LGBTQ+ | History | Hate Speech
A Call for Eradication is a Call for Genocide
Saying ‘it’s okay because they aren’t a valid class of people’ makes it worse, not better.
This article is an opinion piece, and my response to public statements clearly heard in video and audio footage.
In addition, please be advised there will be discussions of genocide, and abuse including child abuse, racism, and transphobic rhetoric in this opinion piece. If this is too heavy, don’t read. Take care of yourself first.
This is not a conversation that I ever wanted to have. I don’t enjoy this, and I don’t relish it.
To be confronted with the rise of hateful rhetoric to this degree in my lifetime is sickening, it is gut-wrenching, and it is heartbreaking. But since we’re here, I cannot in good conscience turn my back and remain silent. That’s not what we do here. I am witnessing injustice, and so I must speak out.
A commentator has spoken his opinion. He believes that it would be right and proper and necessary to eradicate ‘transgenderism’ from public life. He then went on to claim that any suggestion that he was calling for a genocide was a lie.
His claim was that ‘genocide’ refers to ‘genetics’, and thus does not apply in this case. And also, he’s calling to erase the ‘ideology’, not the people.
He then goes on to further state that it wouldn’t be genocide even then because he is of the opinion that to be transgender is not a legitimate state of being.
That entire statement is factually incorrect.
People who agree with this statement are sticking their foot in their mouth, tripping over history, and falling into my domain. I’m the dork who shoots her hand in the air every time the college history lecturer asks a question. This is my bag.
So, that’s all I’m going to say about this person. I don’t want to give any more time to him.
Instead, let’s discuss eradication, and the language and history of hate.
Let’s have us a little chat about what genocide actually is, what the stages of it are, and why restricting certain groups of people from public life absolutely does count.
We’re going to cover the ten stages of genocide as laid out by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and we’re going to go over the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, hereafter referred to as the ‘CPPCG’.
When we hear the word ‘genocide’, we think ‘Holocaust’.
We picture mass murder, concentration camps, war, and torture. We picture the crimes of World War II. And that’s fair- that’s the image we have because that is the worst, most extreme example of genocide in human history. It was unimaginable until it happened, and it should never be forgotten.
It’s also, like I said, the most extreme. Not all genocides reach that level. In fact, most don’t. The vast majority of genocides actually look very different.
But before we go any further, I want to address the claim that the term ‘genocide’ refers to genetics. It does not.
The word genocide is derived from two classical languages. Genos, which is Greek, means ‘people, race or tribe’. In classical Greek life that did not necessarily refer to a biological bloodline. It could refer to nationality as well, in the form of a shared cultural identity.
The suffix ‘-cide’, which comes from the Latin caedere, means ‘to kill’.
Etymologically, genetics comes from ‘genetikos’, which in turn comes from the word ‘genesis’, meaning ‘origin’, or ‘source’. It does sound similar to genos, but genetikos refers to direct offspring and kin, rather than an extended ancestral group.
While the word genetics did exist in the English lexicon at the time the term genocide was coined, that is about where the similarities end. They share a common language, and they sound similar. But genetics referred specifically to inherited biological traits through familial relation, and genocide referred to the mass discrimination and murder of people based on anything from nationality to religion.
Genocide is its own term, with its own definition. In its original context, it had nothing to do with genetics.
The word was coined by a Polish survivor of the Holocaust, Raphael Lemkin. His interest in the subject of international law began with the Armenian Genocide and was further inflamed after contending with a world at war, and the loss of his own family in Hitler’s camps.
He defined these war crimes as ‘genocide’, describing the mass murder and deportation of multiple groups by the Nazis, including Jewish people, Roma, political prisoners, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities among many others. He would go on to contribute to the United Nations convention against genocide.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the…fun?…part.
Let’s talk about the United Nations' definition of genocide.
“Article II of the convention defines genocide as ANY of the following actions committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” -CPPCG
Take note of the groups outlined in this definition. While LGBTQ+ people are not currently listed here, there is a push from activists and legal scholars to include them in further editions and revisions of the convention.
It is also very important to note that many major genocides, including the Holocaust, began by targeting LGBTQ+ people and political enemies before expanding their attacks to other minority groups.
The first major Nazi book burning centered on the destruction of literature and textbooks related to the study of gender and sexuality. These books were taken from the Institute for the Science of Sexuality which the Nazis had just raided and shut down.
That said, the acts laid out in the CPPCG as genocidal are as follows:
- Killing members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
Some of these probably sound familiar.
Canada and the United States have both perpetrated genocide against various peoples throughout our respective histories. The crimes against First Nations and Native American nations jump to mind as an obvious example.
The Residential School system in Canada was literally built with the intention of “Killing the Indian in the child.”…which is horrifying on several levels. But removing children from their parents and giving them to another group to raise is absolutely an act of genocide.
The intention is to erase the knowledge of culture, traditions, and ideology from an entire generation of people so as to make it difficult for that culture to be passed down.
Many children faced severe abuse, refused access to food and medical care, or were even killed and reportedly buried on school properties.
Families were never told what happened to their missing children…not until recent studies discovered potential unmarked graves on former school properties. Since then, documents of child deaths have been uncovered and shared with the public.
The last of these schools closed down when I was two years old. I turn 29 this month. This was less than thirty years ago.
Other examples include the Japanese internment camps in both Canada and the United States during World War II. Oh, yes. We did that too. Sorry guys, Canada isn’t better than the U.S.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, after the attack on Pearl Harbor the United States and Canada went on a crusade of rounding up and incarcerating people of Japanese heritage within our borders.
It began with restricting their movement, and gathering census data to identify people of Japanese descent- the majority of whom were citizens of the States and Canada, many of whom were born within the countries.
They then had their property seized and sold to white families, they were forcibly relocated and eventually imprisoned in internment camps. We’re talking stuck in tents, with no insulation against the cold, with barbed wire fences and armed guard patrols ordered to kill anyone who attempted to escape.
Many people died of disease in the camps, though some were killed by the armed guards. There were also a number of suicides.
There were a small minority of German and Italian people scooped up in this as well, but the vast majority of the imprisoned people were Japanese.
It’s also worth noting that many young Japanese-American soldiers continued to serve valiantly on the front lines of the war effort, fighting against the genocides committed by the Nazis while their families were being rounded up back home.
If you think that was a very long time ago, let me remind you that the actor and activist George Takei spent part of his childhood in the camps.
We see a similar situation currently going on in China, with the ongoing Uyghur genocide. Imprisonment without due process or charges, destruction of religious and cultural buildings and sites, forced labor, reeducation, and removing children from their families. Also included are accusations of forced sterilization and abortion.
In each of these instances, we see examples of genocide under the CPPCG. We see people being badly mistreated, both physically and mentally. We see them reduced to awful living conditions, calculated to make survival difficult. We see children being taken away, and we see instances of forced sterilization.
In short, we see certain demographics and cultural origins being eradicated from public life.
Genocide is not something that just happens out of nowhere. It is a process. It never starts with ‘kill people’. It builds up to that point over time.
And it makes sense, right? Someone coming out of the gate telling you to kill somebody wouldn’t convince you to do it…At least I very much hope not. Mass murder requires a climate of hatred, fear, and dehumanization.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is a charity founded in the UK with the aim of increasing awareness of genocide and the crimes of the Nazi regime. It outlines ten individual stages of genocide.
Read the original article here.
The ten stages are as follows.
- Classification — Division of ‘us’ and ‘them’ using stereotypes.
- Symbolization — Visual manifestation of hatred. Forcing people to wear symbols of their ‘difference’ so people can recognize them at a glance.
- Discrimination — Denial of civil and legal rights to identified groups. The Nazis made it illegal for Jewish citizens to marry non-Jewish Germans and barred them from certain professions.
- Dehumanization — Turning the identified group into an ‘other’. Using language such as ‘vermin’, ‘deviant’, or other terminology meant to invoke feelings of disgust.
- Organization — The planning stage. This is where the discussion of ‘the next step’ begins.
- Polarization — Propaganda begins to spread. Inciting hatred and fear among the populace, targeting the ‘other’. Misinformation is distributed to make the identified group seem like a threat to the wider public.
- Preparation — The plan is finalized. The logistics and armaments required are gathered, and the perpetrators begin to twist the law to cloak their actions. Euphemistic language is used, like ‘The Final Solution’, or ‘Answering the Question’, to hide intentions.
- Persecution — This is where the perpetrators begin to take direct action. Laws restricting freedom for the identified group are passed. Victims are identified and lists are drawn up. Victims are segregated, the property is seized, and people are deported or imprisoned in mass arrests. Massacres begin.
- Extermination — Systematic mass murder of the ‘other’.
- Denial — The cover-up. Destruction of evidence, propaganda insisting that the genocide never took place, and later generations denying the crimes.
Note: Not every single stage needs to happen in a linear fashion to be counted as a genocide. This is a general outline of escalation.
Many of these stages are self-explanatory. I’ve already outlined a few of them in the previous section of this article, including the rampant denial.
The government of Canada is still reluctant to discuss the genocide of First Nations people, to say nothing of the Catholic Church. We’ve all heard about Holocaust denial as well.
As you can see, genocide is not something that just happens out of the blue. The early stages involve dehumanizing and ‘othering’ people, stereotyping, and hyping up fear. This paves the way for legal action to be taken against the group with public support.
That’s the point we’re at with the LGBTQ+ community.
Groomers. We need to protect the children. Sexual deviants. Delusional.
Terming doctors who provide gender-affirming care as child abusers, or profiteers. Boldly stating that they should be arrested. Misinformation about surgical mutilation performed on children. Using scary individual anecdotes to paint the entire community as dangerous, ignoring broader statistics.
Laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people, especially the trans community. Here’s a running counter for 2023.
With the sudden increase of legislation restricting the freedom of expression of trans people, we can say that the United States is approaching the end stages.
You’re approaching stage 8.
There is no room for minimizing the severity of comments like these. When someone talks about ‘eradicating’ something to do with human beings, they are crossing a line.
When they talk about ‘eradicating transgender ideology’, what they mean is restricting the freedom of trans people to express themselves. Trans people aren’t going to disappear, they’re just going to hide who they are. They’ll be living in fear.
When they create restrictive laws that limit how certain people can dress, where they can go, and how they can present themselves in public, they criminalize self-expression. You’re not getting rid of transgender people, you’re just forcing them back into the closet.
And what’s worse, with the escalation of hateful rhetoric, they’re inviting stochastic terrorism.
Now is the time to get involved.
Protest. Write your representatives. Use the platforms you have to raise awareness, elevate trans voices, and hype up charities that fight for human rights.
Donate to the Trevor Project. Look for petitions available in your countries that push for justice, or figure out how to start one yourself. I’m Canadian, so I signed e-4268 myself.
Get in touch with your LGBTQ+ friends and set up a network. Make plans for where they can go if they need a safe place to shelter, and come up with a safe word they can text or say on the phone if they need help.
Be there for people when they need backup. When protestors block abortion clinics, volunteers form barriers to shield patients as they go in and out of the buildings. Pride parades or LGBTQ+ friendly businesses are common points of attack- step up to organize and defend them if they come under threat.
And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t be fooled by the euphemistic ‘I’m just asking questions’ type of speech. Recognize it for what it is, and call it out. Do not let it slide. Do not minimize it.
Just because you’ve hit stage 8 doesn’t mean stage 9 is inevitable.
Not if we step up and stop it.
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