Pick on a vulnerable minority instead of tackling real problems
By
They’d been granted the same legal rights as other Germans and were established in respected professions. They were mostly treated as worthy of dignity.
But that
changed as antisemites scapegoated Jews for all of Germany’s woes — from the
loss of World War I to the hyperinflation that had ruined so many lives.
Nazis not only
stereotyped Jews as rich, cunning, and devious, but also likened them to
revolting vermin — including lice, rats, snakes, and cockroaches. They were
depicted as creepy, smelly, disease-ridden, sub-human.
Attacking this
vulnerable, long-persecuted, tiny minority — under 1 percent of the German population — as
repulsive and dangerous was the German far right’s way to activate loathing
while evading the fact that they had no solutions for Germany’s real problems.
Today, Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis and other GOP leaders are following the Nazi playbook,
substituting transgender youth for the Jews. They industriously promote hatred,
fear, and physical revulsion of this small group — also barely 1 percent of the population — and
pretend it’s out of concern for children.
It’s no
coincidence that open antisemites actively harass LGBTQ events, nor that right-wing anti-LGBTQ
rhetoric invokes antisemitic tropes. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were viciously targeted alongside
Jews. And although today’s GOP denies that it welcomes Jew-haters, they are
comfortable working with antisemites jointly attacking trans and LGBTQ people.
Meanwhile the GOP
evades concerns that actually threaten Americans and our children — like gun
violence in schools, poverty, hunger, climate change, medical debt, and the
erosion of middle-class incomes.
Who are the people
Republicans want to make us fear and loath?
Transgender people are simply those whose sense of
themselves doesn’t conform to the gender they’re expected to assume. For many
young people, the need to transition their gender presentation represents the
culmination of a long and painful process.
Physicians recognize “gender dysphoria” as a medical condition, and families of such children work with doctors to determine appropriate treatment at various stages in the lives of their children. Young people and their families steering through this difficult terrain deserve support and compassion — not demonization.
But right-wing GOP
politicians find it more useful to create scapegoats.
DeSantis recently signed a set of anti-trans bills that
outlaw treatment for gender dysphoria for minors, make the existence of
nonconforming people unmentionable in public schools, and provide for taking
trans children away from their parents if, with their physicians, they decide
to follow medically recommended standards of care.
These bills are
unconstitutional and bigoted, as one federal judge ruled recently when he
blocked DeSantis’s ban on trans health care from being enforced. Yet at least 20 other Republican-led states are pushing
anti-trans laws, in some cases effectively barring gender-appropriate care even for adults.
Many of these laws
also bar transgender people from public restrooms matching their gender
identity, evoking the days of racially segregated toilets. These laws play on
the false, malicious claim that transgender people pose a danger to others in
restrooms — a claim for which there’s not one shred of evidence.
For a transgender
woman, on the contrary, it’s uncomfortable and potentially unsafe to be
expected to use a men’s toilet. Trans people have reported being harassed in large numbers simply
for trying to use the restroom.
But reality
doesn’t matter when your purpose is not to solve an imaginary problem, but to
inspire fear of a despised group.
is an attorney, longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi Reckoning. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org. Click here to read Progressive Charlestown's praise for Mississippi Reckoning.