It was no April Fool’s joke.
Harry Potter author-turned culture warrior J.K. Rowling kicked off the month with an 11-tweet social media thread in which she argued 10 transgender women were men — and dared Scottish police to arrest her.
Rowling’s intervention came as a controversial new Scottish government law, aimed at protecting minority groups from hate crimes, took effect. And it landed amid a fierce debate over both the legal status of transgender people in Scotland and over what actually constitutes a hate crime.
Already the law has generated far more international buzz than is normal for legislation passed by a small nation’s devolved parliament.
Being trans because you can’t live with the body you were born in is not optional. It’s often the choice between being able to live, or ditching life in that body, though I don’t expect you to know that.
But unlike being trans, making shitty derogatory jokes about people unlike yourself IS optional, and an overt exercise in personal privilege.
Right now, trans people are under extreme threat to both peace and life, and it’s just getting worse. I already know you don’t give a shit because your sympathy is clearly with people mocking them, but in truth you’re punching down on people you know nothing about, happy to make mirth out of what is incredibly painful to others, in a way that is clearly beyond your ability to comprehend.
Instead of requiring that the rest of us excuse your need to mock others you think can’t hit back, maybe examine your own life choices – with the specific goal of understanding what the fuck is so malfunctioning in YOU that you need to punch down on entire groups of humans.
I suggest this because the only difference between a trans person and a cis/het like myself is that often their difference is physically visible, while yours only comes into view when making shitty anti-trans cracks or writing about how it’s only a joke, only “bad taste,” and how very disadvantaged you are because others see it for the twisted hatefulness it really is.
What the fuck are you on about?
Really says a lot about you that you would immediately try twist my words this way.
I was talking about this: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925
Please stop advocating for trans people, you’re only hurting their cause.
That’s not what I have been told, on numerous occasions.
But you should stop advocating for insensitive assholes who like to mock, insult and hurt others for recreational amusement, it only makes your “but it’s only a joooooke!” that much more obviously pathetic.
I am not advocating for anyone. I’m just telling you that you shouldn’t either.