So it’s revealed via the New York Times — on a Sunday morning, no less — that the current administration wants narrowly define gender as what you were born with, essentially eliminating any definition of transgender.
The biggest WTF line in that article:
For the last year, the Department of Health and Human Services has privately argued that the term “sex” was never meant to include gender identity or even homosexuality, and that the lack of clarity allowed the Obama administration to wrongfully extend civil rights protections to people who should not have them. [Emphasis mine.]
I say FUCK THAT.
And I say FUCK YOU, Don.
So why am I posting this here?
Let’s just say ever since this complete sham and embarrassment of an administration came into office — before that, even — I’ve been tempted to write a specific novel on how I feel about what they’ve been doing to the country over the last few years. It’s similar to the idea I had with the “Noah and the Schoolyard” story that I trunked sometime ago. I’d come to the realization that the actions and words of this administration were sadly and pathetically similar to the worst of our own childhoods; the jocks and the popular crowd that vilified you for not fitting into their narrowly defined social norms, the teachers that couldn’t find the time or the ability to provide extra mentoring, the elimination of creative extracurricular groups (sometimes at the cost of maintaining a solid sports foundation), the path to ignorance when information is simply not provided, and of course the appearance of an ‘underground’ crowd that decided to say fuck all that, we’re doing our own thing.
I mean, yeah, it sounds like a John Hughes version of Lord of the Flies or Catcher in the Rye, doesn’t it? That’s why I found I couldn’t work on this story. It just felt far too personal for me to be able to handle it.
Now I’m not so sure.
It angers me that anyone, presidential administration or not, would go this far. It angers me to hear ignorant morons gleefully follow this path, all the while saying ‘fuck y’all, you’re on your own.’
Sunday’s news was a big fucking slap in the face for me, on multiple levels. I’d almost forgotten what this kind of directed hatred felt like. And it bothers me even more that I don’t always remember that others still get that on a daily basis. [Well, actually I do remember, just that I often have the privilege of avoiding thinking about it.]
As Charlie Jane Anders tweeted later that day:
It’s easy to feel helpless when bigotry and bad science are becoming the law of the land, and our government is trying to dehumanize so many of us. But we have the power to make noise, to make ourselves heard, and one of the most powerful ways we can do that is thru storytelling.
To that I say ‘AMEN’, and to that I say, I think I might have a new project to work on.
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