I don't initiate trans threads anymore, and I don't write on every trans thread, but I have legitimate concerns about current strands of trans ideology and activism, both from a professional and a personal perspective. Luckily, I'm in one of the European countries that hasn't bought fully into the madness yet, but this may be only a question of time.
With a few exceptions, most people here don't seem mind trans people doing their thing, as long as they let others live their lives in peace. The current trends in trans activism should concern us as gay men, however, not only because of the issues that I mention below, but also because their behavior and demands reflect extremely negatively on the LGB community as well. The backlash will come, and it will go against all of us.
Personally, I am relatively sympathetic to trans people's personal plight, as a lot of them seem miserable, whether pre- or post-transition. And I think that there is a silent majority of trans people (especially old-school transsexuals) with common sense that are simply drowned out by shrill activists. However, this is about politics, not about emotions. Trans people have to get their house in order, must present coherent demands, and be willing to discuss these rationally both in the in-group (i.e., larger LGBT community) or the out-group (i.e., the majority of people), if they want the public to accept their political point of view. Especially, if their demands infringe upon or take away from the rights and privileges of other oppressed groups! (LGB never took anything away from straight people by decriminalization, lowering the age of consent, having work-place protections, or marrying!) What they are currently doing, however, is hijacking the activist infrastructure that was established by LGB activists, bully these established LGB activists out of their own organizations, and then bully everyone else to give way to their contradicting, irrational demands.
Here are some highlights why trans activism has become absolutely bonkers lately:
* Absolute denial of biological reality for the sake of ideology, including ignoring the fact that trans women have a physical advantage in competitive sports and are diminishing the achievements of female athletes for the sake of self-validation.
* Transing children by lobbying for a widespread use of puberty blockers, thus robbing them of their chance to develop their own identity during puberty (including possibly turning out just gay or lesbian).
* Having no coherent concept of what this "gender" is that they are feeling (is it somehow biologically anchored? No, that would be transmedicalist and thus "transphobic"... Is body dysmorphia necessary? No, that would invalidate non-binary people and be "transphobic"), while expecting that self-ID becomes enshrined in law, despite its wide-reaching consequences on sex-based policy.
* Pronoun madness and the policing of language by people who make not even an effort to pass at all.
* Denouncing every diverging opinion as "transphobic" (this term has lost all meaning by now).
* Invading female spaces (e.g., women's shelters) for the sake of self-validation.
* Rewriting LGB history by claiming that trans women of color were responsible for all progress when this is blatantly factually untrue.
* The constant oppression poker of intersectionality, that is, using the concept of privilege (describing systemic, societal asymetries of power) for silencing "more privileged" subgroups of the in-group.
etc.
