Controversial Asides

anonymous105 · June 2, 2026, 1:32pm

Do I?

Just a reminder, here is something I said to you several months ago*:

Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

Essentially I think there will always be bad actors and we shouldn’t throw cis women under the bus for the sake of trans women.

Also women’s sports I feel like is kind of pointless if there are no biological gates.

I don’t know how to reconcile these things besides not changing my mind on them.
That’s a major motivation for my earlier views.

One thing to consider might be that you are not obligated to accept any particular worldview wholesale. Changing your mind about trans people on Trans Topic A does not have to result in a change in your feelings about Trans Topic B.

It is possible e.g. to be less transphobic, to not reduce people to gametes, to be willing to respect peoples’ preferences for identification… but still have reservations about trans women competing in professional women’s sports, or about trans women being housed with cis women in prison.

That is an option! Some people might still get mad and say you are transphobic. They might be right. Or wrong. But you do not have to define yourself by either the anti-trans/gender-critical movement or the pro-trans movements. Rejecting anti-trans bigotry (which is rampant in most gender critical spaces) does not mean you have to embrace “trans ideology”.

In general, particularly for the most contentious issues such as gendered sports, you can also just reserve judgment. One reason the most contentious issues come up a lot is that they are weaponized to push people in particular directions. In general, the modern conservative movement has been heavily motivated to push the most extreme trans perspectives into the public consciousness because these issues trigger revulsion responses in a lot of people. Trans people have been an effective boogeyman to motivate conservatives and lots of conservative leaning centrists.

How does this message fit into your idea that I think anyone opposing those things are always doing so for bad or bigoted reasons?

*: I did edit a typo from the original post of months back, and left out a final paragraph that was less relevant.

I don’t think all anti-trans conclusions are due to any one source. But I do think right now, today, there is a very big concerted effort by ~all conservative/MAGA influencers to push a particular narrative around trans people. It is a major issue. I think they are reasonable successful at this goal. So due to that I think a lot more anti-trans views today are due to stuff like that than they otherwise would be, yes.

Here is another example from 2025 where I talked about this and continued to try to be understanding towards your misgivings, while also being aware of the reality of the world today (once again, cutting some of the message to keep it more relevant):

Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

I had another thought about how you do not need to adjust all of your views wholesale.

Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

Also women’s sports I feel like is kind of pointless if there are no biological gates.

This seems like a reasonable concern that you should think about. No need to rush into a conclusion.

Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

Yeah that doesn’t surprise me (I don’t know too much about what Trump particularly has done besides disallowing trans women in women’s sports – which I agree with and I don’t think counts as being anti-trans).

By contrast, this seems not very well-thought out, and tribal.

Trump disallowing all trans women in all women’s sports seems very anti-liberal to me. Many forms of sports in the US are private organizations. Even those that are not private are often run at local or state levels, such as high schools. Also, sex differences change across ages.

Even if you feel that e.g. trans women should not compete at top level professional/Olympic women’s sports, does that mean that trans teenagers should also be disallowed from competing in middle school or high school sports? What about private recreational leagues? Why do all of these sports need to have their rules dictated by the federal executive branch?

The reason is because of bigotry. Because Trump supporters see trans people as disgusting freaks who need to be punished for their abnormal behavior until they conform with mainstream gender roles. So even if “no trans people in pro sports” might not be a bigoted anti-trans position, Trump’s ban on trans people in women’s sports actually is anti-trans IMO.

Also, Trump has done much worse than that to trans people via executive orders. He has kicked people out of the military without proper cause, attacked gender affirming care, and more.

I don’t think I’ve been as unreasonable and one-sided as you have been characterizing me in this exercise.

Depends on the specific conclusion. The extent to which I’ll bite this bullet is: often times when one comes to conclusions hostile to a persecuted minority group, that could be a bigoted position.

By discussing it with them, ideally. Doesn’t work very often though.