I see your point but when basic human rights of a minority group are threatened, there is a moral imperative to organize to protect them, regardless of their popularity. There’s really no way around it. I think a framing that includes trans rights as only one aspect of a larger struggle for human freedom and dignity is the best strategy. Because there will need to be some discussion of trans rights if fascists continue to attack them. The alternative is to abandon a part of our community to violent oppression, which to me is unthinkable.
Moral imperative ≠ logical imperative. There’s really no way around it.
People voted for Trump because he told them their issues are going to be addressed. You cannot tell someone that’s willing to vote for a wannabe fascist that their rights are somehow being secured three dominoes removed from trans rights. That is an abstract concept. Despite the fact that children should be capable of understanding abstract concepts, these are people who clearly cannot.
You have to appeal to them first because there are more of them. They are selfishly stupid and the simple virtue of your message is not enough to persuade them.
The people you’re talking about also see things as adversarial when they don’t need to be. It’s just part of having a mind saturated in negativity. If we’re going to do something to help the trans people, it must mean we’re hurting everybody else somehow. By admitting their existence is valid, others are somehow diminished, in the eyes of the paranoid conservative.
