Monday 20 September 2010

Today's Battle

Over at the Orlando Sentinel : How should schools handle transgender kids?.
An outspoken Florida mom who goes only by the name Rene said she has been condemned for her decision to let her child, Jazz, who's biologically male, live as a girl. Several videos on YouTube feature Jazz, a confident youngster with long, dark hair, dancing, singing or explaining what it's like to live in the wrong body.

"I get some terrible e-mails — people that basically say that I am the worst parent, I am evil, I should be killed," Rene told "60 Minutes Australia" last year.

Some of the commenters might well agree, though most don't go nearly that far. There's little actual hatred, merely ignorance. The following is typical:
how about a psychological evaluation for the entire bunch. boy we are really going to hades in a handbasket. what kind of nut job would even entertain granting legitimacy to these fruitcakes? that's like calling a crack dealer an unlicensed pharmacist.
...
There are no transgender prepubescent children - only misguided parents, insane psychologists and profiteering quacks.
...
Typical liberal psyco-babble, Completely overthinking things, comes from spending over half your life in school, affraid to get out into the real world, and produce anything of value

I've tried to answer them as best I could, with facts. I can work with people like that.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

It's sad the number of times thoughtless and hateful comments made on blogs or we hear that they are made directly to people like Rene, who is doing her best for her child. What is the underlying motivation of people who leave hateful comments. If these people were truly concerned for Jazz, a reasoned response might be to offer help. Do these people do this simply because something doesn't fit their world view and they can't rationalise that? Is it misdirected anger? What do they hope to achieve? I think the general growing acceptance of transgender people and issues is fantastic, but that this and facts are unlikely to change the position of those that leave hateful comments.

SarasNavel said...

Thank you, Zoe, for once again providing the voice of reason in an eloquent and respectful manner.

- said...

Sarah, anonymity removes the mask of false empathy. The ones who say it in public never had any empathy to begin with. I often think there are an incredible number of sociopaths in the world who may not go around killing people, but have no ability to empathize with anyone else no matter how you explain things to them.