The Conservative Case For Trans Acceptance: Compassion & Personal Responsibility
Welcome back to my series on building the conservative case for trans acceptance.
Today, I will talk about the value of compassion, which is actually one of the most long-standing values we have. The fact that it has stood the test of time is proof that compassion is important to society, although many people who claim to be conservative seem to forget this. Compassion is key to maintaining a peaceful, functional and stable society, and we simply cannot go without it.
From the perspective of compassion, society should generally try to accommodate people’s needs as much as possible, so they can live happy and productive lives. Given that the condition of gender dysphoria is medically proven to exist, and that social and medical transition is proven to be the best way to alleviate dysphoria at least for some cases, a compassionate society should try to accommodate the basic needs of trans people, so they can live happy and functional lives. Note that you don’t necessarily have to agree with trans people’s views on gender identity for this to be true. The point here lies solely in being compassionate to others. You also don’t have to agree with every trans activist demand. Just reasonable accommodation of trans people’s needs would be enough.
Of course, this compassion is also a two way street. Trans people also need to be compassionate towards other people, and take their concerns seriously. Therefore, we can’t just shut down people who reasonably raise their genuine concerns and label them as ‘transphobic’. We need to engage, in good faith, with their concerns, and see how we can address them.
This is just a brief reminder, but an important one. Belief in personal responsibility is an important conservative value. Conservatives, as well as classical liberals, rightly reject collective responsibility and collective guilt. Which is why I reject that the antics of the most extreme trans activists should have any effect on me, or what I’m advocating for. I do not agree with most of their agenda, and I’m not responsible for it. In fact, I have repeatedly outlined my disagreements with that agenda previously, you can check out my previous articles and videos if you’re interested. The point is, you should consider my proposals on their own merit, without implying that I agree with the agenda of other people I can’t control. If you think ‘trans people’ should be treated as a collective whole, and that is it OK to blame trans people collectively for the actions of some activists, then you aren’t even conservative.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).
