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…
So much this. Our rightwing is hellbent on importing every single moral panic from the US to detract from their blunders and authoritarianism.
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.
"Newsworthy.*
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?
There were other terms for being trans such as the indigenous American word two spirit or the Arabic Mukhannath. There was an African one where a woman would become a third gender in order to own land but I forgot the term.
Edit: Here is a link about the genders in Judiasm, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/
I meant everywhere as in trans is not just a recent concept someone made up.
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.
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
In a “pro protest” scenario do the two pros cancel out to be a contest?
May the testiest tester win!
Conservatives are a scourge on humanity. Backwards thinking cowards
Common France protesting W
france be like “not only do we want to be rabidly islamophobic we want to be transphobic as well”
And France is Islamophobic because…?
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.
Because Muslims are increasingly marginalised, disenfranchised and used as a scapegoat for everything that goes bad?
Yes that does sound like the definition of an islamophobic country. I think the question is, how specifically?
Pretty sure the OP was a troll, actually.
Anyhow, if you want specifics, we currently have 90 far right MPs in Congress and even our “centrist” government and the “classic right” seem to have decided muslims are to blame for everything. This includes and is not limited to :
- banning “muslim adjacent” wear like abbayas from schools ;
- a broad offensive to remove pork free meals from school lunches in some cities ;
- à brutal crackdown on any pro Palestinian action, including summons from anti terrorism units that have targeted union leaders, students and leftwing MPs ;
- targeting of muslim private schools for closure whereas radical catholic schools are absolutely fine even when they teach gay people are all rapists (see Lycée Stanislas for a very striking example) ;
- repeated incidents of police disproportionately targeting muslims ;
- a general attitude of paranoia regarding anything muslim : last year our Home Office equivalent actually asked primary schools to provide a list of pupils that missed class because of specifically muslim religious holidays.
I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of things. But also, I can see everyday around me how hard muslim people, but also any arab looking person, have it in the public eye. The far right is on the rise politically but also socially. Anything that “does not belong”, be it LGBTQ, non white people, etc is increasingly targeted by pressure groups of "concerned citizens ", “protector of the peace,”, “defender of children” and so on. It worries me. A lot.
Banned for everyone?
Banned for minors.
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.
Are they talking a ban for adults?
Not officially.
But on the discord server of one of the anti-trans groups behind the proposed law, discussions are talking about banning minors as a first step.
What an excellent question
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…
Not really.