It’s “funny” how this was a complete non-issue here in France, but when the American right made trans people their next target after their abortion win, it suddenly became a huge problem for the French right as well.
These people constantly complain about American cultural hegemony, but they still make an exception for Trump and this kind of shit. Out of all the cool things coming out of the US, this is what you tolerate? I’m so sick of these spiteful assholes…
So much this. Our rightwing is hellbent on importing every single moral panic from the US to detract from their blunders and authoritarianism.
Trans people and cross dressers are EVERYWHERE (I mean worldwide). It feels like they have only been newsworthy for the last decade or maybe even less.
You might say this is a stupid analogy but when the US comes up with a bad political idea (like making transgender people front and center) it kind of feels like that US politicians are the “Apple of their industry” and many of the Android OEM (other politicians) just copy their bad ideas without understanding the intent Apple had.
By the way, I miss headphone ports on smartphones.
There was an American woman named Christine Jorgensen who went to Europe and was the first American to publicly admit to getting reassignment surgery in 1945, so that was pretty newsworthy.
Thankfully, she had an overall good life and she worked tirelessly for trans rights. I can’t even imagine what some right-wing bigots would say about her now.
"Newsworthy.*
Quickly, without googling, what percentage of the human population do you believe is trans? Or first, what percent do you think it should be in order to make it "newsworthy "? Maybe 10%? Gotta be, right? Seems like they’re everywhere… No? Maybe 3% give or take? 1%?
Try 1/2 of 1%. Is that “newsworthy” enough to make a few thousand kids suicidal?
Meanwhile, auto accidents is no longer the number one cause of death amongst the youth in the US, it has been supplanted by firearms.
But that’s just not “newsworthy” enough to do something about? Isn’t this about the safety of the children?
There were other terms for being trans such as the indigenous American word two spirit or the Arabic Mukhannath. There was an African one where a woman would become a third gender in order to own land but I forgot the term.
Edit: Here is a link about the genders in Judiasm, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/
I meant everywhere as in trans is not just a recent concept someone made up.
Yeah Hijra, Kathoey, two spirit, femineillo… One thing (ok two spirit is a lot of things, but this is one) interpreted through many cultural lenses. We are everywhere, we have always been. It has often been difficult for us, but for fucks sake it doesn’t have to be.
i don’t think it’s so much americans as it is the rise of the european populist far right seizing upon a vulnerable minority to get into power.
yes they share a lot of the same funding, but you shouldn’t ignore europe’s role in this
Yeah the Hapsburgs have funded American transphobia
HapsburgsKremlin and Christians
but when the American right made trans people their next target after their abortion win
WTF? When were trans people not the target of the american right?
Sure, but from where I am it sure seems like they became the main target. Anti-trans rethoric picked up a lot in the last few months.
Back when they were still holding slaves and had their attention occupied elsewhere.
As if liberals and socialists haven’t tossed everything else aside to try and be as ‘good’ as possible by the standards of the american left/liberals twitter brigade
Common France protesting W
Conservatives are a scourge on humanity. Backwards thinking cowards
Always have been. Even the one thing they always claim they are better for they aren’t. Conservative policies have always led to weaker economies, not stronger ones. In every single objective metric, they are bad for society as a whole. Great for a few individual people and their bank accounts though.
If only Americans protested like the French, we’d be in such a better place. Politicians would actually work for us, I hope they win continued access to gender affirming care!
Damn right. They take away Union benefits from one worker the rest of them shut down the Country!
In USA they fire half the staff, double the workload for no extra pay for the remaining and they think “at least I still have my job…”
Yeah, that mentality of ‘at least I still have my job’ with the added cost of work/life imbalance and stress is wild to me! Corporations shouldn’t have so much power as their staff are the ones bringing in the profits. Sane business models can be profitable, respecting their staff’s time and effort. I can only hope more people wake up and unionize! As there have been victories here that should blaze a path.
The reason the “at least I still have my job” is a thing here is because the US has virtually zero social safety nets, especially healthcare. If you lose your job and your savings is not where it needs to be, you can find yourself on the streets pretty damn fast.
Yep, in many cases people live paycheck to paycheck without being able to save money for an emergency. Often, we are just one emergency away from homelessness! By design, the US has very few avenues in the way of social safety nets (the few we do possess for those who are disabled or elderly, are being attacked by Republicans). People have voted against their own best interests enough to cause this crisis; it will be an uphill battle to destroy those walls built against real change.
I mean the recent university protests in the US are a good first step. To socially normalize protesting there is no other way than just doing more protesting.
People are protesting over Israel/Palestine all over the country.
Yes, that is true! It is still not on the level of a good French Protest (which morphs into a riot) that makes those in power fearful of the consequences of a prolonged riot.
france be like “not only do we want to be rabidly islamophobic we want to be transphobic as well”
Removed by mod
And France is Islamophobic because…?
Because Muslims are increasingly marginalised, disenfranchised and used as a scapegoat for everything that goes bad?
Yes that does sound like the definition of an islamophobic country. I think the question is, how specifically?
Pretty sure the OP was a troll, actually.
Anyhow, if you want specifics, we currently have 90 far right MPs in Congress and even our “centrist” government and the “classic right” seem to have decided muslims are to blame for everything. This includes and is not limited to :
- banning “muslim adjacent” wear like abbayas from schools ;
- a broad offensive to remove pork free meals from school lunches in some cities ;
- à brutal crackdown on any pro Palestinian action, including summons from anti terrorism units that have targeted union leaders, students and leftwing MPs ;
- targeting of muslim private schools for closure whereas radical catholic schools are absolutely fine even when they teach gay people are all rapists (see Lycée Stanislas for a very striking example) ;
- repeated incidents of police disproportionately targeting muslims ;
- a general attitude of paranoia regarding anything muslim : last year our Home Office equivalent actually asked primary schools to provide a list of pupils that missed class because of specifically muslim religious holidays.
I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of things. But also, I can see everyday around me how hard muslim people, but also any arab looking person, have it in the public eye. The far right is on the rise politically but also socially. Anything that “does not belong”, be it LGBTQ, non white people, etc is increasingly targeted by pressure groups of "concerned citizens ", “protector of the peace,”, “defender of children” and so on. It worries me. A lot.
Assuming you want to know why France is islamophobic…
It’s historically grown. France invaded majority muslim, north Africa in the 19th century. Present day Algeria was french territory. The native muslim population was brutally oppressed; somewhat comparable to the oppression of blacks in the US. Nevertheless, the Muslims were french and fought for her in its wars, such as in the trenches 1914-18.
Algeria eventually won its independence after a brutal war lasting from 1954 to 1962. The brutality of this civil war is showcased by the massacre in Paris in 1961. Police attacked a peaceful demonstration for independence, murdering dozens, maybe hundreds of citizens. The police chief was a criminal nazi collaborator, convicted for his role in the holocaust. For decades, information about the massacre was suppressed in France.
President Charles de Gaulle - formerly the leader of Free France, the french forces that did not surrender to the nazis - brokered independence for Algeria. In response, far right traitors attempted a coup d’état and to assassinate him.
In many ways this history is comparable to the terrorist campaign that the US far right unleashed in the 1950/60 against African Americans and the civil rights movement. But the struggle was far more brutally fought in France. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Over a million people, mainly of european descent, were forced to flee from what became Algeria.
The decades after Algerian independence will seem quite familiar to Americans. North African Muslims had become a minority in metropolitan France (the mainland). This hated minority was quietly, without much legal upheaval, pushed to the fringes of society. Information about past atrocities against them was suppressed. Small scale terror attacks continued to happen.
These are the origins of the french far right and its islamophobia.
I swear that country/culture has zero volume control. You are either the most nationalist French person who ever frenched and the rest of the world is anglo swine who have contributed nothing of value or you are so international and progressive you worry that a red flag doesn’t include the colorblind.
Come on guys, chill the fuck out. You can have a protest without burning a thousands cars and you are allowed to be indecisive wishy-washy moderate.
I asked a friend of mine who had immigratied from France about this once. He told me all their normal boring political types just spend their entire career in local office. That’s why you don’t hear about them. Which fine whatever.
In a “pro protest” scenario do the two pros cancel out to be a contest?
May the testiest tester win!
Banned for everyone?
Banned for minors.
For now, in France, minors can have puberty blockers, hormones, and breast surgery (it’s quite rare, needs parental consent, and the process is so long that the surgery usually happens after 18).
I say “for now” because many of us fear that the ban will be extended to adults sooner or later. Transidentity is the new moral panic in France, and the far right is getting dangerously close to power.
Are they talking a ban for adults?
Not officially.
But on the discord server of one of the anti-trans groups behind the proposed law, discussions are talking about banning minors as a first step.
There’s a bill proposal to ban HRT for minors. But we know that it’s how that begins: you start with minors and you go as high as you can until you can ban it for everyone…
Not really.
What an excellent question
