The Conservative media: The new bullies of Transgender people

Sabrina Samone, TMP

In the ancient Chinese military treatise, The Act of War, Sun Tzu states; “anyone who excels in defeating his enemies triumphs before his enemy’s threat becomes real.”

In July of 2012 Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Act became law; this is the same proactively leading state that was also the first on May 17, 2004 to legalize gay marriage.  Most recently, the “Guidance for Massachusetts Public Schools: Is Creating a Safe and Supportive School Environment – Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity.”  There’s no surprise, why now, the conservative media is doing a Linda Blair head spin.  Unfortunately, considering the right wings ability to brainwash with Nazi style propaganda scare tactics, does present a problem for the lives and safety of every transperson in the country, especially in red states.  With the most recent events allowing trans-kids to use the appropriate bathrooms that best fit their presented identity.  This may seem like common sense but that is something continually lacking in most corners of conservative hate speeches and they’ve began to mobilize their efforts to bully…basically…transgender people.

They started simply last year with ads, attacking transgender people. Their ads are a common theme used first to gather the bigots.  A start to the New Year brought an Oregon LGBT equality group to start a petition, demanding fox end its transphobic news coverage. Who can forget comedian Robins William’s comedic character, Miss Doubtfire, being used to represent transgender people? Then we had to deal with sports casters on a sports channel spewing their hate.  Now conservative media and bloggers are in an up roar, that the state of Mass., Is trying to curve bullying and provide understanding for transgender youth.  They’ve already begun attacking CNN’s recent and compassionate story of a Colorado school’s decision to bar a 1^st grader from using the restroom.  And what do they do when no one is listening to their news?  They get a few bigoted churches to preach hate from pulpits.

By now most that have been transgender for a few years and most lgbq people know, this is what they do.  Damn if anyone is going to be happy, emotionally sane and free, is their motto it seems.  But what are we going to do while they are preparing to attack every state in the union and prevent lgbt issues from even been discussed, are we just going to sit on the sidelines?  Create new labels for ourselves and continue to be divided by racial, sexual orientation and socio economic status, or continued apathy about anyone rights other than our own?  So many efforts are being made for anti-bully legislation.  Everyone in the media is crying ‘why is there so much bullying in the schools?’  The media, especially conservative talkers are to blame; they are the bullies, beating our kids in school.  They are the bully, that slips the noose around our necks and deny so many the rights to love whom they love.  Conservative media is the gun at the head of a teenager afraid to be who they are and the reason another trans-woman of color lay in a gutter with her throat slashed and I’m damn tired of what ‘they’ have to say about my one life given to me.

It just amazes me that the majority of lgbt people pay taxes for other peoples kids to go to school while they kill our young.  The countless stories of Republican conservative politician and religious leaders in sex scandals and swinger clubs but dictate to us the sanctity of marriage.  One of the reasons this country went to war against England was taxation without representation. It’s time for conservative media to be conservative and stop infringing on our rights.