It occurred to me that this “trans” phobia is to whip up hatred against a liberal enemy. The conservatives are always looking for “vermin” to brand. Trans is something that is on the inside of a person, “in their head,” so making the accusation means attacking an “invisible enemy.” In effect, anybody could be made the enemy and conservatives never know who is lurking around the corner and where the trans are because they are “hiding in plain sight.” It is meant to bred a type of paranoia.
I studied the Holocaust and German, visiting a couple camps there and reading the “Pink Triangle.” The german socialists developed I recall about 15 categories of “degenerates,” of which Jews were just one. But the use of “homosexuals” was more powerful and used to target “insiders” and could be used to make enemies in the party. A straight white man in the SS could accuse another officer just by reporting that “he winked at me.” It kept party leaders and officers on edge within the party, but also could weaponize this accusation against white German men outside the party who had a conscious and were resisting or sparking protests. The threat masculinized men to prove they were not “queers” and required greater shows of bravery. Being accused today of being a “homosexual lover” doesn’t have the same effect since gay marriage is allowable (for now). But trans is seen as something “degenerate” but invisible. It serves as a way to make accusation as attack masculinity and those straight men to act “more macho.”
The number and prevalence are not in reality many and they are mostly far nicer and more sensitive than any MAGA man, or woman. But the politicization is a “great” weapon as it plays on fears of schools warping children’s brain and allows attacks to occur on parents showing they are “bad parents” by parading them in media, who “raised their children wrong.” That raising a child right and installing morality into him/her has always been a big theme in conservative southern white society and politics as it allows men to “straighten out their kids” as a justification for violence.
Just my knee jerk reaction on from the historical context of “other” political prosecution and it’s current manifestation in today’s MAGA America.
