"The Crime Is Being Trans": Montana House Passes Indecent Exposure Bill Applying Only To Trans People

www.erininthemorning.com "The Crime Is Being Trans": Montana House Passes Indecent Exposure Bill Applying Only To Trans People

House Bill 446 in Montana establishes two indecent exposure laws: one for the general public that requires intent, and another for trans people that does not.

politics @lemmy.world

FenrirIII @lemmy.world

2d ago

"The Crime Is Being Trans": Montana House Passes Indecent Exposure Bill Applying Only To Trans People

www.erininthemorning.com /p/the-crime-is-being-trans-montana

168 10

24 comments

What gets me about all of this, is that OK. Let's pretend I agree with conservative politics for a second. "We" disagree with people's "life choices / life styles" all the time. Why are we making it criminal again? If the shoe were on the other foot, making it criminal to be different, they'd be crying foul, and rightfully so. I hate that we've fallen this far
I know, I know. I'm using logic here. That's not something they do.

Conservatism: a hate-based, fact-free ideology since… forever, really.

I’m so sorry trans people.
I don’t even have words for this.
This is so stupid and awful.

US Constitution, 14th Amendment, Section 1:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Relevant bit:
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Seems like a slam dunk, but someone is going to have to be charged with the "crime" before it can be challenged, I believe.
- Pretty sure the law can be challenged in court before someone is charged with a crime.
  
  Yup, "facial challenge" apparently. Good. Maybe the ACLU is still good for something

As a straight cis white dude I'm sorry we are on the whole such scum.
- ally yourself with your fellow humans who are marginalized and oppressed. listen to what they say will help their cause and do it if you are able. every movement against oppression in this country can be strengthened by informed members of the "majority".
- Yeah, straight white cis dude in the US here, and god damn is our world embarrassing and sad.
  Not only do I get the thing about women choosing the bear over the random man, but I would be stunned if trans folks of any gender (all of LGBT+ honestly) didn't lean significantly harder in that direction. Right now, they should.
  But at the same time, if you are close with any of my fellow CisHetCaucs (hehe, cocks) try to give them small opportunities to prove their decency to you, strictly according to YOUR comfort and safety.
  I can imagine some of the assumptions people make about me, even though I totally get it. I'm a tall husky white guy with a big beard, and even though you will never see me wearing a baseball hat and mirrored shades, or Meal Team Six tacticool bullshit, it is totally normal for me to wear jeans and a flannel while walking through the mud and tending to my animals. And I live in a very white, 3/4 republican area, so I imagine that anybody existing outside the puritanical ideals just defaults to hiding and masking.
  
  I think one thing fhat might surprise you is how little you're specifically judged. I rarely look at someone's body and assume their politics unless they have a politicized body. Where you're gonna get hit is in the "regardless of his beliefs he can probably get away with hurting me". Alongside blending into the hostile world.
  Like the reason we choose the bear is because we know how the bear will act. It has no benefit to playing nice to hurt us. You keep your distance, hope it isn't grizzly and stay safe

This won't just affect people that are known to be trans, or people that are early enough in transition to not pass yet. This will also affect people who look more masculine or feminine than the average person of a specific sex, people who don't conform to gender norms.
When I was a kid, one of my classmates got harassed and bullied ceaselessly for looking masculine. The poor thing had pcos, and was very tomboyish. Maybe now some people know that pcos is an intersex condition, but I doubt that would protect her
- there was a story a few days ago about a cis woman who looks masculine gettting the police called on her, because they thought she was trans.
  
  This law will hurt more cis women than trans women.

I just want to echo my apologies and sympathies to the trans community. I'll never understand why you've been chosen as the target for the hate factories that are radicalising people. I also don't understand how people can allow themselves to see something entirely natural as something unnatural. But, I think of your dilemma regularly and would like to be more of an ally.
- Because hating black people became a losing strategy, so they switched to hating gays. But hating gays became a losing strategy, so they switched to trans people. If you look at what the extremists say about trans people, you'll find the exact same things being about gay people before them, and black people before them.
  
  The one comforting fact about that is that each of those groups are smaller than the one previous: there are more Black Americans than gay Americans, and there are more gay Americans than trans Americans. As each group gains wider cultural acceptance, the fascists have to target smaller and smaller groups to keep the hate that unites them going.
  Eventually we'll see this same bigotry directed towards left-handed Thursday sock-knitters.
- People see others doing something that makes them uncomfortable and goes against what people have been telling them their whole lives (that there are 2 genders, traditional gender roles and all that) and then encounter people who not only validate that discomfort, but try to justify it. To weaponize it into anger.
  I think that in a society that still teaches children there are 2 genders/sexes, raises men who refuse to express negative emotions other than anger for fear of being seen as feminine, and raises women who are insecure in their femininity because of beauty standards and social norms that are being reinforced on every form of media at every term, mass transphobia and the subsequent politicization of being trans was inevitable. If it wasn't trans people being targeted it would be anyone deviating "too far" from gender norms. They will continue to move the goalposts and weaponize that discomfort thats been purposefully instilled in us from birth to turn us against each other.
  Thank you for the support and empathy during a time where we're all feeling like we're going to wake up one day with no rights anymore

Tell everyone that will listen.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

HB446: Don't Be Icky To Me Or I Throw You In The Fucking Box

Where's the black, brown and or yellow bill?

24 comments