Thread by @GBBranstetter

(Thread)

Today the Christian Post--an absurdly popular website--published this story about the "transgender cult" and the myriad ways we (I assume they mean me) steal children, brainwash them, and carve into their bodies in ritualistic sacrifice.

The article is astonishing in its sensationalism, but quite typical of anti-trans fear mongering. The Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council use similar language. The goal is to activate disgust--an extremely strong emotion--in the reader.

But it also relies on tropes we see in any number of moral panics and conspiracy theories. PizzaGate + QAnon-- like Satanic panics of the 80s--all rely on secretive cabals sacrificing children under cover of night. But it's actually an ancient fear even older than that.

One of my favorite reads this year was @annamerlan's deep dive into the state of conspiracy theories today. She does a wonderful job finding the common threads through 9/11 trutherism, anti-vaxxers, and many more to discover what makes these absurd ideas so appealing to so many.

On PizzaGate, she notes the fear of child sacrifice is an anti-Semitic trope dating to the Middle Ages. Such "nocturnal rituals" are used to justify violence against other groups (namely Jews)

You can find the same myths in anti-native writings of European colonialists, anti-Roma sentiment throughout the last few centuries, and anti-Semitism up to the current era

The primary purpose of these myths is playing into parental fears. They hope to animate a protective instinct against a ghostly "other", unleashing an animalistic rage that will excuse any violence against the targeted group.

Similar themes run throughout anti-trans propaganda. This Christian Post article is just one example--here are a few more from Fox News, The Federalist and The Heritage Foundation

Recently the case in TX has pushed relatively mainstream politicians like Greg Abbot, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul to likewise adopt the notion that trans kids are being abused with medical care which, for young kids, looks like little more than changing their hair and their clothes

Many conservative outlets have chosen to highlight that the child at the center was conceived via surrogate, meaning the mother--who supports her trans child--isnt biologically related. Why is that a worthwhile detail unless you need to portray an "other" stealing children?

All of those statements and propaganda are concerning for many reasons, first and foremost among them is the false ideas they spread about trans people and our health care. But its critical to understand the goal--what do anti-trans activists want?

By animating fears of child abduction, ritual abuse, and sexual exploitation, anti-trans activists are--knowingly or not--following a very old roadmap for justifying oppression. The goal is to build so much fear that the cost trans people pay will be deemed a worthwhile bargain.

They also try to fudge the other side of the equation--are trans people really oppressed? How suicidal are they? Are they really facing *that* much violence?

Just last week, a school district in Georgia withdrew a trans-inclusive policy after receiving death threats from those opposed to it. Tony Perkins, head of FRC, celebrated the win on the Heritage-owned Daily Signal, pointing other parents to guides on replicating it.

The Christian Post article I started with goes even further: "Rage builds with each passing second and you contemplate what life in prison would be like...what kind of things you are capable of."

I couldn't summarize the false choice anti-trans activists present better than Madeleine Kearns--the token TERF of the National Review--writing about the SCOTUS Title VII cases: "Really, though, who are you to feel sorry for?"

If trans people are a cult--dangerous and deranged--and the potential cost is your own children, then such framing justifies oppression of us by any means necessary. All the violence and rape and poverty and suffering trans people face is, in their eyes, an acceptable cost.

Its important to note that the exchange posed by them is, of course, completely imaginary. Nothing about trans people, our rights, or our health care is a danger to anyone. Period.

And if you don't believe me, ask yourself: What is the conservative solution to anti-trans discrimination? How would these activists end anti-trans violence, raise trans people out of poverty, or stem the public health crisis taking trans children by suicide?

They don't have an answer because they don't care--and they need you not to care, either. They need you to believe trans people are a sickly cult of perverts unworthy of your empathy, let alone equality. They need you to believe the price is just too high to pay.

The patterns in their propaganda can be seen in other corollaries--anti-black and anti-immigrant sentiment in particular--but all of it rests on deliberate delusions, myths meant to justify prejudice no matter how punishing, no matter how violent.

Wanted to provide some sources on this one:

bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/09/…

aap.org/en-us/about-th…

lambdalegal.org/schooladmins

endsexualviolence.org/where_we_stand…