Put bluntly, the danger and microaggressions that [anyone who isn’t straight, white, and male] face in the United States is the same as being in a European ground war.
—“For the LGBTQ community and other minorities, war is fought every day”, LGBTQNation
I guess due to being a post-op, transsexual man, I guess maybe the author of this article doesn’t think someone like me suffers from our kyriarchy as well.
I get that we all have different demons to face. States banning trans-affirming care because they haven’t read the WPATH-SOC. Religious groups increasing their attempts to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws so they can discriminate against same-sex couples (along with other religious minorities). Push back against bans on conversion therapy, ”gay panic” defenses. Insurances still finding loopholes or reasons to deny trans people sex change therapies and surgeries. States and other jurisdictions still denying transsexuals the right to update their name and sex markers, even if they underwent a sex change. States telling surgeons to put SRS (among other surgeries, like removing tumors) on hold to help with the COVID pandemic because they called such surgeries “elective”.
There are issues big and small that come with being transsexual or attracted to the same sex (I exclude transtrenders and enbies here because they’re just being called out for their snowflake and attention whore personalities, they are not suffering any real harrassment or discrimination), but I think comparing our battles to actual war trivializes what real war actually entails.
Thank god, I have never been a soldier called to battle. (Nor will I ever have to.) Thank god I live on soil that hasn’t seen war since the American Civil War. My grandparents have fought in and survived WW1 WW2 on both sides; my father drafted during Vietnam but was a mechanic stationed at bases but never had to face actual battle.
The closest I have ever come to war was the footage I have seen, the stories I have heard from refugees and immigrants who re-settled stateside to flee war, because they have families and all they want are quiet lives to work and raise their families. Minorities stateside have safe spaces to recuperate from the harassments, bullshit, and discrimination they have to deal with on a daily basis—but those who are living through actual war don’t have any such reclusion. Not knowing if and when the abode they’re in could be the next target of attack. If the coyote who claims to be taking you to safety could abandon you at any moment, or leave you for dead at some point when be becomes inconvenienced. If and when you will find your next meal. If separated from your loved ones if you will ever hear or see them again. And probably a dozen, if not a thousand, other scenarios I can’t think of, because being the member of a minority in an otherwise “safe” country is nothing like being the victim of an actual war.
Yes, hate crimes exist, and some end up deadly for members of our community. I am not denying that. I could always become the victim of corrective rape. Someone could could come and destroy my car, or invade my residence and destroy it. Any LGBT-centric place I attend could be subject to domestic terrorism. At any point I come out someone could potentially assault me, and for all I know the doctor at the ER treating me sees my vagina and decides he won’t treat me.
The lives of minorities are a contant fight and struggle, but I wouldn’t compare it to a battle or war.
Or maybe living in these mountains have just sheltered me too well to realize it.
