Episode 57: A Matter of Survival - Trivializing Trans Rights as a Boutique “Identity” Issue by Citations Needed Podcast published on 2018-11-14T15:03:13Z In the wake of the 2016 election, many conservatives, liberals, and - unfortunately - even some on the left pointed to Democrats' reliance on so-called "identity politics" to explain Donald Trump's upset victory over Hillary Clinton. One of the most popular manifestations of this sentiment was the controversy surrounding bathrooms and transgender rights. The general theory was that some unspecified cohort of voters, outraged by the oppressive nature of trans politics, responded by voting for a reactionary bigot they otherwise wouldn’t have supported. “Identity politics” – and its close cousin “political correctness” – had gone too far, we heard, and Trump's election was the blowback. Commentaries in corporate media pushed this narrative, while missing the essential point: The alleged “identity issues” of trans people are not a matter of self-esteem or feeling good about themselves or about some academic notion of "being recognized." In many concrete ways, they’re quite literally a matter of life and death. Yet conveying this notion to the broader, cis public has been almost impossible as media narratives surrounding trans issues – when they’re not outright hostile or glib – have disproportionately focused on surface-level improvements among the wealthy and within spaces that even help advance U.S. militarism. How do we breakthrough the corrosive narratives of either contempt on the one hand, or imperialist inclusion on the other? And how can we elevate narratives that affect the vast majority of trans people, like housing, police terror, legal status, healthcare and basic human dignity, while pushing back against liberal and left holdouts who dismiss trans issues as simply another “distraction.” We are joined on today's episode by Dean Spade, associate professor at Seattle University School of Law. Comment by Fred Von Drasek ...it's not "identity politics" that may have held back Clinton, but the stink that her hypocrisy exudes relative to same. It seems that this is hinted at below, but it's seems the center of it to me... 2018-11-19T15:02:35Z Comment by Ewan Cvorovic Adam, the burden of proof is on you there. When a party pushes "political correctness" as an electoral platform, it needs to make sure that it *will* motivate enough voters to achieve the desired result. If that approach fails, it's useless to argue "Well, you can't prove it motivated the other side's voters!" No, but it obviously failed to motivate enough of yours. Trans rights are made "a boutique identity issue" by the fact that only .6% of the population identifies as trans. It's electorally suicidal to push trans rights while blithely ignoring broader issues ("single payer healthcare will never ever happen"). 2018-11-19T12:50:59Z Comment by Ewan Cvorovic Chris happens to be 100% correct on that. Liberals pushing war and poverty under the rug, offering trans issues as a substitute - it indeed is "a toxic and unlovable ideology". It's also electoral suicide, BTW, whether you like it or not. You guys are tilting at windmills. 2018-11-19T12:40:14Z Comment by Mistair Argent I hate the "Wait [x amount of years] because it'll sway some hypothetical jackass who pretty blatantly won't be won over" crowd. Does the very real plight of marginalized people not outstrip some joe blow who isn't even affected by all this' feelings, even if his mind wasn't set? 2018-11-17T02:32:47Z Comment by brotherbeat I was reluctant to land as hard on this point as I'm about to before hearing Dean lay out the idea of supporting trans rights as basic needs being met with added social elements, like public transit, that extend agency, autonomy, and dignity--essentially assurring economic need is met. Not every pushback on identity politics is centered on the idea that specific need might be a political distraction; what seems to be a focus on identity for some is actually a condemnation of the cynical way that dems use identity, "idpol". Not to contradict your thesis, but to add specificity there's research that suggests "idpol" essentially focused on guilt, moralizing, labeling, and call out over perceived attitude has the opposite intended effect--- it's a form of anti racism that does actually make people more racist and creates more racists. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3083636/) 2018-11-15T02:07:11Z Comment by Sean D. Daily You had me at "identity politics aren't bad". 2018-11-14T19:17:58Z
