I strongly recommend you take a little time and read this post by medical professional (and Trump opponent) Scott Alexander. Here’s the context:
I work in mental health. So far I have had two patients express Trump-related suicidal ideation. One of them ended up in the emergency room, although luckily both of them are now safe and well. I have heard secondhand of several more.
Like Snopes, I am not sure if the reports of eight transgender people committing suicide due to the election results are true or false. But if they’re true, it seems really relevant that Trump denounced North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law, and proudly proclaimed he would let Caitlyn Jenner use whatever bathroom she wanted in Trump Tower, making him by far the most pro-transgender Republican president in history.
I notice news articles like Vox: Donald Trump’s Win Tells People Of Color They Aren’t Welcome In America. Or Salon’s If Trump Wins, Say Goodbye To Your Black Friends. MSN: Women Fear For Their Lives After Trump Victory.
Vox writes about the five-year-old child who asks “Is Donald Trump a bad person? Because I heard that if he becomes president, all the black and brown people have to leave and we’re going to become slaves.†The Star writes about a therapist called in for emergency counseling to help Muslim kids who think Trump is going to kill them. I have patients who are afraid to leave their homes.
Listen. Trump is going to be approximately as racist as every other American president.
Here’s his peroration:
Stop turning everything into identity politics. The only thing the media has been able to do for the last five years is shout “IDENTITY POLITICS IDENTITY POLITICS IDENTITY POLITICS IDENTITY POLITICS IDENTITY POLITICS!†at everything, and then when the right wing finally says “Um, i…den-tity….poli-tics?†you freak out and figure that the only way they could have possibly learned that phrase is from the KKK.
Stop calling Trump voters racist. A metaphor: we have freedom of speech not because all speech is good, but because the temptation to ban speech is so great that, unless given a blanket prohibition, it would slide into universal censorship of any unpopular opinion. Likewise, I would recommend you stop calling Trump voters racist – not because none of them are, but because as soon as you give yourself that opportunity, it’s a slippery slope down to “anyone who disagrees with me on anything does so entirely out of raw seething hatred, and my entire outgroup is secret members of the KKK and so I am justified in considering them worthless human trashâ€. I’m not saying you’re teetering on the edge of that slope. I’m saying you’re way at the bottom, covered by dozens of feet of fallen rocks and snow. Also, I hear that accusing people of racism constantly for no reason is the best way to get them to vote for your candidate next time around. Assuming there is a next time.
and here’s his conclusion:
Stop making people suicidal. Stop telling people they’re going to be killed. Stop terrifying children. Stop giving racism free advertising. Stop trying to convince Americans that all the other Americans hate them. Stop. Stop. Stop.
The post is full of quotes, graphs, and meticulously documented. Read the whole thing.
Its quite well reasoned and documented, however, to get those ad impressions sold, window seats on the solar powered, mass transit progressive Juggernaut and maybe that tenured spot, fear sells.
Trump’s pretty much been more trans-friendly than any Democratic President, too. And IIRC, he supported gay marriage before either Obama or HRC.
My therapist-wife has at least one LGBTQ-client very anxious about the elections and afraid of what might happen now. I thought it was disappointing given that Trump’s convention speech included a promise to protect the LGBTQ community, expressed in such an awkward staccato, that he couldn’t have been winging it. That had been proceeded by Peter Thiel and other Republican speakers, including Ted Cruz, delivering positive LGBTQ messages.
Also being from Illinois, I couldn’t think of one thing federal law provides on LGBTQ issues that isn’t provided first and to greater extent under state law — state laws passed through the political process, and enjoying popular support of the people. There are benefits to a non-hierarchical approach to public policy.
Wow, thanks for posting that. I have a new bog to follow.
I think Trump could care less about L G T X L t policies but is not antagonistic about them. His priorities lie elsewhere, with the american majority that elected him. I feel the same way, sexual preference is not the same as race. Don’t harm these people, but they are no longer priority one as under Obama, which, by the way, I’ve always wondered about.
Love you guys!