In regards to PJI's transphobic video attacking a minor

Today was supposed to be a day off from blogging, but I’m kind of steaming over here about this and there’s just too much for a Twitter rant. I’m going to avoid going into detail about the background to this story, but if you want to read up on it, you can check here or head over to Transadvocate and read the amazing work Cristan Williams is doing on this (she’s just been…wow).

A couple days ago, the Pacific Justice Institute released a horribly, but not unsurprisingly so, transphobic video in an attack against a transgender child in Colorado. A child! I held off on watching it at first, but then…I went against my better judgment and now I’m about ready to flip all the tables. All of them.

Here’s the video:

There are so many things wrong in this video that it’s hard to know where to start, but let me just try to rattle off what I can here…

• The misgendering. Oh, the misgendering! - Stop calling her a boy! She’s not a boy, she is a girl. Trans women and trans girls are women and girls. Trans men and trans boys are men and boys. This is so very simple and basic, but no, people refuse respect this. If she was a boy, she’d use the boys’ room, but that’s the whole point, she’s a girl and doesn’t belong in the boys’ room! She belongs in the girls room!
• What are you doing in the bathroom that your “private parts are no longer private?!?!” - No, seriously, tell me. This is not rhetorical. I don’t even understand what you are trying to say here. There are stalls…with doors…and the doors close…and they lock. Why are your private parts out and on display outside of these stalls? Are you worried that she’ going to climb over the walls of the bathroom stalls to sneak a peak? Crawl under? Like, I can’t even figure this one out.Oh! I got it! I’m an idiot! I forgot about our x-ray vision! Us trans folk have many super powers…x-ray vision, the ability to feast on your soul, the power to turn you gay just by staring into you eyes. You better watch the fuck out! Ain’t no stall door gonna save you from our eyes!
• You’re spending a lot of time talking about people’s privacy here, but did you stop and realize you’re PUBLICLY TALKING ABOUT A CHILD’S ACTUAL LIFE!? - Where is her privacy? She’s even had her name posted publicly through this. Her privacy has been completely violated and her real life has been made public on an international level. Do you not get that? Do you not understand that you’ve literally driven this girl to being on suicide watch? Suicide.
• And on that note, you’ve made A CHILD the face of your campaign against trans people! - I shouldn’t even have to elaborate here, but, again, we are talking about a child here. A minor. And you are obsessed with her. In fact, you seem to be really obsessed with the genitalia of a lot of children. You keep mentioning their “private parts.” You know, they’re not so private when you’re openly talking about them. Why are you so obsessed with them? Under any other circumstance, would you not accuse anyone else speaking this much about a child’s genitals to be a pedophile?
• In what manner is this girl not “respecting” others? Simply by existing? - The video consistently comes back to the idea of not respecting others, but does not ever attempt to actually explain how she is disrespecting anyone. The reality here is that PJI considers her very existence to be disrespectful to them.
• Trans kids and trans people are not confused…at all! - We know our genders. When a trans child says they are a boy or a girl, they are not just making this up. They are communicating their reality to you.
• Trans people and trans kids are not fucking sexual predators! - Trans people do not have any interest in anything in the bathroom other than using the toilet, washing their hands, maybe fixing their hair/makeup, and getting the fuck out. That’s it. Period. There are no buts here. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but trans people and trans kids have no interest in you. The fact that you see trans people as uncontrollable sexual predators who cannot be trusted to use a bathroom that does not correspond to their assigned-at-birth sex says much more about you than anyone else. Are you that afraid of trans people not being able to leave others alone in the bathroom because you wouldn’t be able to do that?
• People being transgender is not your fucking problem! - The only thing you need to do is get the fuck over it. That’s it. Trans people exist. It’s all but guaranteed that you’ve interacted with many of us and not even known about it. We are people just like you. We don’t want to be treated differently or like we’re special from anyone else. Why do you insist we can’t be treated the same?
• Your slight bit of feeling uncomfortable because of your bigotry does not trump our right to have a safe place to use the bathroom! - For trans girls and trans women, the men’s room is not safe for us. We are beaten, raped, and murdered all too often when being forced to use the men’s room. You are not a victim here. You are not being violated or raped or beaten up or murdered or anything by trans people.