It's "funny" how this was a complete non-issue here in France, but when the American right made trans people their next target after their abortion win, it suddenly became a huge problem for the French right as well.
These people constantly complain about American cultural hegemony, but they still make an exception for Trump and this kind of shit. Out of all the cool things coming out of the US, this is what you tolerate? I'm so sick of these spiteful assholes...
Trans people and cross dressers are EVERYWHERE (I mean worldwide). It feels like they have only been newsworthy for the last decade or maybe even less.
You might say this is a stupid analogy but when the US comes up with a bad political idea (like making transgender people front and center) it kind of feels like that US politicians are the "Apple of their industry" and many of the Android OEM (other politicians) just copy their bad ideas without understanding the intent Apple had.
By the way, I miss headphone ports on smartphones.
There was an American woman named Christine Jorgensen who went to Europe and was the first American to publicly admit to getting reassignment surgery in 1945, so that was pretty newsworthy.
Thankfully, she had an overall good life and she worked tirelessly for trans rights. I can't even imagine what some right-wing bigots would say about her now.
Quickly, without googling, what percentage of the human population do you believe is trans? Or first, what percent do you think it should be in order to make it "newsworthy "? Maybe 10%? Gotta be, right? Seems like they're everywhere... No? Maybe 3% give or take? 1%?
Try 1/2 of 1%. Is that "newsworthy" enough to make a few thousand kids suicidal?
Meanwhile, auto accidents is no longer the number one cause of death amongst the youth in the US, it has been supplanted by firearms.
But that's just not "newsworthy" enough to do something about? Isn't this about the safety of the children?
Yeah Hijra, Kathoey, two spirit, femineillo… One thing (ok two spirit is a lot of things, but this is one) interpreted through many cultural lenses. We are everywhere, we have always been. It has often been difficult for us, but for fucks sake it doesn’t have to be.
As if liberals and socialists haven't tossed everything else aside to try and be as 'good' as possible by the standards of the american left/liberals twitter brigade
Always have been. Even the one thing they always claim they are better for they aren't. Conservative policies have always led to weaker economies, not stronger ones. In every single objective metric, they are bad for society as a whole. Great for a few individual people and their bank accounts though.
If only Americans protested like the French, we’d be in such a better place. Politicians would actually work for us, I hope they win continued access to gender affirming care!
Yeah, that mentality of ‘at least I still have my job’ with the added cost of work/life imbalance and stress is wild to me! Corporations shouldn’t have so much power as their staff are the ones bringing in the profits. Sane business models can be profitable, respecting their staff’s time and effort. I can only hope more people wake up and unionize! As there have been victories here that should blaze a path.
I mean the recent university protests in the US are a good first step. To socially normalize protesting there is no other way than just doing more protesting.
I swear that country/culture has zero volume control. You are either the most nationalist French person who ever frenched and the rest of the world is anglo swine who have contributed nothing of value or you are so international and progressive you worry that a red flag doesn't include the colorblind.
Come on guys, chill the fuck out. You can have a protest without burning a thousands cars and you are allowed to be indecisive wishy-washy moderate.
I asked a friend of mine who had immigratied from France about this once. He told me all their normal boring political types just spend their entire career in local office. That's why you don't hear about them. Which fine whatever.
Assuming you want to know why France is islamophobic...
It's historically grown. France invaded majority muslim, north Africa in the 19th century. Present day Algeria was french territory. The native muslim population was brutally oppressed; somewhat comparable to the oppression of blacks in the US. Nevertheless, the Muslims were french and fought for her in its wars, such as in the trenches 1914-18.
Algeria eventually won its independence after a brutal war lasting from 1954 to 1962. The brutality of this civil war is showcased by the massacre in Paris in 1961. Police attacked a peaceful demonstration for independence, murdering dozens, maybe hundreds of citizens. The police chief was a criminal nazi collaborator, convicted for his role in the holocaust. For decades, information about the massacre was suppressed in France.
President Charles de Gaulle - formerly the leader of Free France, the french forces that did not surrender to the nazis - brokered independence for Algeria. In response, far right traitors attempted a coup d'état and to assassinate him.
In many ways this history is comparable to the terrorist campaign that the US far right unleashed in the 1950/60 against African Americans and the civil rights movement. But the struggle was far more brutally fought in France. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Over a million people, mainly of european descent, were forced to flee from what became Algeria.
The decades after Algerian independence will seem quite familiar to Americans. North African Muslims had become a minority in metropolitan France (the mainland). This hated minority was quietly, without much legal upheaval, pushed to the fringes of society. Information about past atrocities against them was suppressed. Small scale terror attacks continued to happen.
These are the origins of the french far right and its islamophobia.
For now, in France, minors can have puberty blockers, hormones, and breast surgery (it's quite rare, needs parental consent, and the process is so long that the surgery usually happens after 18).
I say "for now" because many of us fear that the ban will be extended to adults sooner or later. Transidentity is the new moral panic in France, and the far right is getting dangerously close to power.
There's a bill proposal to ban HRT for minors. But we know that it's how that begins: you start with minors and you go as high as you can until you can ban it for everyone...