We Are All Trans or We Are All Lost

Republicans are scapegoating the ultimate other

Republicans have found the ultimate hook:

Transphobia (the fear of transgender people) and transmisia (the hatred of transgender people) are the ultimate cudgel to wield against and demonize the smallest and least accepted minority in the world.

Transgender identity is so universally misunderstood, mischaracterized, and feared that it is easily weaponized to cut across almost every cultural and religious boundary. One of the darkest impulses in human nature is the ease with which our fears can so quickly become hate. Transgender women and men represent only an estimated 1.6 million or .05% of Americans, so they are useful to scapegoat as the ultimate “other.”

For authoritarians like those controlling the Republican Party today, finding such a universal soft spot in human weakness to exploit is the holy grail of control and power. A hook to link disparate groups in a common cause against a perceived common enemy. A negative, ugly way to build a community devoid of compassion.

Transgender Americans are that hook, the useful tool that Republicans are using successfully to drive their extreme agenda. I say successfully because 39 states currently have anti-transgender legislation pending, and 6 of those states have already passed laws to criminalize trans or non-binary expression without much public outcry.

Deep-seated historical prejudice is the root of transmisia, the hatred of trans people. Misia literally means hatred. It differs from phobia, which is fear. Fear has always been the excuse to deny the humanity of those different from us. Once people are convinced to deny another’s humanity, hatred follows.

Antisemitism and our own racist, slavocracy past are our most vivid examples of the way authoritarians have used fears to cultivate biases, drive hatred, and weaponize them to drive mob violence, strip freedoms, and legislate segregation to create lesser classes of people in society. The echoes of history are everywhere.

Today, in our nation, conservative media is pushing fear to cultivate bias and hate; we are seeing armed militants harassing drag performers and threatening school board members, teachers, and administrators, bullying trans kids and their families. Parents who support equality are shunned and barred from Christian schools. Parents who seek gender-affirming healthcare for their kids are labeled as child abusers. Cries of grooming, perversion, pedophile are hurled at the trans community, LGBTQ, and non-binary persons, and anyone who dares to be supportive.

Is it working? So far, yes. The barrage of hateful rhetoric and wild accusation, combined with the hook of “saving our children,” is greasing the skids for record numbers of laws to control, criminalize, or ban trans identity or expression. To be sure, the extremists are driving this, but that deep-seated vein of prejudice and discomfort, even in the average person who is otherwise accepting, is what gives them cover to enact their agenda.

There is another choice. Just as the only way to defeat the fascism and antisemitism of the last century was for non-Jews to fight for all humanity, the same is true with the growing trans and LGBTQ hate today. Black Americans would not be free if enough white Americans didn’t join their cause. Women still need men to stand with them for equality. LGBTQ Americans need straight allies. And the transgender community needs all of us.

Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We cannot ignore the oppression of any group of Americans and still say we believe in freedom. The extremists see no difference between those they target for condemnation.

Right now, the same demagogues calling for the eradication of transgender people are branding women, LGBTQ, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Muslim, Jewish, and any faith but Christian as the “other.” They say we are not real America. Now they’ve gone beyond inflammatory rhetoric and passed laws to criminalize us, using the power of the state to enforce their beliefs and gaslighting us by calling that freedom.

We cannot look away as this bigotry rises in our country, backed by the power of the state. Fascism creeps only when citizens do not call out hate. Every citizen who believes in equality, freedom, and justice must stand together in the face of this naked authoritarian push. The first step is to understand this simple truth:

We are all trans, or we are all lost.