The American right’s war on trans rights began with the loss of its war against LGBQ rights. The battle that marked the end of that war (for the time being) was when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. As demonizing LGBQ Americans was no longer a very effective political game, the right needed a new vulnerable group to demonize, and they picked trans Americans as a new target.
In 2016 North Carolina passed the first “bathroom bill” and the Obama administration responded with a guidance letter stating that Title IX required public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. Under the first Trump regime, the Obama era guidance was rolled back, and Trump banned transgender soldiers from serving in 2017.
When it became clear that the fear mongering and demonizing used to push bathroom bills had no basis in reality, in 2020 the right turned to banning female transgender athletes from sports. After that, the right focused on targeting trans Americans in the context of medical care, education and legal recognition. Given that about 1% of Americans are transgender, the right’s obsession with passing laws hostile to trans Americans might strike rational people as odd. This is especially true of their focus on transgender women in sports. When the NCAA allowed transgender athletes to compete, there were fewer than 10 such athletes in the United States. It is estimated that there are about 300,000 transgender youth (age 13-17) and about 13% of them participate in sports, compared to 50% of the general population. The Olympics saw hardly any transgender athletes and the professional sports leagues currently have none. While some might see this as a triumph for the anti-trans laws, the low numbers predate the bans. The war on trans is a manufactured fight targeting a minute fraction of the population, especially the moral panic over trans athletes. While some on the left have decided it would be expedient to throw trans Americans under the political bus (sacrificing a tiny minority in the hopes of political gains), I support trans rights and feel that it is somehow worse to abandon such a small minority.
As a philosopher, my usual essays are argumentative: I advance logical arguments in rational support of my view and consider opposing arguments. In some cases, I have succeeded in changing minds about trans rights with facts and logic. These have been situations involving running friends who worried, in good faith, that they would be robbed of their places by transwomen. Since their concerns were held in good faith, learning the truth changed their view—they knew they had nothing to worry about.
From the standpoint of facts and logic, the right’s war on trans is without a foundation—it is built on lies, fear, and bad logic. But this approach can be very persuasive, since the goal of persuasion is to get people to believe a claim whether it is true or not. In contrast, good reasoning is burdened by the need to have plausible premises and strong (or valid) logic. As our good dead friend Aristotle noted, logic is the weakest form of persuasion.
In this essay I will do something different. I will tell you the story of why I support trans rights not as a logical argument but to move you to reflect on your feelings about trans rights as well. I’m also writing this to explore why I think what I think. As a philosopher, I must point out that my motivations are irrelevant to the truth of my claims; but the goal here is not proof but to sort out feelings and motivations. It’s good to know why we think what we do. If we do not reflect, we won’t know what we really believe and we won’t know whether we are being played and manipulated by others.
I’m a straight guy who has never had any doubts about being male. I do not understand what it is like to be transgender, yet I support transgender rights. On reflection, I find that some of the reasons go back to my youth.
When I was a kid, I was infamously skinny and had the weird habit of keeping my belt very tight. Like all kids, I know I had a great reason for doing my weird thing but have no idea why now. I was, of course, mocked for being so skinny and one of my mother’s friends nicknamed me “cinch belt”, which stuck. This helped me understand being mocked and subject to cruelty simply because of who I was. Something similar has probably happened to many other people. I was also misgendered once, which stuck with me.
When I was a young boy my parents would let me get shaggy between haircuts—they were both public school teachers and we did many things to save money (like how I would get one pair of sneakers a year). One time at a store, the woman behind the register identified me as a girl (I’m not sure if she was mocking me for my hair length or thought I was a girl). As a boy, I was horrified and upset by this. I insisted on getting my hair cut and it is probably one of the reasons I have wicked short hair today. But I will never forget how it felt to be misgendered, even in such a minuscule way. I can extrapolate to how trans people feel when people misgender them and recognize how much it must hurt when this is backed by cruel laws.
I usually go by “Mike” as “Michael” was reserved for use when I was in trouble. Naturally, people liked to mess with me by calling me “Mikey” as an insult and provocation. I would politely tell people not to call me that but, as would be expected, some people would persist in trying to insult and provoke me. This is a tiny thing, but it helps me understand how people feel when others refuse to use their preferred pronouns. I can imagine how I would feel if a law was passed that made people to call me “Mikey” and forbid me from using my name. If you have a nickname you hate, imagine a law being passed that mandated that people call you that.
When I was 13, I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. In the 1980s D&D was caught up in the Satanic Panic and I was accused by people of being in league with Satan (or at least being corrupted by him). This moral panic was, of course, unfounded and it taught me how moral panics are created and inflicted on people. Because of my experience with being the target of this moral panic, I have sympathy for other targets, and this obviously includes trans people. My last story is about running and, of course, the Supreme Court just upheld laws banning transgender athletes.
When I was in 7th grade my father decided I needed to play football, so I had to join the team. As mentioned above, I was a skinny kid. Football did not go well, and I knew that it was not what I wanted to do. I walked away from practice and ended up quitting. As would be expected, I was mocked endlessly for this. My grandfather would bring it up every time I saw him, until one fateful day. But after that I had no interest in sports. Until one fateful day.
My parents were divorced when I was 15, which messed me up. In those days, we just suffered through things without support and I spiraled downward. My school performance was so bad I was dropped down a division and things were not going well. Fortunately, I recovered enough to want to do better and decided to turn my life around. Part of this involved a desire to be on a sports team. I played basketball as a young kid and even attended basketball camp, so I tried that. After the first tryout, the coach said they had an important position, that of manager. I said, “coach, I have to do a sport.” He replied, “Winter track has to take everyone.” So, I joined the track team. In those days, running was looked down on. But it was still a sport.
The track coach tested new team members to see what they could do, starting out with prestigious events like hurdles, sprints and jumping. Those who were not strong enough to throw the shot put and were good at nothing became distance runners. So, I ended up running the 880, mile and 2 mile. I was okay. When I went to college, I was on the Junior Varsity team but my lack of a sense of direction caused me to get lost and run many extra miles during practice. This made me into a good runner—I ended up being All Conference two years in cross country, which is good for a kid who walked away from football practice. Perhaps most importantly, I won the Peter Ott’s 10K in Camden, Maine—where my grandparents lived. I never heard a thing about football after that, especially since I was mentioned in the town newspaper as their grandson. If you are wondering about how this story relates to trans rights, the idea is this. Other people wanted me to be a football player, but I was not a football player but a runner. Football made me miserable and running makes me happy. Because of this experience, I think that people should have the right to be who they are—otherwise they will be miserable. At this point someone on the right will probably say that I must also defend pedophiles—this always comes up when talking about trans rights as it did with LBG rights. But I obviously do not defend pedophiles, and my view on this is stolen from J.S. Mill’s essay on liberty: people should be free to be what they are, if they do not harm others. Pedophiles obviously hurt other people.
I do not understand what it is to be transgender but, to use a silly example, I also do not understand what it is to be a devoted sports fan. As a kid I found being a sports fan boring and as an athlete I see watching sports as on par with watching other people eat. I see the value in sports and eating, but not in being a fan. I don’t get fanatical sports fans or fans of celebrities when that is a central part of their life. It seems weird and irrational to me. In my younger days, I must confess, I was a bit of an elitist about this—mostly because I still had resentment about people calling me “gay” for not wanting to watch football. But I learned to accept that just as I was a runner, other people were sports fans. Or fans of some celebrity. I learned to accept them and at least tolerate their way of being. If they do not hurt other people, they should be free to be who they are. I feel the same way for transgender people—I don’t understand what it is to be them, but they have as much right to be themselves as I do. Obviously, the right claims that transpeople are a danger—but this takes us to facts and logic, which prove the right is wrong. As it usually is.
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