Transgender Terror: The Power of Pundits

If you paid attention to pundits, podcasts, or press in the past several years, you likely noticed a surprisingly large focus on transgender issues.

I say issues because that is what the majority of reports, debates, and discussions view transgender people and topics: an issue. 

A problem that needs to be fixed, rather than a group that needs to be helped. 

One would assume that after modern steps forward in LGBTQ+ legislation - such as marriage and certain discrimination protections - there would be less focus on the queer community. The changes in our society are the (partial) acceptance of sexual diversity at the expense of gender identity acceptance. Transgender people have been targeted as the newest culture war issue.

Why the intense negative coverage of the T portion of the LGBTQ+ community? Why now has it become much more prevalent and acceptable to be transphobic in our media, even after many decades of prejudice and violence against this small, marginalized community?

The reason is straightforward: since it has become slightly less acceptable to be homophobic, anti-LGBTQ figures have shifted to targeting transgender people. This can be seen most clearly among political pundits. Political commentators such as Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, and Steven Crowder (just to name a few).

Regardless of any political beliefs or party identifications, it is clear these people have weaponized their platforms to push transphobia by intensely focusing on a topic that rarely affects the general public.

They maintain a decent following of viewers, listeners, and readers, despite their long, troubling histories of racist, sexist, and homophobic views. I will not directly mention those histories in hopes of remaining unbiased and civil…feel free to look them up if you wish.

The common thread between these many political pundits is their wildly inaccurate conception of transgender people and the trans movement. Most utilize the term transgenderism to label the existence of being transgender as a practice or ideology of sorts instead of as a community of people with similar struggles.

They also typically refer to the presence of LGBTQ+ children as evidence of grooming and brainwashing since they cannot comprehend the natural existence of queer children. Also, they refer to gender transitioning - whether medical or just social - as genital mutilation and child abuse.

Another important thing to keep in mind about these people is that most used to be - or still are - strong opponents of homosexuality (both marriage and in general) and have only now moved to the more “socially appropriate” anti-trans stance.

Ben Shapiro is the most prominent of these commentators. He has a massive viewership on Facebook, a platform known for its rampant misinformation (and sometimes gullible audience). 

Many people follow and admire Shapiro for his claims of using purely fact-based logic. Nevertheless, his attacks against the LGBTQ+ community are based mainly on his faith and a rudimentary understanding of gender and sex. 

Ben is against homosexual marriage on a religious basis. As a Jewish man, he believes homosexuality is a sin. I am Jewish and believe that people trying to utilize something as impactful as faith to argue for outdated morals is truly disappointing.

As a libertarian, he holds a strong stance against the government’s “militant gay agenda” which he believes is supported by “paying tuition…taxes…your child majoring in English” and so on. Speaking again as a self-described libertarian English major, I could not disagree with this more. He makes jokes comparing transgender identities to thinking oneself is a “moose” or “attack helicopter”, and so on. 

Other up-and-coming commentators include Candace Owens and Matt Walsh. Owens exhibits a strange viewpoint on transgender equality. He argues that there is a strict binary base of sexual characteristics. Meanwhile, he also gets angry over the concept of boys or men wearing dresses (referring to gender variances as “satanic”, “sick”, and “perverted”).

Matt Walsh himself has written a book that compares the social transition of trans children to a fictional story of a child literally trying to turn himself into a walrus, and slowly getting sick and mutilated…I know, right? Such a fun book.

The book is completely based on his belief that parents of queer children deserved to be arrested for child abuse. Apparently because "the real conversion therapy that happens in our world today, is the kind where a child is converted into LGBT".

Their strange misconceptions and harmful beliefs slowly seep into popular culture and massively influence the next generation’s perception of gender and sex in our world. It is quite literally creating a more dangerous world to live in for trans children of the future. 

Unfortunately, people are roped into believing every single piece of information or news - fake or not - that pundits share with their devoted audience. It is a dangerous appropriation of a teacher-student relationship, where a person who may have no experience or responsibility whatsoever lays out a lesson of their own biased design.

The student just sits back and takes everything in as accurate information - researched and proven. 

My extremely complex solution involves…(drum roll)...people trying their best to research any and all information they are taking in.

I realize it would take forever to question literally anything entering your brain. Still, individuals could at least take some extra steps. They could start by actually looking into the research of anyone they get their information from.

Commentators very often cherry-pick, misrepresent - or even completely lie about - the information in the original studies or articles they quote or cover. People could also take the simple steps of referring to reliable scientific and medical research on transgender topics.

People do not need to get information from random media figures based only on personal opinions or beliefs. Go straight to the actual source, straight to the experts with the actual straightforward knowledge. 

Transgender people are valid, and science and history will prove that. Even if you believe that this assertion is false, perhaps take the time to reevaluate what transphobia will lead to.

Is it really worth their time to obsess over an already-struggling group of people? To devote all their time to being negative and hateful?

I think people should put forth positivity and not get swept up in following people who thrive off negativity. Even if your opinions on certain issues differ, we all owe each other the common decency of recognition and respect. Treating transgender people how they wish to be treated falls under basic courtesy.

It should be completely left out of any culture wars and partisan politics.

People need to focus on bettering the lives of themselves and others, and all of these pundits really need to find some other non-issue to fill their time with.