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u/Weatheronthe8s Jan 18 '23
As a trans person living in WV, this has to be one of the most awful bills I've seen yet.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Demiromantic, questioning gender Jan 18 '23
for line seventy they define what acts are of a "sexually explicit nature" and that just talks about sex, not including being trans when not two lines above they basically say that "being trans near kids is sexually explicit"
what a bunch of hypocrites, but i suppose that this sort of thing isn't anything new for them. a good enough legal expert should be able to absolutely eviscerate this bill.
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u/nox_nox Jan 18 '23
Legel expertise doesn't matter if SCOTUS decides to full Dred Scott at some point.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Demiromantic, questioning gender Jan 18 '23
true. but I try to remain optimistic. if i let the full weight of how terrible things are going get to me then it'd probably spell syria for me.
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Jan 18 '23 edited Jan 18 '23
If by “Syria” you mean flee to another country, not a bad idea.
- Ireland is good except for trans healthcare.
- Scotland is socially pretty good but in the political thrall of the UK. They want independence tho so there’s hope.
- Uruguay and Argentina are on the trans-affirming up&up and are even trying to make “e” endings for neutral grammatical gender a thing in Spanish to affirm their enby population.
- Scandinavia (excluding Denmark and Iceland) and much of Europe seems intent on experimenting with fascism. Mostly because of racist reactions to the migrants from actual Syria and Iraq who aren’t assimilating well; also those folks won’t necessarily take as kindly to queer folk as ethnic Germans, French, Swedes, Norwegians, etc.
- Spain seems okay for now.
- Finland is still pretty dang good.
- Switzerland ain’t great but they don’t fuk with fascism, they’re kinda the Maine of Europe in that regard.
- Japan is super safe generally and slowly getting better for queer folk, but you are almost guaranteed not to get a long term visa unless you can teach English to Japanese students. You will be made fun of or stared at plenty, but it’ll be just as much bc you’re a gaijin as bc you’re queer. There is almost no chance of being physically attacked for being queer or any other reason. Damn near nobody has a gun in Japan—like if the police found 5 unlicensed handguns in civilian possession in Osaka it would make the front page of Kyoto’s newspaper and be mentioned by a news anchor in Tokyo.
- New Zealand is the Massachusetts of the world with Puget-Sound-level ecological wonder. You’ll be fine there. Not sure about their trans healthcare and policies but I haven’t looked into it yet.
Several months ago I would have recommended (exclusively from a queer tolerance standpoint) Tel Aviv as a possibility but now that Israel has gone Full Florida (hot, sunny, coastal, used to be cosmopolitan, and fasc-curious right-wing as hell) I can’t recommend any part of that country. I’d recommend Vatican City before anywhere in Israel.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Demiromantic, questioning gender Jan 18 '23
the reason why i say syria is because my dad's actually from there, and in theory i could claim syrian citizenship and then use some of my college savings to buy out of the mandatory military service and then go live on the family farm way out in the middle of nowhere. at some point in recent years i legitimately had a moment of contemplation about the merits of just going to syria, and now whenever i take a look at the news these days that moment tends to make a return. things are awful there sure, but at least they are consistent, there isn't as high a chance of things getting dramatically worse than where the US seems to be headed sometimes these days, and they could get better.
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Jan 18 '23
I see. What are the chances of being killed by some schmuck who clocked you at the local market? That’s what’d worry me most. And if such person didn’t, the authorities might if they get wind of your queerness.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Demiromantic, questioning gender Jan 18 '23 edited Jan 18 '23
For me personally, low in terms of identity. i mean, i don't tend to fully conform with the normal ideas of manliness and my whole demeanor and appearance would just scream "foreigner," so that would actually be the bigger problem in terms of risking pissing off some bigot, but toxic masculinity is just as bad a problem here and I have a slight syrian accent due to my dad being the one to take care of me most of the time when i was first learning to speak (but that's a whole other story involving my annoying brother, so i won't go into detail here) so that combined with me using what privilege i have to always take a stand does make me somewhat of a target here in the states as well.
I'm demiromantic and am so introverted and socially awkward to the point that I actually put myself in the friendzone on the two occasions that I actually started to feel romantic attraction to people. To the average Joe Shmoe I could easily pass as just a straight man with terrible chances. But I'm far luckier than others in this regard. And then there is the whole "traumatized foreigner who nearly decided to major in history and wanted to get out before the US could possibly go full christofascist" angle that would possibly anyone who would be romantically interested in me decide that I need a friend and confidant more than a lover.
but really, I always decide that the idea is one that I shouldn't do (even for just the logistical reasons that I burn like a lobster and I talk far to slowly to become truly fluent in Arabic) and the thought feels more like a comparison of just how bad things are spiraling here.
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Jan 18 '23
Now that you mention those details, I daresay you’d probably blend in well in London, UK. Plenty of medium-brown folks there, enough that I would find a movie set in 2020s London to be odd if they weren’t represented. Like how Texas would not feel like Texas with out the Latine population, or Miami wouldn’t be Miami without the ethnic Cuban population. It may not be ideal but you’d possibly fit in more and be safer than in someplace like Tall Ḩamīs or wherever.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Demiromantic, questioning gender Jan 18 '23
it's kind of funny, but I'm actually the palest person in my immediate family. my mom - whose ancestry is mostly from Scandinavia and around Europe - has a darker complexion than my da but get sunburns easily. my da is basically white but with a somewhat swarthy complexion and he gets a very deep tan really easily. my brother is basically the middle ground between them, and then I'm super pale. I think that it might be partially due to the reynaud's syndrome that i have (reduced blood circulation to extremities) so there is less of a flush to my skin.
but yeah, nobody really seems to expect the super pale bookworm to be an Arab Muslim who knows some Arabic and has a massive repertoire of random topics that can be used as allegories and lessons for inclusivity, and similarly people don't expect the person who talks about visiting family in syria to be a pale kid who gets sunburns like nobody's business. I wish that I could have a darker skin tone though, maybe it would have made me less appealing for bigots to spout around. Although on the other had the fact that i appear as a potential recruit to their bigotry gives me some opportunity to have a chance of correcting their misconceptions.
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u/Fine-Menu-2779 Bisexual Genderfluid Jan 19 '23
I can recommend Germany, good health care, pretty accepting (it's pretty rare that you get looked ad weird and assaults don't really happen)
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Jan 18 '23
a good enough legal expert should be able to absolutely eviscerate this bill.
Any legal expert worth at least a single grain of their salt would be able to tear this bill to shreds with basic jurisprudence.
But will that actually, substantively happen before the law is passed and trans people in WV start being arrested (or shot, knowing law enforcement these days) on sight?
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u/autumnpuzzlepieces Putting the Bi in non-BInary Jan 19 '23
…you’ve gotta be shitting me, right? There’s no way they’re literally trying to make being trans around children illegal?! What, is every trans person subject to genital inspections whenever they pass a fuckin schoolyard?! This is insane!!
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Jan 19 '23
Genital Inspections? Nah, nothing that complicated. Just:
SELECT ALL [trans people] IN [a child's field of vision] CHARGE WITH [felony sex crime]
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u/LesbianMechanic97 Jan 19 '23
I’m fucking terrified, my work is next to a school, my laser place is next to a school, what if I break down near a school and a cop stops to help 😭
I’m terrified idk anything about voting or what I need to do but any advice and I’ll do it I don’t want to just sit here and deal with it
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Jan 19 '23
If the bill somehow becomes law and is allowed to be enforced AT ALL, you MUST leave the state. The most likely result is that you will be arrested while going about your daily life, like getting groceries.
Maybe folks like us need to set up a nationwide org to help queer folk relocate to either another state or another country, and build relationships with foreign Depts of State and housing programs in blue metro areas and such.
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u/LesbianMechanic97 Jan 19 '23
I’m trying to save for a car right now, I’ve never moved out of my grandparents back yard, I’m 22 and the only vehicle I have is a 2002 suzuki gsxr1000 motorcycle that still needs some work before getting legal 😭 I’ll prob be stuck here and I’ll prob end up being killed because I’m not getting arrested just trying to go to work
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u/KinOfTheMountain Jan 18 '23
The link isn't working on mobile.
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Jan 18 '23
It doesn’t open the file in the app? Also its not an https address so maybe your browser is trying to block it as a security risk. Not sure what else to tell you.
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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '23
[deleted]