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Trans rights are civil rights
History does not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. It is a truism that any analysis of history will see trends and patterns emerge over time, especially when people are searching for clues as to how the world will develop in the coming years. One example is the current obsession with proving that the “American Empire” is about to collapse based on prior empires having a seemingly pre-ordained lifespan. What those people forget is that all empires have lifespans which see expansion and contraction, with many reformulating themselves into new constituent parts once their hegemony has dissipated. The same goes for rights movements, which ebb and flow over time as oppressive forces are applied and removed through societal changes. This is why I suggest that trans rights are a civil rights movement, as the hard won social gains trans people have achieved are once more in retreat and divergent approaches to reclaims those lost rights are splitting the trans movement.
I preface this with the comment I made on X over the last three months: Trans people are all Rosa Parks when the law bans them from accessing certain spaces which they previous enjoyed the use of. Parks used non-violent means to sit on a bus seat which was denied her by city ordinances, using her body as a tool through which to protest unjust apartheid. Trans people do the same when they defy unjust trans exclusionary policies…
