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[–] 4 points 5 days ago (1 child)

I tend to bring up Eugene Debs as a counterpoint to the poem

...years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

That, to me, sums up the idea beautifully, and I am very confident that Debs would have been fully behind trans rights, even if I'm not confident he would have necessarily been personally accepting of trans people in his own life. I'm not saying he wouldn't have been, just that I lack confidence in saying that he would.

And it really does encapsulate the fact that what we allow to happen to any of our fellow human beings is an insult, a harm, to all of us. Even if I didn't feel love for and a profound gratitude that trans people exist, I would still be fully behind trans rights on a practical level. Our trans brothers, sisters, and siblings are too damn vulnerable, and that's what we're supposed to do, help and protect the vulnerable; that's the obligation of the majority to the minority.

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