How Many Times Have We Heard This?

It seems like whenever we have a setback the trans exclusionists come out of the closet.

Carving Up the Rainbow?
Huffington Queer Voices
By Mischa Haider
April 3, 2016

The trans community and the LGBT community is falling into the old trap of infighting over who among us is most to blame for the hate now being directed at us and, perhaps in seasonal spirit, trying to figure out who should be the Paschal lamb. It appears from the debate that this honor will be bestowed on gender fluid and trans people who do not inhabit the binary.

There have been articles from gay activists like Shannon Gilreath accusing trans-inclusive protection supporters of unleashing the gates of hell on innocent LGB bystanders, and even trans activist Dana Beyer has suggested that we should hide the non-binary trans Americans from view, because they embarrass us and make people uncomfortable.

What an incredibly shortsighted approach. It helps make clear why American bigots have always been able to take aim so easily at the minority piñata du jour. Instead of banding together and challenging the very vinculum of intolerance toward what is different or uncomfortable, we have been deciding who is more deserving of rights and at whose expense. Perhaps we should all take a moment to reflect on Martin Luther King’s observation that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” so similar in spirit to Martin Niemöller’s famous poem about passivity in the face of oppression. First they came for the gender-fluid, but I was not gender-fluid, so I said nothing...

This is nothing new, after the Stonewall Uprising they not only didn’t want us but also gays and lesbians who couldn’t pass as straights. They only wanted gays and lesbians and trans people who could assimilate into society. They only wanted gays who were not flamboyant, they only wanted lesbians who were not too butch, and trans people they didn’t want at all.

What they want are those with passing privilege, nothing has changed in over forty-five years. When someone is beating you with a baseball bat they don’t ask are you gay or trans… oh sorry I only beat trans people. What they see as they are beating you is someone who is different from them.