When Hating People You Know Nothing About Just Isn't Enough

Whatever happened to "live and let live?"

Ari Drennen @AriDrennen

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles calls for states to "ban transgenderism entirely" in a rant that also attacks gay rights and marriage equality. There are 1.6 million transgender people over the age of 13 living in the United States.

Ari Drennen @AriDrennen

Knowles says that Kansas legislators are "absolutely leading the way" with a new anti-trans law in this clip.

mediamatters.orgDaily Wire host: “You have to ban transgenderism entirely”

Few people become assholes reluctantly.

• Geoffrey Nunberg

I can only speak for myself regarding understanding transgender individuals. And I can safely say that I don’t get it. I don’t know why anyone would subject themselves to the pain and anguish before, during, and after transitioning from one gender to another.

There’s a lot to process, and for someone like myself who was raised in an era when gender was binary, it can be a lot- and sometimes too much. But, along the way, I hit on something that made things easier. I realized that I don’t have to understand. I don’t have to “get it.”

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All I need to do is accept the person for who they are and concede that while I may not understand their struggles, I can support that person to the best of my ability. After all, who am I to judge them? Even if I disagree with that person’s choice, that’s my opinion and not something to me to put on that person. After all, they have enough to deal with.

And then there are busybody know-it-alls like Michael Knowles, who, for some reason, is convinced that the decisions other people make are his business and that he’ll broadcast his opinions as if they matter. After all, he has a radio and he needs content…so why not demonize transgender individuals?

What allows him to feel as if his opinions on “transgenderism” are essential and are something to which the world should pay attention? Who knows? Or cares? But Knowles is evidently a legend of some sort in his own mind, and he has a platform…so you know what that means. He has an ego, and he’s not afraid to use it.

[A]nti-trans bigot Michael Knowles at the Daily Wire was very excited about a new Kansas bill that would "define" a woman as someone "biologically born a female."

"That's it!" he shouted with glee. "That's what a woman is. Which means that this will ban men who identify as transgender women from using single-sex areas designated for women. And the bill defines a female as someone 'whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,' while male refers to anyone 'whose reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.'"

However, there is no toilet technology that can magically determine whether someone entering a restroom either has a vagina or was born with the one that was detected. It's an incredibly invasive, stupid asshole of a bill, but that's probably the point. Bigots want to marginalize trans people and prevent them from living open, public lives. (Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, has vetoed a past bill targeting trans people but the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode her veto.)

Why is Knowles so excited about a bill that “defines” what a woman is? And how will that information improve or degrade the quality of his life? The short answer, of course, is that it will do neither. “Defining” what a woman “is” solves nothing for anyone who isn’t WAY too concerned with things that are none of their damned business.

Never mind the fact that relatively few people transition. It’s not something one decides to do because they’re bored on a Friday night and need to inject some excitement into their miserable, pointless existence. It’s a painful, traumatic, and time-consuming process that’s anything but easy or pleasant. No one who subjects themself to a transition undertakes it lightly. They do it because they’ve felt as if they’ve been trapped in their body and now they have an opportunity to right that wrong.

I can’t begin to imagine the totality of the pain and trauma involved. Some of it has been explained to me, and it’s far more than I can ever imagine subjecting myself to. It takes a tremendous amount of courage and commitment to decide to transition and, once the process has begun, to stick with it. The drugs, the surgeries, and the other steps required to complete the process of transitioning take a tremendous amount of courage.

Frankly, it requires a helluva lot more courage than a sniveling coward like Michael Knowles could ever scrape together. Yet, he feels he has the right to demand that “transgenderism”- something that will never directly impact the quality of his life- be banned.

Knowles proceeded to say, with his own ignorant mouth, that the Kansas bill "bans transgenderism for all practical purposes in the state for everybody. And it has to. In order for women to have the right to have their own bathrooms, you have to ban transgenderism entirely. You can't just ban it for the kids. It's got to be entirely. In order for women to be able to have their own locker rooms at the gym, you have to ban transgenderism entirely. In order to protect businesses from having to participate in weird, occult sexual rituals like the transgender transition, you have to ban transgenderism entirely."

Occult sexual rituals? Knowles is perhaps overselling gender transition. This is also very familiar. In the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of murdering children in religious rituals in between trying to take over the world.

Knowles’ opinion is, of course, based on nothing but fear and ignorance. One of the primary arguments used against transgender individuals revolves around public restrooms. Why politicians in particular are fixed on public restrooms defies rational understanding. You’d think it was The Last Stand Of Western Morality As We Know It.

Some folks are terrified that “biological males” will use women’s restrooms and molest women and children. The reality is that most people who use bathrooms for any gender are just looking for relief. Should any abuse occur, White heterosexual males are usually the most likely culprits.

As for having to “protect businesses from having to participate in weird, occult sexual rituals like the transgender transition,” I’m not sure even Knowles knows what he’s talking about. There’s nothing weird, occult, OR sexual about the transition process. And if Knowles could be bothered to learn anything about it, he might come to understand that.

Of course, none of this means that “you have to ban transgenderism entirely.” Transgender individuals represent no threat to women, children, or anyone else. If you want to talk about threats, you’d be well advised to start with White Conservative Christian heterosexuals, among whom you’d find the vast majority of pedophiles.

Funny how that always gets left out of the conversation, eh?

Let’s face it; Michael Knowles is an asshole. He lacks the thing that transgender individuals need the most- compassion. Why that’s the case is anyone’s guess. Maybe his mother peed in his milk bottle. Or perhaps he’s just that insecure about his own sexuality and/or gender identity and is covering for it by being extra asshole-ish toward transgender people.

There are 1.6 million transgender individuals in the US out of a total population of roughly 330 million. Just by virtue of the math alone, one can see that transgender individuals barely pose a threat to themselves, much less the general population. They just want to be who they feel they truly are. Does anyone think they’d put themselves through a transition just for giggles? No one who wasn’t very serious about becoming the person they believe themselves to truly be would ever subject themselves to the process of transitioning.

I may not understand it all, but I have a helluva lot of respect for anyone willing to endure the steps necessary steps to transitioning. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do that, but I admire the courage and the commitment involved.

And I’d submit that it takes far more courage to be transgender for a day than to be a White Conservative Christian heterosexual for a year.

If you want to become more educated on this subject, I’d suggest checking out Plastic Martyr’s Instagram and Twitter sites. She’s outspoken, courageous, and not afraid to stand up for the rights of transgender individuals like herself. Transgender rights should be basic, the same as they are for White Conservative Christian cisgender individuals. Sadly, they’re not- because people like Michael Knowles believe it’s their business to keep them down.

The problem isn’t with transgender individuals. It’s with ignorant bigots like Knowles who insiste on sticking their opinions in where they have no business. They don’t understand, they lack compassion, and they have no standing. They can no more ban “transgenderism” than they can ban heterosexuality.

You can’t ban what you refuse to try to understand. That’s not how the world works. And before you start talking about “transgenderism” and pedophilia, keep in mind that the majority of pedophiles are White heterosexual males.

If we’re going talk about a problem, let’s talk about the problem as it really is.

And while we’re at it, let’s keep in mind that #TransRightsAreHumanRights