Why Trans People Are The Real Libertarian Patriots
I was speaking on the phone with a friend when he said something profound: “What’s a better expression of American freedom than rejecting your assigned gender at birth and just being whatever you want to be?”
He told me he said that to his conservative cousins in Michigan when they were criticizing California for being a safe haven for trans people and associating the trans community with pedophilia and communism.
I’ve always found the association of pedophilia with communism to be strange and somewhat ironic considering the world’s most famous pedophile was a New York financier with a private island and close ties to Donald Trump, which is probably why the Epstein files will likely never be released.
However, what has been released in recent years are people’s inhibitions to express themselves freely. This has been empowered by the anonymity of the internet, but more explicitly by those who are willing to exercise their freedom to exist in ways that challenge society’s perception of what is normal. No community does this more frequently than the modern trans community.
America was rhetorically built on the idea of freedom and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness (or “Pursuit of Happyness”) is more than just a Will Smith movie, it’s a guarantee that as long as you’re not directly hurting anyone, you can act in ways that others may disapprove of in your quest for self actualization as a manifestation of your own personal liberty. The United States government’s primary function in the view of conventional Libertarianism is to guarantee you that right, and to protect it.
When the Republican Party (the party that promotes libertarianism as one of its core tenets) restricts access to gender affirming care, limits or bans trans people from serving in the military, or require schools to report someone’s gender identity or lack thereof, it is a classic example of government overreach and directly contradicts the Republican Party’s pledge of small government.
The Republicans are only the party of small government when it benefits the powerful. But when it comes to oppressing minorities or dropping bombs on countries you couldn’t find on a map, let’s just say they’re “fiscally liberal.” Democrats aren’t that different these days, but they won’t completely eliminate the social safety net.
Regardless of where you personally stand on the issue of trans rights, if you identify as an American in the rhetorical sense, you have to support them politically. If you believe in the free marketplace of not only commerce, but ideas, you have to support them politically. If you believe in freedom and liberty for all, you have to support them politically. You don’t have to understand or even like someone to understand that governments test oppression on unpopular minority groups before unleashing it on the population.
Like it or not, the trans community are the infantry soldiers fighting on the front lines of freedom, not only in America, but the entire world. Their freedom is your continued freedom, and their oppression will get to you eventually.
Basically what I’m saying is if the Founding Fathers were alive today, they would go by they/them pronouns and the Revolutionary War wouldn’t have been fought over tea, but because of frequent misgendering and deadnaming.
Fuck you, I’m right.
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