Came across this elsewhere, and it seems a good reminder of how the Civil Rights fight was actually won.
Successfully fighting for civil rights requires multiple parallel strategies, *and those "lanes" can't overlap*. Someone who's protecting people, for instance, needs to be squeaky clean, legally, so the baddies don't have a pretext to come after them and the people they're protecting--which means they can't be showing up to disruptive protests in person.
I look at the four lanes and don’t find one that I quite fit in. So I suggest a fifth lane that anyone can drift in to: Habitualize
(Get others accustomed to your trans identity)
This isn’t an option for some people, there is certainly no expectation for people to put themselves in danger by outing themselves.
I am out to ownership but it’s a right to work right to get fired state. So I watch my step.
My work is in a fairly MAGAtistical, industrial field. Even those people who are anti-Trump are probably LGBT-phobic.
Way back after I had surgery (last century) I was scared and stealth. After finding my feet, I outed myself to more and more people at work. Not a lot over the decades, maybe because I have had eight jobs since surgery. It takes time to build up the trust to the point that I felt safe coming out to someone. And is everyone worth telling: why bother telling the person at the other end of the office who I have never had a conversation with?
1/2
Then the election happened. I saw the anti-trans ads. They either helped decide the election or they didn’t. I have no clue and I leave the debate to those with far greater wisdom, expertise, and salary than myself. But what the ads did do was allow the GQP to take the initiative and set the tone on trans issues.
My relative stealth, in its own small way, helped the GQP with that.
The D party turned out not to be an ally to be relied on. During the night of the election I decided that I need to habitualize more. The next day I came out to an anti-Trump guy who is somewhat phobic. The conversation was awkward but not hostile. Since then I have started to talk to him a bit about things like bathroom restrictions or just alluding to my transness. It’s all good now.
The people seeing the anti-trans ad probably don’t know a trans person. If they did, those ads would have had less of an impact on setting the tone.
I think that there’s room for a fifth lane.
2/2
Doc Impossible
Ruth O’Day