The “transgender tipping point” – the moment when the trans agenda went from fringe theory to cultural conqueror – was pinpointed by TIME magazine as 2014. Overnight, it seemed, the trans agenda was being implemented everywhere from curriculums to passport offices, from entertainment to progressive politics. For anyone over 30, it has been a bewildering blitzkrieg, because we remember when this debate… wasn’t a debate.
As the backlash to the transgender agenda builds, trans activists are falling back on a tried-and-true trick: they are acting as if things have always been this way, and that the slow-motion collapse of this decade-long social experiment is, in fact, a massive rollback of generally accepted human rights. Consider, for example, a recent headline in the Toronto Star: “‘It’s just too dangerous’: Canadian transgender artists cancel shows in the U.S. over border fears.”
Why, might you ask, is the United States – incidentally, the epicenter of the transgender movement – suddenly “dangerous” for trans-identifying artists? Well, according to the Star’s lede, it’s because of “the Trump Administration’s broad executive order to reject transgender identities, which also targets anyone that is 2-Spirit, non-binary or intersex, effectively eliminating human rights protections for gender diverse people in the U.S.”
Every word of that is hysterical nonsense. LGBT people have the same human rights that everybody else does. The Trump administration’s day one executive order merely affirmed that there are two biological sexes and rejected the distinction between biological sex and gender. Until about five minutes ago, everybody else did, as well. The idea that this statement of fact “targets” anyone or “eliminates human rights protections” is a naked and paranoid attempt to conjure the specter of persecution where it does not exist.
According to the Star:
Toronto-based artist T. Thomason, who is transgender, said he made the hard decision to cancel his U.S. shows, after coming to the realization that his human rights are seen by some as debatable. ‘It’s easy to kid yourself into believing that (trans people) have the same kind of safety guarantees as everyone else, but (trans people) don’t,’ said Thomason.
The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) said there is a heightened sense of confusion around U.S. border regulations, especially for transgender, 2-Spirit, non-binary or intersex people and anyone with gender marker ‘X’ on Canadian passports.
It is worth noting here that Canada did not add the “X” option on passports until… 2017. If this news story is to be believed, prior to that, Canada was an anti-trans hellscape in which the fundamental human rights of LGBT people were not protected. Indeed, the Canadian Independent Music Association and the Canadian Federation of Musicians hosted an online discussion with over 250 people, the Canadian Federation of Musicians, and “two U.S. based arts and immigration lawyers” to discuss the dangers of travel to the U.S.
The meeting opened with a statement from Andrew Cash, CEO of the CIMA: “Since Trump took office we have seen worrisome news and it makes touring in the U.S. sound risky and part of the issue is we just don’t know.” A Montreal singer, Bells Larsen, claims that his application for a U.S. visa “was likely to be denied based on his gender identity” by the American Federation of Musicians and is refunding tickets for his American shows.
There is no actual evidence of this taking place, but CIMA stated that “Canadian artists have postponed or cancelled U.S tour dates or needed to shift travel plans, and that there is a heightened sense of confusion around U.S. border regulations and safety concerns, especially for transgender, 2-Spirit, non-binary or intersex people and anyone with gender marker ‘X’ on Canadian passports.” Karla Marx, a drag queen from Calgary, also cancelled American events because “it’s just too dangerous to chance, for the foreseeable future.”
Marx also claimed to feel unsafe “because of the political climate” because, as the Star put it, “under the Trump administration, her human rights are not protected if she travels south of the border.” The Star did not provide any information on how drag queens, androgynous artists, and trans-identifying people managed to safely traverse the Mason-Dixon line prior to 2017—but trans activists appear certain that, as one put it: “There is a real obvious danger when outing yourself as a trans person right now.”
The Star even included a handy list of tips for “gender-diverse people traveling to the U.S.,” which included disguising your “medications,” leaving vitamins at home to avoid questioning, and traveling with “an old copy of a birth certificate.” Apparently, traveling into Trump’s America is significantly more onerous than accessing East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie a couple of decades ago. Incidentally, only 18 countries worldwide recognize a “third gender option” on official documents. Approximately 175 countries do not. Yet it is America, apparently, that LGBT people must fear.
Why? Because articles like this are written to send a warning to any country that rolls back the transgender agenda in any way: Implement our agenda, or we will portray you as a scary, human rights denying, crypto-fascist state. It is a pathetically obvious game.
