At the heart of our stances are our beliefs on cultural freedoms. You can can find them in this brief page.
This woke vs anti-woke debate has started to revolve a lot more around trans issues and honestly it is a waste of time, energy, and effort that does not solve any of the problems our society, including transfolk, faces.
The affordability crisis is an equalizer that has both cis and trans people dealing with many of the same day-to-day life problems
Trans people represent
0.2% of entire population
0.5% of Millenials
0.79% of Gen Z
literally a minority within a minority
Gender dysphoria has been an observed phenomenon across the world and throughout history
Some cultures rejected and suppressed it
Others celebrated it
Others didn't care
To the trans rights advocates:
The biggest problem facing the trans community is the affordability crisis
Having cis people declare their pronouns won't fix that
Diversity and inclusion quotas won't fix that
Companies waving flags for a month won't change that
To the anti-trans folk:
How exatlty is making the lives of <1% of people harder going to solve any of our problems
How weak is our culture that when <1% are different it is suddenly compromised and dying
The cost to support them is negligible compared to our spending on other things
Our political parties have probably spent more money making woke and anti-woke campaign ads than
Our positions:
Personal freedom is paramount
Respect that different people can be radically different from us but are still worthy of a basic level of respect regardless, as long as they're harmless
Harmless here means non violent/abusive
Moral harm is deeply subjective
Trans people have the right to respectfully express themselves freely
The right to be called by their preferred pronouns and names
But not the right to force others to support the way they express themselves
People who disapprove of transition have the right to respectfully express themselves freely
They have the right to argue why they think transitioning or expressing it is wrong for whatever reason
But not the right to force/restrict others from seeking or expressing their identity
Acknowledging that both camps exist is important
Replace pro- and anti- trans advocates with any two different religious groups and the importance of acknowledging that there are good and bad people on both sides becomes important
Restriction of personal freedoms based on moral grounds sets a concerning precedent
For religious freedoms especially
Not all slippery slope arguments are fallacies
For children
We support non medical gender-affirmative care like counseling, support groups, etc.
Helps them understand themselves,
Has demonstrable effectiveness
Respects parents' right to promote their beliefs to their kids at home
Medical gender-affirmative care like hormonal therapy, surgeries, etc.
Only when they reach legal adulthood, i.e. 18 years old. (Pending some research and feedback, we might change this position to require parental consent for minors)
Children and especially teens are uncertain about a lot of their identity so their personalities change over time.
Someone who is done going through puberty and highschool is more likely to make the right decision about affirming their identity
Plus the effectiveness of medical intervention at a young age is mixed at best. (Will add links soon)
We are against CPS involvement in most cases, unless actual abuse is involved physical or otherwise.
Our stance on teaching the topic in schools can be found here.
We understand that there are adults who transitioned late but where always sure about their identity throughout their upbringing who would have preferred going through the medical process earlier. However, personal experience is not universal, especially now that non-binary identities are more accepted.
The discrepancy between younger and older generations might indicate that some of the youth who identify as non-binary are in a questioning phase
For sports:
Up to each organization in our opinion
Personal recommendation is to create a third league anyone can compete and keep male and female leagues cis only
Won't make it a matter of policy or law and won't go out of our way to promote that stance