The Death of Words

As someone who's been recovering from a surgery for far longer than anticipated, I've spent an obnoxious amount of time on Twitter to pass the time and boy howdy is it ever a mess right now. I spend a lot of time browsing the queer rights topic which has been under fire in the United States and United Kingdom, mostly in regards to the recent legislations involving transgender people and their involvement in sports.

Watching this happen as a person under the trans umbrella is scary but what's worse is seeing the language used by the people who talk about removing trans people from society. That kind of talk comes in a few different forms, whether it be revoking trans healthcare such as hormones and surgeries or refusing to respect a trans person's pronouns and chosen name. It's fairly common hate speech but it affects my circles so I've taken special notice to it.

The thing that has bothered me the most is the terminology used by people who claim to be "gender critical". It has less to do with genuinely criticizing the concept of gender in our society including gender roles and stereotypes unfortunately, instead the movement utilizes violent language and scare tactics to influence people who may not have educated themselves on the topic they're discussing. A common phrase that's been kicking around lately has been calling queer people "groomers" under the guise that queer people are "indoctrinating" kids into being queer, when in reality we want to offer a space for kids who feel they are queer to safely and comfortably teach themselves about the different ways they can express their gender and sexuality. Unfortunately, a lot of transphobic and homophobic people use the concept of sexuality to assume that queer people are talking to children about the actual act of sex when they choose to ignore the romantic aspect of a sexuality. While they choose to ignore the fact that kids as young as 6 start to think about romantic attraction as it's an aspect of most young media they consume such as Disney movies, they become outraged at the concept of the same media utilizing the romance to show people of the same gender in the same sort of relationship.

Another frequent use of negative terminology revolves around the surgeries that transgender people get, as transphobic people use terms that invoke fear in people who don't understand how gender affirming surgeries work. A couple frequent terms are "chemical castration", "sterilization", and my personal favourite, "advocating for carving up children" which is just so much to unpack as it is. It's really hard to reason with people who use these terms because they have flat out convinced themselves that these surgeries are harmful because they will not listen to actual trans people who have had these surgeries, nor will they listen to the countless professionals who have stated on multiple occasions that these surgeries have been well researched, well practiced and truly help trans people feel comfort in their bodies. Phrases such as "sterilization" are harmful because it insinuates that our main priority as a society should be breeding, whereas the world is far more complex than just the simple act of reproducing and consequently, people are far more complex than that. To reduce someone who is unable to create a child as just "someone who is sterilized" takes away every other aspect of their personality that makes them human. It shouldn't matter in the slightest what someone choose to do with their own body.

If we're able to reframe these phrases that pop up in common hateful circles we can reframe the mindset that trans healthcare is harmful. Transitioning allows people to find comfort in their bodies and the euphoria that comes with exploring the outskirts of the gender binary. Hating on trans people for being trans lends itself to an unproductive and hateful society when it's far easier to show a shred of empathy towards people who genuinely just want to exist in society and be shown the same amount of respect that everyone else gets.