(07-04-2024, 06:54 AM)Freija Wrote: Lest we not forget I am of transsexual provenance which unfortunately falls under the nebulous transgender and LGBT umbrella and furthermore, as a former trans child who received what is now called gender affirming care as a minor way back in the dark ages of the early 1970s, when receiving medical care for those in my situation wasn’t a made up political football/wedge issue and was between parents and doctors, I understand and will advocate for the needs of those like me today in the voting booth because I know all too well the consequences of doing nothing or outlawing and delaying such care. Perhaps it is foolhardy to be a single issue voter but when you know the next step after coming for trans kids is coming after me, it is hard to care about much else.
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While I do understand your trepidation at least to some degree, I don't share it. I can kinda sorta understand it because it appears to be built upon the same sort of extrapolation that the Right engages in on such issues as gun control, to which I am as susceptible as anyone else. After having read the articles - at least the ones I could get to - and watching the video, I see the extrapolation goes beyond what was actually said, as extrapolations do. The Right does the same when the Left blows the gun control dog whistle. They'll take what was actually said and try to extrapolate all manner of dire outcomes that extend beyond what was said.
Transgenderism - if that's even a word, I dunno if it is - is a sticky subject fraught with booby traps and pitfalls. It, like the issues of gun control and many others, can be a minefield best navigated carefully... and no one wants to navigate either one carefully. Everyone wants to charge ahead to the trenches.
I know that everyone thinks I'm a raging lunatic Right Wing Extremist, or at least most folks do, even the ones that know me well enough that they ought to know better, but really I'm not. I'm more of a Libertarian, in that I believe that if folks aren't screwing with you, then you've got no excuse to screw with them. That's a philosophy that neither the Right nor the Left can stomach. Everyone in those extremes think they have some sort of God-given (on the Right) or State-given (on the Left) right to tell everyone else how to live... and neither has either.
As an aside, I left the Republican Party 30 or more years ago. More accurately, they left ME when the Bush Boys took over. That was enough for me. I'm a registered voter, but not registered as Republican, nor Democrat, nor even a Libertarian. I registered as "mind yer own damned business, and stop looking over my shoulder while I'm trying to vote!"
As a closet Libertarian, I believe the government has no damned business at all engaging in the transgender trade. it's not their concern. They ought not to be either banning it or funding it, same as religion. I believe the same regarding state interference in abortions - no damned business either banning it or funding it. It's not their concern. I think it is the same for nearly all "social" issues - the government has no damned business interfering in social issues, other than preventing folks from unnecessarily annoying other folks with shenanigans like blocking public roads as a "protest". It's a public road, dammit! You block my free passage on it, I'm gonna take you out. If you wanna block travel, restrict the blockage to private property - your own. I've no gripes with that. If you block mine, then we're gonna have a real problem on our hands.
The government is supposed to govern. That's why they call it "government" instead of a "social club". Social issues are SOCIAL, not political. They belong to society, they're not in the government remit.
I think the transgender issue, particularly regarding children, is between them, their parents, and their doctor. None of the state's business to either restrict or fund. And by "fund", I don't mean just the treatment, I mean funding classroom education in the matter in elementary or secondary schools, too. Those kids have their hands full learning how to read, write, and figger. Anything else is college material.
There is an axiom that goes something like "he who pays the bills gets to call the shots". If folks don't want the government telling them what to do, then they need to stop asking the government to fund their pet projects. Likewise, if folks don't want the government to tell THEM what to do, they need to stop asking the government to tell the OTHER guy what to do. That's a knife that cuts both ways.
With that said, I stress CLASSROOM education. That doesn't mean school counselors ought to shy away from the issue when problems arise. I mean, their JOB is counseling, right? So they ought to be able to point kids and their parents toward resources.
I don't care about women's sports. I don't care about men's sports, either. All team sports are an absolute waste of time to my mind. Still, a school administration ought to be able to figure out for itself whether it wants it's women's volleyball team to be testosterone-laden, and whether it want's it's men's football team to be estrogen-ridden. Other schools scheduled to play it ought to have an absolute right to refuse to play them if there is an unfair advantage. You don't really need religious radicals or government bureaucrats to make that decision for them - the school board and the parents ought to have enough brain cells between them to be able to figure it out on their own.
I didn't see anywhere that Trump said he was coming after YOU, as an adult, but I do understand how that could be extrapolated out from what he said, given the current sociopolitical climate. In the same way, and in my case, Biden said "all you need is a double barrel shotgun. Fire it into the air!"... but he DIDN'T say "I'm gonna come and take all yer guns EXCEPT for the shotgun" - that was just what the Right extrapolated it to "mean".
A lot of what I saw written in the articles just looked like the same sort of extrapolation hysterics to me. Folks were claiming a lot of stuff was going to happen that was never threatened. Just because the Jerry Falwell Club wants something to happen, that doesn't mean that it necessarily WILL happen. There are a lot of steps between Falwell's wet dream and actually making something happen.
So, I still have to vote a straight Republican ticket, because there ain't no viable Libertarian ticket... and given what the BidenHarris regime has actually DONE, I see far more danger for the nation as a whole from them than from a bumbling bunch of Republicans.