I'm Worried About the Far-Left Radicalization of the Trans Community

It could lead us towards a very dark future

Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash

Since Donald Trump won the 2024 US Presidential Election, I've been seeing something that has gotten me increasingly worried: there has been an attempt to radicalize the LGBT community, particularly the trans community, towards the (cultural) far-left, by exploiting the community's fears about what might happen during the coming second Trump administration. It has been ramping up more quickly than many are realizing, and I'm very worried about where it might lead us to.

Firstly, there has been an attempt to shut down any calls for moderation, or any attempt by moderate Democrats to embrace some necessary compromise. As seen in the case of Rep. Seth Moulton, every such suggestion is painted as 'throwing trans people under the bus', even when the intention is clearly to focus on the practical needs of trans people. Also, as seen in the case of Rep. Sarah McBride, even trans people who are willing to accept compromises for themselves can become the targets of this kind of activism. Moreover, there has been a renewed attempt to paint free speech as anti-LGBT, for example in relation to Meta's recent loosening of speech restrictions on Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, suggestions along the lines of, for example, a 'grand bargain' that involves protecting health care access in exchange for dropping the sports issue, is always shouted down by the loudest trans activists, even though there is clearly increasing interest among trans people for ideas like this. As I saw a trans woman say lately, 'I don't want to die on the hill of sports, because I don't care much about sports anyway'. Yet the activists would insist that these voices don't exist, while trying to silence them. The common theme here is that activists aligned with the (cultural) far-left are trying to prevent both everyday trans people and moderate Democrats from embracing compromises that would deviate from their party line.

Secondly, the far-left in the LGBT community keeps going on and on about crazy ideas like how Trump might round up LGBT people and put them in concentration camps. This is clearly not going to happen. It is simply blatant misinformation, to put it mildly. Also, multiple trans activists have written stuff that implies that the Trump administration will ban medical transition for adults, even though he has only said he would ban it for minors. When someone calls out this behavior, they get accused of focusing on minor details in a time of emergency, or even get accused of being a Trump supporter. As my regular audience would know, I'm certainly no fan of Trump, but to spread fake news like this is not only irresponsible, it actually harms the mental health of the LGBT community, more than whatever the Trump administration can ever do to harm us. Furthermore, if one is truly worried that medical transition might be banned, or that LGBT people would soon be put in concentration camps, why would one still be resisting some moderation on the sports issue, so that we can have the support of more allies? The far-left's stated belief in both maximalist demands and catastrophic oppression simply makes no sense to me. From what I see, this is really not about fighting Trumpism. Instead, it appears to me to be an attempt to make trans people feel even more oppressed, so they can be ripe for radicalization.

I am very worried about the far-left radicalization of the LGBT community, particularly the trans community, as a trans woman, for several reasons. Firstly, it creates this victim mentality among the community, as if the whole society out there is hellbent on keeping us oppressed. This is very bad for the mental health of everyone in the community. Secondly, it leads to an over-skeptical attitude towards any proposals for compromise, even when it is coming from well-meaning allies. Thirdly, since the far-left really hates liberals and liberalism, they are going to paint any proposal for compromise coming from liberal allies, including elected Democrats, as an attempt to 'throw trans people under the bus', and something to be rejected. This leads to no compromise being possible, which leads to no satisfactory resolution of the controversies surrounding certain hot-button trans issues. The ultimate result is that the policy preferences of anti-trans forces will inevitably win and become the law, because no other reasonable alternative can be presented from the other side. If this happens, the far-left will again be able to reinforce the victim mentality of the trans community, starting the whole vicious cycle again. The far-left wins, and trans people lose, period.

I believe we need a circuit breaker, and we need one quickly. This is why I call on those within the trans community (or LGBT community more generally), and those who consider themselves allies outside the community, who believe in meeting people where they are, making practical compromises where necessary, and rejecting the extremism of the (cultural) far-left, to make your voices heard, and challenge the damaging far-left narrative that is taking hold within the community right now. Don't get me wrong, I fully expect the Trump administration (and other right-wing governments around the world) to do stuff that is harmful to our wellbeing in the next few years, and I believe we must stand our ground and fight back against any such attempts. However, the far-left narrative and influence is doing us no favors, and it needs to be exposed for what it is too.

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Liberals Need to Learn to Love Free Speech Again

Meta's recent announcement that they will be abandoning fact checking, and dramatically reducing restrictions on what people are allowed to say on their platforms like Facebook and Instagram, has been met with a generally negative response from people who broadly identify as liberals. Many of them are predicting that the internet will be flooded with fake news and lies, and some are accusing Mark Zuckerberg of bending the knee to Trump. On the other hand, I actually think they have made the correct decision here. I think we need to be especially wary of the woke-left trying to paint free speech as inherently pro-Trump, and accuse pro-free speech people of pandering to MAGA, in an effort to resurrect cancel culture…

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TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.

She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).