, explicitly condemns under penalty of death male homosexual practices and female bestiality, no mention is made of female lesbian practices. (This should not be surprising when we recall that King David had reputedly a harem of nearly a thousand women.) Apart from a disputed reference to unnatural female acts by Paul in Romans 1:26, there is no other reference to female lesbian activity in Scripture and scarcely any at all in all the other documents of Christian tradition.
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)There's no excuse for it, especially in the year 2012.
BTW: Does no one live in the horizontal-ish part of Michigan? It doesn't exist on the housing discrimination map.