LBJ Had it right over 60 years ago

[markbark]

Trans folks only make up about 1.6% of the population.
Why is the GOP invested in creating so many anti-trans/LGBTQ+ laws?

LBJ had it pegged over sixty years ago: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Replace "Colored" with "LGBTQ+" and/or "Drag Queen" and you've got the MAGA crowd in a nutshell.

[anciano]

1. Spot on!

LBJ was a truly great President. He was a "voice for those who had no voice."

[Ocelot II]

2. Pretty much. It's a lot harder to get away with really obvious racial bigotry any more;

you can't say "N-----" in public and you can't admit to hating Black people or Jews or members of non-white/non-Christian groups in polite company. So they had to find a new, more powerless minority to pick on, and why not LGBTQ people? They're "different" (just being different makes a person a potential target for hate no matter what the difference might be), and there's a sexual component that makes the haters uncomfortable. We can't have that, can we? And just think of the children! If a child reads a book about two boy penguins taking care of a chick, the child might turn out to be gay! If a child figures out that they are more comfortable living as the gender that they weren't born with and dressing accordingly, that's weird and it really means they are pretending to be girls so they can do icky things to the "real" girls in their school's bathrooms. Have I got that right?

What I think is really going on wrt trans-phobia is that RWingers, especially the fake Christians, have a very rigid view of gender (and everything else). You are either male or female, and between the two genders there's a vast chasm of behavior and appearance and roles. But gender is actually pretty fluid, and the hairy he-men of the GOP are horrified to think it might be possible for a person to consider themselves to be different from the God-created gender they were born with. For some reason this is terribly threatening. And drag is really scary because there are people who are actually men with actual penises who are dressing up as women, which is bad because women are weak and inferior and why would a man pretend to be one, even as a night club act? And if they read to children, those children will immediately start wearing false eyelashes and feather boas, and then what?

We're all performing our own drag, aren't we? We dress and behave in the way society expects us to. As a straight cis woman I don't have to wear makeup or earrings but I do because that's what we do. Drag bends expectations and that scares some people.

[ShazzieB]

6. Nail, meet hammer.

And drag is really scary because there are people who are actually men with actual penises who are dressing up as women, which is bad because women are weak and inferior and why would a man pretend to be one, even as a night club act?

You hit the nail on the head here. In fact, you hit a couple of nails. Because if men who dress up as women are scary, what's even scarier? A "man" who wants to be one of those weak, inferior women!

The same people who are in a tizzy about gender boundaries never talk about trans men or women who wear masculine clothing and hairstyles. That's because women who violate gender "norms" just don't upset them in the same way. For example, I'm a cis female who does not wear makeup or paint my nails, keeps my hair cut very short, wears jeans most of the time, and does not own a single pair of shoes with high heels. While most would agree I'm not the epitome of society's ideal standards for feminity, NO ONE CARES. But let an amab person violate any of society's "rules" for masculinity and watch people lose their sh1t! If misogyny isn't at the bottom of that double standard, I'll eat the tablet I'm typing this on.

[Ocelot II]

7. Bingo. I really think the main underlying cause of transphobia is misogyny.

I agree with your point that cis women who don't dress in stereotypically feminine ways are less upsetting to the bigots, but they still don't like trans men because those are people who were born female but have the nerve to be men! If you're born female you'd better stay that way and learn your place. Have some babies and STFU. But still, a drag show made up of women wearing suits, ties and fake beards wouldn't scare them nearly as much as a regular drag show does.

[multigraincracker]

3. I read the the BIBLE and it tells us

Eve was a transgendered clone..WE all came from her.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Been a repub standard since the Nixon Southern Strategy...

they just change who the hated group is for convenience.

[Hekate]

5. Yes, absolutely. "Someone to look down on" -- and may I add "someone vulnerable"

Who could be more vulnerable than a trans kid? Maybe as vulnerable, but not more.

[Duppers]

8. I've often used that LBJ quote

To explain the RW because I know it applies to a few R's I know.

[pansypoo53219]

9. the GOoPers need war, or some issue to scare/inflame thier base to vote for them, cause gosh darnit

men dressed up like ladies is icky.

[vercetti2021]

10. I am above them

I'm a happy transwoman that is hot to trot with a very supportive family and amazing girlfriend. I'm living my best life in happiness. They live solely in hatred of themselves and others. But let them be angry and pissy about us scary trannies. I'm hotter than their wives

[drmeow]

11. Not replace

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