MAGA Distress

 

Face It

 

Cisgender Identity Crisis

 

And We're Off!

Image:  Katie Rainbow at Pexels

One of the zillion executive orders Donald Trump signed after being sworn in as president yesterday had this unwieldy title:  "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."

A more accurate title would've been "Erasing Transgender People for Fun and Profit."

The premise of the order is that women need protecting from all those men who claim to be women so they can gain access to women's shower facilities. It's a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.

Nevertheless, to thwart the "ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex," this country's new firm leader has given us a new firm policy:  "It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."

Bull pucky.

I know too many transgender people too well to buy the lie that they're somehow making up their gender dysphoria. This executive order and all the anti-trans campaigning that led to it are about fear, ignorance, power and religious extremism, not gender extremism.

The conservative flunkies who wrote this order were thorough. It seeks to wipe out acknowledgement of trans people at the federal level in a variety of ways, from insisting passports "accurately reflect the holder's sex" to forcing all government agencies to remove any statements or policies that "promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology."

The list goes on. But no matter how much Trump panders to his fans, transgender people have always been here, and they aren't going away. They're simply, cruelly, being marched back into the closet.

All under the pretense of protecting women. As a woman, I know that transgender women don't threaten my personal safety. It's Trump, the assaulter in chief, and a number of his wannabe cabinet members who do.

A Different Kind of Holiday Wish

Image:  Abhishek Yadav at Scopio

I was driving behind a Toyota the other day that sported a pair of unique bumper stickers. The first said "Gender? I hardly know 'er!" and the second read "My other they is a them."

Thanks to the times we're in, I found myself fervently hoping that over the next four years that RAV4 never sets one tire outside of liberal Seattle.

Gender Contender

 

Non-Binary at the Bank

Photo by Reyna Montgomery at Pexels

I had to go to a Wells Fargo branch this week to make a deposit for work. As the young teller processed my check, I noticed one half of their head sported a short, stereotypically male, hairstyle, while the other half featured longer and stereotypically female locks.

"I'm both male and female," screamed the coiffure. Or was I reading too much into it? Perhaps this person did identify as one or the other.

When I got outside, I looked at the receipt for the teller's name:  Sage.

I wasn't reading too much into it.