Is Supporting Transgender Rights a Sign of Weakness?

Are democracies inherently weaker than dictatorships because they support LGBTQ rights?

Sometimes I worry about America. Now is one of those times.

It is a sad commentary on the world when I hear Americans, particularly the clergy, side with Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. They agree with Putin that supporting of LGBTQ rights, and in particular transgender rights, is a sign of weakness in Western democracies. They say those policies violate traditional family values and the word of God, thus giving Putin justification to attack Ukraine. * To them, democracy is at fault. Fortunately for us, they are the minority, vocal as they are.

Democracy is not weak!

As Winston Churchill said:

‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’*

The history of American democracy is no different. We have been polarized before. We have The American Civil War as the most extreme example, but we also have other examples in our recent history:

American Nazis in the Thirties.

McCarthyism Red Scare of the early 1950’s.

Segregationist George Wallace in 1968.

• The Viet Nam War Protests in 1969.

The storming of the US Capitol 2021.

This is not the first time that political extremists and “God-fearing” clergy have sided with dictators and fascists. America is not immune from their type of hate but we have survived each hateful assault and I would argue that we have become a better nation each time that we do. I have seen it my lifetime.

So, you can to continue to believe and hope not just for us but for them:

You will always need to be willing to fight against those that seek to destroy our imperfect democracy. Its can always be improved but never replaced.

It is always worth the fight.

Never give into despair, never lose hope and never give in.

Emma Holiday

*https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/

** https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/russia-ukraine-crisis-complicates-american-white-evangelicals-love-putin-n1290442

Father Coughlin’s influence on Depression-era America was enormous. Millions of Americans listened to his weekly radio broadcast. At the height of his popularity, one-third of the nation was tuned into his weekly broadcasts. He supported some of the fascist policies of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. In 1939, the Roosevelt administration forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade distribution by mail of his newspaper, Social Justice, because of his bigotry and fascist beliefs. https://www.ssa.gov/history/cough.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

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Writers note: If you have read any of my writings on Medium you will have noticed a definite theme: the incredible pain of gender dysphoria and all the difficult aspects of just being transgender.

My writing has three specific goals:

1. Writing is my therapy. I have a very limited outlet for my thoughts so I write to find a way to process the most profound experience in my life. I need to understand and I need to accept myself to move forward.

2. Being transgender, for me, is a very lonely existence and if I can share some of the things that I feel and think as I go through the process of transitioning with others who are transgender and, in some way, lessen their pain and sense of loneliness, then all of this public exposure of my personal thoughts is not a waste.

3. I write to help cisgender people understand that all trans people want is to be simply understood, accepted and treated as a normal person. We are.