Do they really have 194 members, by my guesstimate? Because I don't really hear anything from them down on my level. That was the largest shock of going to their page and seeing so many goddam faces there and wondering who the hell they all are, because I sure don't know.
I mean, I can say from the administration POV that I saw no movement while Trump was in office, he was a total asshat (i.e., any vocalization from gov to support LGBTQ+ folks simply stopped), but at least he didn't bother to pretend, I suppose. While Biden has been in office, he's been more vocal on an agency level about LGBTQ+ inclusion and there's been a big push for people to use pronouns on their e-mail sigs, inclusive language has not been mandated but highly encouraged (there's a handbook out, and documentation for many applications in our agency has been reviewed to see how our notices can be updated), and there's also a push towards non-gendered pronouns in applications and notices unless it is so baked into the code that it can't easily be removed. I have been doing work involving it and have more on the roadmap for the next few years.
But that stuff is mostly cosmetic to me, even if helpful maybe to change the tone. I rarely see shit that is meaningful in any way in the public sphere from gov. What good is it to have 35% of the country use the right pronouns if someone is throwing you in jail or murdering you just for existing? You might hope that courtesy will help people just be a little more open to you rather than ignorantly transphobic, but it's not the full solution.
Pretty much as a trans person, I feel like it's just been the same as it has always been: We're on our own, everyone is just trying to survive and build the best life that is possible ourselves individually, and relying on the government to look out for us is only a death sentence. Parents of transkids have their own groups to generate support and push certain lobbies / mobilize efforts. Maybe some people were relying on corporate benevolence, but the older folks have always known that it's just dependent on their bottom line and as soon as it's not profitable to support LGBTQ+ causes, then look out because that "help" will evaporate. We made a lot of noise about a decade back that only grew enough to alert the crazies who are now actively stomping us down again as much as possible.
I've been around enough to remember when gay interests were the main push and trans interests were seen as a distraction at best and a derailment at worst. There was so much infighting in the mid/late 2000's because gay lobby groups felt like trans people were just dragging them down to getting same-sex marriage passed and wanted to throw us under the bus. People were literally fired from their org jobs over that argument, and i remember when same-sex marriage was finally approved by SCOTUS, money evaporated overnight -- they got their marriage, now transpeople (who pushed to help with that effort) were left to sink or swim. People were aware of gay causes first and can better relate to it, I guess, and gay folks have more political power.
I dunno. I'm angry. I can't say I'm surprised. If you have not experienced gender dysphoria or know people who have, it's a difficult thing to understand. And even then, if you don't know gender dysphoric kids, THAT part can be hard to understand as well. So it's mostly about people just not having respect for others even when they don't understand them, not leaving policies up to people who DO have that experience and are trained professionals, and/or otherwise just looking for groups to punish to advance one's own agenda. We make easy targets for misunderstanding, dismissal, and/or vilification.
just a tad at least.
