Masha Gessen wrote in the New York Times today about trans rights and how they are linked with reproductive rights. In looking at the article’s comments section I was dismayed to see people dismissing their (Gessen uses they/them pronouns) argument because of its lack of political viability. This is concerning and gets to the deeper issues of the United States’ political scene. People are selectively compassionate about disabilities or other genders/experiences based on the utility of the emotional response they garner, and this only so long as it mobilizes and gets political support to win an election. Transgender people, Jewish people, and Palestinians, are reduced to the status of pawns. Now they need to disappear because they didn’t deliver hegemony for the Democratic party.
What does democracy require?
What does a muti-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-/non-religious democratic republic require of its electorate and citizens? I think that public education pre-the critical race theory backlash was on the right track. We need to prioritize diversity, and consider seriously what has been termed the “tyranny of the majority.” In reading the comments to Gessen’s article I was struck by the lack of empathy of the readers who could have entered into their perspective and seen what they were saying about gender-affirming care even though readers might have disagreed. We are reading the perspective of a trans author, it is an opinion piece, can’t we be respectful and learn?
Compassion as a Strategy
At first glance, one could say that already people are becoming politically strategic and not compassionate. However, this is a false binary. There is a growing hardness in the hearts liberals whose compassion for queer people, the disabled, and the mentally ill, has been noteworthy. Already we are compromising on our values of diversity, hardening our hearts, and closing our eyes. Even if these are no longer viable political platforms, these are human beings, and we should weigh the words of our fellow human beings, especially the marginalized. Government is supposed to help everyone, and not only the thriving. That’s what society is about. We cannot compromise on our values of diversity for the next four years. Safety through solidarity.
