Even Donald Trump has come out against the law…
And the Great Bathroom Wars of the 21st century claim another victim.
Curt Shilling has been fired by ESPN for retweeting several cartoons and “memes” against the idea of allowing transgender persons to use the bathroom of their choice. Says Shilling:
A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.
One of the re-tweets:
Shilling had been suspended by ESPN back in September for retweeting this little gem:
But it’ll be OK for the ballplayer, Sarah Palin has his back.
ESPN – what happened to you? Your intolerant PC police are running amok and making a joke out of you!” Palin wrote. “By picking and choosing who they’ll tolerate and who they’ll try to destroy, ESPN has zero credibility as a sound and reasonable media outlet.
men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much.
Schilling’s dick must be huge if it can’t work in a women’s room.
For the Hitler pic… This is an aside, but this particular statement pisses me off to absolutely no end, because it’s so frequently stated by idiots, and it’s so clearly absurd.
It is based on this assumption that, “Only 5% of muslims are extremists”, and is usually followed up with something like, “So that means there are millions of muslim extremists!”
But the obvious fact is… no… 5% of muslims aren’t extremists. That statement is entirely without merit or support. It’s just a fucking lie, that is thrown out there with the intention of people not questioning it.
It’s essentially based on some totally absurd idea that “5% is pretty small, so that’s a totally fair to just assume it!”
But of course it’s not… Because if I said something equally unfounded, like, “Hey, if only 5% of white people are serial killers, so that’s like… millions of serial killers!” any reasonable person would recognize that it’s a totally idiotic statement.
Anyway, I hate that shit. It pisses me off. It could go into the nerd rage thread for me.
Or how ‘extremist’ is defined. Could you create a definition of extremist that you get 5% from? almost certainly. Because by my count Islam has some teachings that I would certainly consider extreme that you could probably find 5% support for. Something like FGM (I don’t know the actual number worldwide, but some areas like Indonesia have support nearing 90%) I’d consider extreme and barbaric. But that conflates extreme views with ‘go out and murder a whole bunch of people terrorist extremist’, probably quite intentionally.
Here’s a sign that NC may be a little bit out of touch with cultural norms:
UK Issues Warning For Travel to NC and MS
Happily, I suspect that Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and others may be more in line with the policy. They’re our real allies!
The sort of cartoon upthread, the one that got Schilling canned, shows how a lot of people view gender issues. That is, they see pretty much the entire LGBTQA spectrum as lifestyle choices akin to “fries with that?” or “anal or oral, dear?” and not as fundamental aspects of identity. Hence, someone doing a M-F transition is considered, to be blunt, a perv, out for some weird thrill, rather than someone trying to come to terms with who they are. Eh, every one of the trans people I know have gone through an enormous amount of soul searching and, at no little cost, difficulty, and usually trauma made some very fundamental decisions about themselves, all so that they can, well, be themselves.
But maybe people like Schilling know something I don’t. Maybe gay people just need Jesus!
NBA’s Commissioner Silver: LGBT law must change to keep the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte
That’s really well said, TheWombat.
I think it would be more effective to say, McCrory goes and the law changes or we go.
It’s true that both psychological interpretations exist (strictly speaking, they aren’t even mutually exclusive). But note that the cartoon doesn’t side with either. The child states a simple biological fact of nature, devoid of any interpretation, for which it is labelled a bigot.
Eh, every one of the trans people I know have gone through an enormous amount of soul searching and, at no little cost, difficulty, and usually trauma made some very fundamental decisions about themselves, all so that they can, well, be themselves.
If that was true in a philosophical sense, you would expect their mental anguish and self-torture to end at some point. Most of the time, it doesn’t. And the promise that it might sets up a false hope that hurts them further.
I can say based on my own personal experience with the trans community, you’re absolutely full of shit on this one. I know several folks who are trans, some of which is due to an MMO where I accidentally ended up in a guild full of trans individuals, as well as someone I am very close to in the competitive community I’m in. This is something I talk about very little, as I take special steps to make sure I don’t out anyone, a lesson I learned thankfully without it being too hard.
HRT made a huge difference in how they saw themselves and the world.
The fuck are you on about? Trans people are just broken, so fuck it?
In a philosophical sense, how about get fucked.
If you are being serious, in a philosophical sense, I’m sorry that you live in such a state of mental anguish that you feel the need to judge trans people for the very fact of their existence.
But I’m sure the false hope that you might not be such a bigot someday hurts you further.
You are confused by the only original element you introduced into your attempt at a collage, although it was so small: the word “to judge”. You use it morally, as in “to judge someone guilty of something”, but you fail to notice that taken in that sense, I have judged nobody, but you have judged me.
The important word here is child.
Since that is a childlike understanding of the full-spectrum of human psychology, sexuality, and identity.
-Todd
Has there been a rash of children being called ‘bigots?’ Have there been cases lately of transgender men raping little girls in restrooms? I honestly don’t know. I would guess, though, that such attacks would have been national news.
What is the driving force behind these laws? I wonder whether there is an actual issue to be solved here, or whether it’s just conservative state legislators trying to bond with their base over shared disgust for ‘others.’
The whole issue is nonsensical, in that it’s a “solution” to a problem that doesn’t even exist.
These laws are supposed to be “protecting kids from men dressed as women going into their bathrooms!”
WHEN DOES THAT HAPPEN? HAS IT EVER HAPPENED?
For most cases, presumably you wouldn’t even recognize that a trans person was using the “wrong” bathroom. What are you gonna do, tackle some woman who “looks a bit too manly”, and demand that they show you their junk before they’re allowed to use the bathroom?
The simple question that needs to be asked of the people who are making these laws is this: What is the specific, real-world event that led to the necessity of this law?
Not some abstract imagined event that you think MIGHT occur. What is the ACTUAL case, which happened in the real world, which this is designed to prevent?
Because if you don’t have that, and I suspect they do not, then it’s a stupid law. Not merely for being indicative of bigotry, but because making laws for fun is a stupid waste of time. Our legal system is complex enough without needing to make more laws that don’t do anything.
I hate to be in the position of even vaguely defending the Conservative position on this, but as I understand it, it wasn’t them that initiated the fight.
Rather it was a small spate of cases from high schools where some teens were asking to use the bathrooms that correspond to their sexual self-identity.
It was those cases (and arguments in the school systems on how to accommodate them ) that launched the national discussion.
It just happens that there is a good reason for this. Being forced to use the wrong restroom does lead to a spike in suicide, as well as actual violence against the transperson.
The whole point of this bill was an attempt to humiliate transfolk, and the city of Charlotte- to appease their own base and the Koch brothers/Art Pope (first for the former, second for the latter)
This is why I’d love to see the cities of the state file a suit claiming the level of NC gerrymandering is unconstitutional under Article 4 Section 4- that it fails to deliver a “Republican form of government”
I was just wondering whether there were any actual incidents involving transgender men and little girls in restrooms.
There are christian bakers unhappy when asked to put two grooms on a cake. There have been christian photographers who did not want to spend a day taking pictures with a gay couple. I may not agree with them, but their complaints were at least based on actual events. This latest stuff, though… I guess it’s just part of the right’s general confusion of LGBT people with pedophiles, mixed in with the usual scaremongering.