Why Criticism of Trans Activism Needs a Reset

The approach of the 2010s no longer works, because the context is different now

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Lately, I have been pondering about my approach to the issues of trans rights, trans acceptance and trans activism in the last few years. All along, I had wanted to point out some crucial flaws in the way trans activism is currently operating, fatal flaws that have been losing us support, and allowing our actual enemies to win. These include being hijacked by the wider left-activist scene that was dominant before the pandemic, the adoption of illiberal tactics from that movement like de-platforming, the infiltration of counterproductive talking points into the trans discourse (e.g. 'gender is a social construct') which have nothing to do with the lived reality of trans people, and the focus on issues that frankly have no relevance to the majority of trans people. These features of trans activism were preventing more people from becoming accepting of trans people, and they also provided targets for anti-trans forces to attack us. Given that the state of trans rights and acceptance has only deteriorated since I first raised these issues in 2018, I think events have vindicated my views, and I firmly stand by every one of the aforementioned points. We really need to change course, or we will all be going down a cliff to drown together.

However, what I have also noticed is that my message isn't really connecting with many people in the trans community, and it isn't having the desired effect of changing the way trans activism operates at all. If anything, trans activism has only gotten more defensive and aggressive since the re-election of Trump, labeling even Democratic long-time LGBT allies like Seth Moulton and Gavin Newsom as enemies just for disagreeing on certain issues. What little room to discuss issues in good faith that was there five or six years ago isn't even there anymore, and an absolutist us-vs-them dynamic has strongly taken hold in much of the community. While I think this is really misguided and disappointing, given that my stated goal is to turn the state of trans activism and the trans discourse around, it is a reality that I unfortunately have to try to understand and work with.

I guess the first step that we must take to understand the aforementioned dynamic is that we need to acknowledge that this is a really difficult and sensitive moment for much of the trans community. The reactionary culture warriors' attack on trans people and trans rights in the past three years have been unprecedented, and it represents the biggest backsliding in basic respect for LGBT people in almost 20 years. Younger members of the community, who had not lived through the similarly homophobic aughts, might even be surprised at the level of hate and vitriol being directed at them from certain political factions. The fact is, if you are born after around 1990 or so, this could be literally the worst time to be LGBT in your living memory. There's also the fact that previous waves of nastiness didn't have a focus on trans issues at all, simply because they weren't mainstream yet back in 2004 or the 1980s, so we don't have much in terms of trans-specific defense mechanisms to this onslaught. And then there's the Trump administration's extreme anti-trans policies. Trump wasn't even like that in his first term (I even remember saying how he wasn't as hateful as Bush-43 back then), and this change just shows how much more extreme MAGA has gotten over time, thanks to the influence of the 'chronically online right'. I think those of us who want to have genuinely good faith and productive conversations over trans issues need to also be clear about acknowledging this broader context. I think some influencers aren't willing to acknowledge the changed context, because they fear alienating some parts of their audience. But this would only prevent productive and rational conversation from going forward. As I have said multiple times this year already, given the state of the Western political landscape right now, influencers often need to choose between speaking their conscience and keeping their audience base happy, and unfortunately too many are choosing the latter. But this is another topic I will leave for another article someday.

Given the context, I think we also need to acknowledge that it is just natural for some trans people to be defensive, even where it might not be entirely rational. While I still fully trust people like Moulton and Newsom to have our backs when it actually matters, I fully understand why some in my community are taking a more skeptical approach to everything, at least on an emotional level, even though I still think it doesn't make sense on a rational level. On this, I think we will just have to agree to disagree. I suspect events in the post-Trump era will ultimately vindicate my point of view, and it is not going to be fruitful to spend too much time on arguing which of us is correct in 2025. What I'm saying is, the focus needs to be on building bridges, and getting to have productive conversations, not on arguing over who to trust or not.

Here's a positive development I've noticed: in a sign that the ideological hijacking of the late 2010s might finally be over, the trans community appears to really appreciate the support they can get from anywhere right now. Back in the late 2010s, one constant frustration of mine was that many trans activism-aligned trans people were fully on board with extremist 'revolutionary' far-left politics, and would therefore push away supportive people just because they were mainstream liberals or Democrats. I remember that in 2019, far-left trans people would join in attacking people like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, because they are 'neoliberals', even though they were (and still are) nothing but fully on board with trans acceptance and trans rights. In contrast, when Tim Walz recently said that the Democrats should not be abandoning trans people, I saw a community that was genuinely, sincerely grateful. There was none of that nonsense about Walz being a 'neoliberal mainstream Democrat' or something like that. I think this shows that the far-left fever has broken, and that nowadays you can reach out to the trans community, and they will listen as long as you can demonstrate that you truly care about trans lives. The more pointed and argumentative rhetoric that I tended to use in the past was mainly aimed at breaking the far-left fever that simple rational talk didn't seem to be quite able to crack. I guess that would not be the correct approach anymore in the current climate.

All this is why, going forward, I will be taking a less confrontational approach in talking about my views on trans activism and the trans discourse. I still strongly believe that trans activism needs a reset, and this is needed more urgently than ever, given that anti-trans forces are on full attack mode, while we are not gaining any ground. However, criticism of the way trans activism operates also needs a reset too, or it would just be seen as tone deaf, out of touch, and ultimately rejected by the trans community as a whole.

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TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Progressive Conservative Manifesto, the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series. She is also the author of her autobiography The TaraElla Story.