We need to talk about Jessica Yaniv.
We need to talk about Jessica Yaniv.
If you type in that name on Google or Twitter, you’re bound to get hundreds of results from homophobic right wingers, anti-SJWs, and people generally critical of popular “transgender activism.” You’ll find results from LifeSiteNews and other conservative Christian publications. You probably won’t find much coming from liberals, leftists, LGBTQ people, and our allies. And… I think that’s a problem. A major one. If only transphobic people are talking about this, does it mean anyone talking about it becomes transphobic? It begs the question: are conservatives the only people allowed to talk about predators in the LGBT community? What does that mean for the most vulnerable among us?
For background, you might know Yaniv as the trans woman who has filed discrimination suits against estheticians who only do pubic hair waxing for female clients, and who wouldn’t do it on a pre-op trans woman. One Brazilian immigrant was forced to close her small business because of it. 16 others have faced legal ramifications, most of them women of color. At first glance, you might compare this to “the homophobic bakery” case, where a bakery refused to make a cake for a same sex couple. I would argue that interacting with genitals you are comfortable with is a bit more personal than baking a cake, and that the dynamics here are pretty different.
What I actually want to talk about is the fact that Yaniv is known to openly, well, act like a pedophile acts (screenshots here — content warning for an adult talking a LOT about pubescent girls bodies and asking girls how old they are) and is now also trying to organize lgbtq youth ages 12+ topless swimming parties with no parents allowed. For the record, every LGBTQ youth event I’ve ever seen advertised or attended besides this one has had an UPPER age limit, and they also weren’t focused on nudity. I’ve also never seen one that explicitly bans parents when underage children are involved. There’s so many red flags here I don’t even know where to start, and frankly I don’t think I should have to explain why this is concerning. Anyone who has ever had someone sexualize their puberty can recognize what is happening in those messages sent by Yaniv.
(UPDATE: Someone just sent me this link which details highly inappropriate, sexual communication between Yaniv and a 14 year old. It is from a website that seems to skew “anti SJW,” so take it with a grain of salt, but it contains screenshots and a link to a Twitter of a teenager who absolutely appears to be a real person. (LINK)
A lot of LGBT people and liberal allies don’t want to criticize people like this because we are all too familiar with the decades long campaigns trying to paint us as predatory youth-corrupters; conservatives love to pass around stories like this and talk about the SJW transgender agenda and how LGBT people are all preying on the youth. I understand why we avoid talking about it too much so as not to provide more ammo. I really get it. I have lost count of the times an appalled mother hid her child behind me as I pass by in public. That kind of shame runs DEEP.
Of course, that means that the ONLY people talking about it popularly are conservative or seem to just hate transgender people. Which then translates to: “if you talk about this, then you just hate transgender people.” I am 100% certain that will be the reaction to this post, actually.
In a lot of ways this post isn’t about Yaniv individually. I genuinely do not know if Yaniv has ever hurt anyone, or would ever. However, when we see big bold red flags waving, we can say what they are, if we have any intellectual honesty whatsoever. When we see behavior like this on the ground level, amongst people we know, we have to confront it. The deeper problem is that victims of predatory adults in these communities are primarily going to be lgbtq youth. Its not that The Transgender Menace is swooping in to prey on straight society, like the picture conservatives would love to paint. The call is coming from inside the house.
Young LGBTQ people make up a victim pool that is easily accessible, often estranged from family and peers, and uniquely vulnerable, wanting acceptance and approval from an adult. Its a double edged sword: having one supportive adult in a LGBT youth’s life can literally save their life. But this also makes them uniquely vulnerable: what lgbtq person HASN’T had an older member of our community be inappropriate towards us? They probably didn’t have 150,000 Twitter followers like Yaniv does, but were they cool, were they even an activist? Were they an established part of the community? The million dollar question: did the other LGBTQ adults recognize their behavior?
We have to send the message to young people that THIS IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR, and it is not representative of what they will find in healthy LGBTQ communities. We cannot allow predatory behavior to be normalized in self defense against people who say all LGBT people are predatory. In the end, this is what it comes down to. Predation towards young people is NOT unique to the LGBTQ community, not by a long shot. However, the LGBTQ community is not unique enough from the rest of this society to be free of predation towards young people. We HAVE to be able to maintain vigilance about patterns of behavior that point in the direction of taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us. It is our responsibility as adults in these communities to watch out for our younger sisters, brothers, and siblings. If we can’t do that then we deserve whatever criticism comes our way.
