“Radical Gender Ideology”
The hypocrisy of Mike Pence
By now, you may have seen articles and video clips showing Mike Pence stuttering and stumbling when called out on his double-standard regarding parental rights in a recent CNN Town Hall. Oh yes, he is firm in his support of the rights of parents… just not where trans kids are concerned. Then, the rights and wishes of parents trying to support their kids suddenly become irrelevant and the rule of the state takes over.
And poor ole Mike didn’t have an answer to that when moderator Dana Bash pointed out the inconsistency. He stumbled, mumbled and stammered his way through a garbled, semi-coherent response in which the phrase “radical gender ideology” cropped up twice in under a minute.
(Here’s a partial transcript of that segment of the interview, together with some video excerpts: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/mike-pence-left-stammering-when-cnn-host-points-out-his-hypocrisy-on-trans-youth/)
But the whole truth runs a lot deeper, and darker, than the mere hypocrisy of Pence’s discriminatory position on parental rights.
The thing is, Mike Pence is in fact correct, there is a “radical gender ideology” in America, and it is “afoot”, to use his word. It’s just not what he claims it is. No, the real “radical gender ideology” exists in the minds of Pence and his Republican apologists who have weaponized their own deliberate, willful ignorance of some basic, well-established facts about transgender people in order to justify their policies of trans intolerance and oppression.
To wit:
A) Anthropological evidence clearly shows that transgender people have been around for millennia. This is not a new phenomenon.
B) In cultures that — unlike the U.S. — accept transgender people, they are typically well integrated, contributing members of society, unremarkable in any other way. See next point.
C) There are many transgender subcultures around the world that are accepted and supported by the dominant culture (partial list below).
D) There is significant evidence that gender identity may be genetic, and thus immutable. In other words, you can’t make a trans person cisgender, nor can you make a cisgender person trans. The “groomer” narrative is bullshit.
E) There is also research that strongly suggests a transgender person’s brain may physiologically more closely resemble the brain of the sex with which they identify as opposed to that of their genetic sex, which indicates that transgender people are quite likely born, not made. (More research needs to be done on this.)
F) Almost 90% of transgender youth in the U.S. have considered suicide, almost 50% have attempted it at least once (sometimes successfully); those numbers fall to the single digits in a supportive environment.
The harsh truth of it is, their particular brand of “radical gender ideology” is not in the least concerned with protecting trans kids or the rights of their parents, or the right of transgender people of any age to exist without harassment, marginalization or threat. It’s about the erasure of trans people from the social landscape, and for no other reason than the embedded petty bigotry, hate, intolerance, and gratuitous cruelty toward an oppressed minority that, on the evidence, seems to typify the Republican party of today.
And that has to change. It’s bad enough that transgender people of all ages are coming increasingly in the crosshairs of hate groups and the cruel legislations of right-wing state governments, but to hamstring parents whose only desire is to show their kids love and acceptance is truly unconscionable.
Here is a partial list of transgender subcultures around the world:
· Whakawahine (Maori of New Zealand)
· Calabai, Calalai and Bissu (Indonedia)
· Fakaleiti (Tonga)
· Acault (Myanmar)
· Fa’afafine (Samoa)
· Metis (Nepal)
· Kathoey (Thailand)
· Muxe or Muxhe (Zapotec of Oaxaca)
· Hirjra (South Asia)
· Sekrata (Madagascar)
· Femminiello (Italy)
· Mahu (pre-colonial Hawaii)
· Two Spirit (many North American indigenous peoples)
