Make Trans Normal Again: the Non-Woke Trans View

As a non-woke trans person, I have only one wish regarding trans issues

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

As a non-woke trans person, I have only one wish regarding trans issues: that trans people are able to integrate into mainstream society in a normal way. That we can just live normally. And unfortunately, I think we are getting further and further away from that goal. Let's face it: trans people were able to live more normally 20 years ago compared with today, which means things are actually worse than 20 years ago. I often point this out to well-meaning progressives who like to say how far we've come on trans acceptance. Well, we've indeed gone far, but in the backwards way. Obviously, something needs to change.

What people need to remember is that the silent majority of trans people don't want all this drama. We never even asked for 'trans visibility'. I still remember back in 2014-15 the trans community was bewildered by the new, and often unwanted, visibility, and many were (correctly) worried that it would not end well for trans people. I think even today, the silent majority of trans people would just prefer all this trans visibility to go away overnight, and for things to return to the way they were in 2013. While we might not be able to achieve that exactly, making trans normal again is the next best thing we can do.

I think people with political agenda, on both the left and the right, are responsible for this mess. Most of them aren't even trans, but they use trans people and trans issues like a political football. The postmodern left in particular likes to use trans people to attack existing social norms around sex and gender, with no clear benefit to actual trans people's lives. Their aim is to deconstruct, and ultimately 'abolish' gender, which is not what most trans people want. I'm certainly staunchly against this deconstructionist agenda myself. It has made the trans discourse weird, by introducing both language and ideas that only serve to confuse people, and ultimately bring on a backlash against trans people. The results of this backlash are now clear to see, especially in the American South, were trans people are seriously thinking about fleeing their states due to a tsunami of anti-trans laws. (Meanwhile, the postmodernists aren't even apologizing for the damage that they have done to us. Trans frustration against postmodernism is very well justified indeed.)

On the other side, we have the reactionary right, who have been particularly angered by recent developments like the legalization of gay marriage across the West. They want nothing more than to wage a culture war to reclaim their 'lost ground', to ideally force all LGBT people back into the closet if possible. They are now very open about their aim of 'eradicating' LGBT representation and ideas from public life. They also like to give a big platform to postmodern left activists, because their words and actions tend to portray us in the weirdest, most uncomfortable light. This is why, in documentary after documentary, in talk show after talk show, right wing culture warriors would only feature the most outrageous far-left activists, with reasonable trans people entirely ignored. The biased reporting from the right thus is also a major contributor to a very skewed perception of trans people in the media, where the majority of trans people are seen as politicized activists, and not as people who just want to quietly live their lives. This is extremely unfair to the silent majority of the trans community.

To get out of this mess, we need a new perspective on trans issues. One that is geared to normality. This would have to mean thinking about trans issues in a way that is consistent with the long-standing values and consensus of our society. Up until now, the postmodern left has been using trans people to challenge society's norms, and the reactionary right has happily used this to demonstrate that trans people are supposedly harmful to society. What we need is a trans discourse that is aimed at assimilating trans people into the norms of society, so that the two are in harmony rather than in opposition. Moreover, to advance trans acceptance and get basic trans rights secured, the most important thing we need is a consensus on how trans people should be accommodated. A consensus can only be built along the lines of the values that are already accepted by the majority of a given society. This is another reason why proposals for trans integration need to be aligned with existing values and practices as much as possible.

As a conservative liberal, I think the classical liberal tradition, which emphasizes individual liberty and a live and let live attitude, and the Burkean conservative tradition, which emphasizes that social change should be in line with a nation's traditions and values, rather than rooted in abstract philosophy, would both be of use here. The liberal tradition, in particular, would be of use in defending free speech, and arguing against practices like de-plaforming and cancel culture. The conservative tradition, in particular, would be of value in arguing against the excesses of the postmodernist left, and provide an alternative framework for trans acceptance and integration. Hence, going forward, I will examine various trans issues using these two lens, to see how we can best integrate trans people into society in a normal way, while keeping as much of our existing social norms intact as possible.

I believe the best thing we can do for trans people is to 'make trans normal again'. We owe it to the silent majority of trans people out there to make it happen.

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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).

You can also read and follow TaraElla's second substack, focused on political philosophy, here.