I am going fucking insane.

Up until very recently, I didn't realize I held what are considered to be very controversial opinions. Bigoted opinions, even. So I went on a quest. I had to know, am i the baddie?

I've never been someone interested in the gender vs sex conversation, but I'm entrenched in the culture because it's a very important topic to all my peers.

Hey, they seemed to know what they were talking about. They told me all the buzzwords and I said cool buddy cool. I've never given a fat shit about being "misgendered" in my life but I thought if other people have this fixation with words, it costs me nothing to play along.

So I incorporated all the buzzwords, I tried to be mindful; I wanna be good to people, after all, I want people to feel respected and seen! I don't get it but I don't have to, I'll treat you however you ask me to, within reason. I never felt anything unreasonable was asked of me.

One day my friends tell me JKR is being a dick again, wanting to say "woman" instead of "people who menstruate", that cunt bitch terf. I said yeah, what a petty thing to pick a fight over!

In retrospect, that should've tipped me off, those two conflicting messages: Language is vitally important. But there's no good reason this bitch terf can't change her language to suit us

But I figured they had good reasons to be pissed. She's a transphobe right! I'm a homo and I get pissed at homophobes too!!! Don't really see where cursing them out gets us but HEY we all process our anger differently, go on and tell em how you really feel!

Then JKR published her "essay defending her transphobic statements", they called it. And I didn't even read it lol, didn't care. Of course everyone was posting about it though. And I started seeing people I trust and respect trash concerns that resonated deeply with me.

So I went and read the thing. And I thought this woman made a hell of a lot of good sense. I was told JKR was ignorant and hateful. She obviously wasn't.

This flip-turned my world upside down. I had to dig deeper and figure out what the fuck you're all talking about finally. I've been devouring articles, forums, podcasts, books, Bro I fucking hate books. But I dont want to be a BIGOT so clearly I need to educate myself right

So what have I found? Well I sure feel like I've uncovered a fucking cult. As a mere layperson I just assumed phrases like "transmen are men" and "transwomen are women" were hyperbolic statements to say they deserve as much respect & humanity as men/women. I can get behind that!

Imagine my surprise to find out those phrases are meant quite literally, actually. And it's a doctrine, not a matter of debate. It's a statement of faith. I'm taking those words from @DebbieHayton's article here, she articulated it perfectly. https://unherd.com/2020/02/the-labour-party-has-chosen-to-identify-as-unelectable/

I've learned that conflating sex with gender identity is having startling repercussions for women and same-sex attracted people and the vocal TRA community doesn't even wanna hear it, the mere suggestion is being called bigoted. It's wild.

You know these people aren't even using the term TERF right? By their logic all the MANY trans people who aren't comfortable with this dogma are TERFs. How in fucks name can trans people be trans exclusionary in their feminism. Hoooly shit it's all so stupid.

So I've come to join the conversation because I want to be heard and I want others to know I'm hearing them. #IStandWithJKR because I'm questioning the dogma. I'm sorry @jk_rowling, I should've listened sooner.