I find it amazing the way people stretch the truth and apply labels to other people in the hope those other people’s views (livelihood and lives) will be silenced or cancelled. One example is calling people racist which is well overused. Labeling all people with white skin as racist is actually being racist. This post is about another one of the buzzwords used to attack people, “transphobe.”
One definition of transphobe thrown around is:
A person who fears, hates or is prejudiced against transgender or transsexual people and/or transness.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/transphobe
According to Wikipedia, the definition of a phobia is:
“A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia
Or, another medical definition of phobia is:
“a persistent, irrational, intense fear of a specific object, activity, or situation (the phobic stimulus), fear that is recognized as being excessive or unreasonable by the individual himself. When a phobia is a significant source of distress or interferes with social functioning, it is considered a mental disorder (sometimes called a phobic disorder).”
https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/phobia
Somehow, I don’t see how ‘transphobia’ is a real phobia, other than having ‘phobia’ as part of the name. The term ‘phobia’ could be assigned to other beliefs as well, for instance, you could apply the term to people of faith who decide not to eat pork. We could label them as porkphobic. People who decide not to have a pet in their home could be called petphobic and the list could be continually expanded as a label to maintain division. The problem with making up these phobias is that they are meaningless. Someone who has decided not to eat pork because of faith does not suffer from an anxiety disorder, nor do they have persistent or excess fear of pork. People who decide against pets for whatever reason could have a phobia about pets, but the vast majority do not have anxiety over pets with persistent or excessive fear of them. Maybe they don’t want or can afford the responsibility of pet ownership.
So, on the basis of adding “trans” and “phobia” together, a new label has been effected to cause division. A new cudgel in the war on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Drop that label on someone and there goes their DEI score. The label dropper gets his/her/they/us/whatever virtue signaling star on their Justice badge and sits back to enjoy the accolades.
One must ask, is this new stick-to-poke-people-in-the-eye a result of the inherent hypocrisy of calling all white people devils and maintaining the attitude it isn’t racist? Is this new shillelagh supposed to work better in keeping people apart?
I know I can’t speak for everyone, but I myself don’t wish (or care) what other people do or how they express themselves. I recognize every other person as a fellow human being with all the rights (and responsibilities) I share with them. If I happen to dead-name or misgender someone, it isn’t on purpose the first time. If the individual jumps to conclusions and begins a verbal attack, I really have no need to argue or continue any further interaction.
I acknowledge the fact there are two genders and all the other labels are for private use. I don’t need to know your preferred pronouns, how you dress, who or how many you have sex with unless you are expecting a close intimate relationship with me. I am not unreasonably or excessively fearful of trans people. I don’t feel threatened, therefore there is no phobia. I’ll gladly shake anyone’s hand in greeting, regardless of how they dress. (Behavior is on a case-by-case basis.[see above])
So, put away the virtue signaling club for a minute. Most people do not care, but there are limits. The most extreme examples are highlighted on the news and regularly bring in the funds for the support groups and inflate the numbers. (Does the way the money was brought in by the BLM grifters bring anything to mind?) Does this issue attempting to divide our country really deserve our attention? Could we not focus on other issues and begin a fruitful discussion to address the problems the mainstream media continues to ignore? Our citizens are hurting due to the massive influx of cheap labor, the loss of jobs due to hits to the energy sector and inflation. The genocide of the Uyghur people has to take a back seat to argue about what is or isn’t in your pants?
We have real problems facing our country and we are arguing over what is a man or a woman.
Seriously?
In the words of a Tibetan Buddhist monk and friend, “get over your cheap self.”