Bill Maher: Trans rights are a "boutique issue"

[Redstreak 6,653]

Bill Maher on real-time Friday in a segment titled “Priority Fail” said he’s making a sacrifice by not advocating for his “pet project”, legalized weed, until after the presidential elections. He then exhorted others to do the same and shelve the battle for he called a ’boutique issue’ ‘transgendered’ lives until after November.

Maher quote: "We all have issues close to the heart so I will take my heart, pet cause, pot legalization, off the table. And you know me I have seeds in my urine. (laugher) But if someone told me pushing for pot might cost Hillary Ohio, untill November 8th I’m just going to shut the **** up about it.”
I know that liberals are feeling good about Hilary’s chances this week but history has taught us Democrats are preety good at blowing elections and Republicans are masters at winning elections with solutions in search of a problem.”

And the problem they are imagining lately are the transgendered or sex fiends pretending to be transgendered room America’s rest rooms in drag looking for a chance to watch people pee”.
OK here’s what we can’t do this election, get tricked into symbolic fights about college campus pet peeves”

Pragmatically speaking, and momentarily playing the devils advocate I have to say Bill Maher made a valid point. The extreme right wing has methodically and devilishly divided the country in the legal battle over human rights and that could very well help tRUMP. But that’s where the argument on behalf of Maher ends.

Maher illustrated his rational by bringing back a 2001 video clip of Barrack Obama saying in his first bid for the presidency that he believed marriage was intended for man and woman. What Maher didn’t mention was that Obama has since evolved on that and many other issues such as transgender rights, but evidently Maher hasn’t.

Was it calculated politically expedient move by Obama to side against marriage equality back then? I don’t think that was his intention, but yes by doing so Obama did squash that as a potential wedge issue.

Maybe the right wing learned that lesson well. The right wing has taken on the offensive writing laws which deny transgender people the right to live our lives quietly and lawfully as we have done for years. But most of us in the LGBT would agree that the increased attacks are occurring out of spite after the right wing lost the marriage equality fight.

And most all of us understand that if the right wing successfully chips the T out of the LGBT the rest of our community will be targeted next.

Mostly it was the condescending misogynistic way that Maher belittled our lives. We didn’t ask to be dehumanized by the right wing, or by you for that matter. We didn’t think the timing was right to be dragged out of our homes and beaten in the streets and we certainly didn’t take a consensus and decide that this year being an election year it was the best time to be killed in record numbers.

Bill Maher, I get that your bread and butter is being a politically incorrect late night talk show host and I get that you are well intention, but in this one instant you have distanced yourself from one of your most supportive, the LGBTQ. #PriorityFail

http://planettransgender.com/bill-maher-whinylittlebitch-transgender-boutique-issues-can-wait/

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

Hmm..

I had seen this video before reading this article and now im not sure how I feel.

Trans people being able to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity (or more radical, make gender neutral bathrooms the norm  ) definitely is a more important issue than Legalizing Marijuana... it's quite privileged to conflate the two as both being "boutique issues"  

It's true, old white bigots might come out in force for these random specific issues that just really go against their worldview, but I don't think the solution of "well, lets just calm down on Trans rights until the elections over" is necessarily the appropriate one...

Like, yeah, I get it, but its still literally so important that the Dems and Hillary reassure people of all communities that they will fight for them. Maybe the old white bigots are more likely to actually go out and vote than the young socially liberal independents (or they will vote for Jill Stein, bless them) but still... Im not gonna say that if Hillary doesn't specifically mention bathroom rights that less Trans people will vote for her, but more might if she actively says it.

I don't know

It makes sense pragmatically, but its still problematic. Do we let the Right garner support by feeding an ignorant public propaganda, lies, and misinformation until the election is over so that we don't upset their base? Or do we push back and hope that we get more people who were unlikely to vote to actually vote by specifically catering to them?  

I realize I'm talking in circles as usual Anyway, Im interested in what other people have to say.

[Princess Die 1,864]

Awh darn. I really thought he was funny a while ago. Welp...pour it up for another white cis male who knows nothing. Traitor POS.

[PartySick 174,509]

39 minutes ago, Princess Die said:

Awh darn. I really thought he was funny a while ago. Welp...pour it up for another white cis male who knows nothing. Traitor POS.

Maher's always been an asshole, it's just that he's usually agreeable

OT: I don't think you can equate people wanting to indulge in recreational drug use with people being validated and recognized for who they are in a society that still largely calls them sick simply because they're a little different  Every one has their issues. As a pot smoking, cishet liberal, he can chase his marijuana issue while members of the LGBT (allies included) continue to fight for every shred of equality that people are denied based on sexuality or gender identity.

It's not a "college campus pet peeve" when a trans kid has their self esteem destroyed by some idiot on TV that calls them sick or when a person is brutalized by some douche calling them a "he-she" after they walk out of the bathroom.

He tried.

[Bebe 17,289]

1 hour ago, ItsTommyBitch said:

Hmm..

I had seen this video before reading this article and now im not sure how I feel.

Trans people being able to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity (or more radical, make gender neutral bathrooms the norm  ) definitely is a more important issue than Legalizing Marijuana... it's quite privileged to conflate the two as both being "boutique issues"  

 

With regards to this though, I also wonder if it's unfair to label marijuana legalisation as a boutique issue. Maybe it is for Bill Maher but we know that, despite research showing white and POC take drugs at similar rates to each other, POC are still far more likely to be arrested and charged for drug related offenses.

The illegal status of marijuana and the war on drugs has lead to serious jail time for non-violent offences and criminal records. The war on drugs has had repercussions in communities of color and has created more challenges for the same opportunities to live with the access to health, wealth and the American dream.

The legalisation of marijuana is not going to solve the overrepresented of POC in the criminal justice system, but maybe it's not the boutique issue it's being sold as either.

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

Just now, Bebe said:

With regards to this though, I also wonder if it's unfair to label marijuana legalisation as a boutique issue. Maybe it is for Bill Maher but we know that, despite research showing white and POC take drugs at similar rates to each other, POC are still far more likely to be arrested and charged for drug related offenses.

The illegal status of marijuana and the war on drugs has lead to serious jail time for non-violent offences and criminal records. The war on drugs has had repercussions in communities of color and has created more challenges for the same opportunities to live with the access to health, wealth and the American dream.

The legalisation of marijuana is not going to solve the overrepresented of POC in the criminal justice system, but maybe it's not the boutique issue it's being sold as either.

Ya know, I thought about that too, but I figured I'd keep it on Maher's level because, well privilege is popular  I don't think the average person supporting legalizing Marijuana is thinking of it on that level, but rather of a "Drugs should be legal in general, Marijuana is especially not as dangerous as other drugs + has medical uses". I find it hard to believe that the average person feels very strongly about issues specifically because they may contribute to hegemony, hell I'll be a pessimist and say that most people vote "selfishly" in the first place.

Now that I think about it, maybe Maher is specifically not trying to focus on the importance of the issues, but rather how often they are discussed; if the Democrats spend too much time on issues that the majority of people (unfortunately) either don't care about or feel very strongly one way about; no matter how important they are, perhaps they run the risk of encouraging the wrong people (conservative men basically) to come out to vote against them. In other words, if the Dems were to keep talking about Marijuana, Trans rights, Gay Marriage, when the average liberal is thinking "Raise the minimum wage; secure women's healthcare!" the conservative thinks "just another reason to not vote Democrat, they don't' even talk about important issues!" The stereotype of the in-college 20 something who wants to raise the federal minimum wage but then spends their money on pot also gets certain people very heated  

And again, its all related to privilege and perspective, as what are boutique issues to some can literally be life or death to others  If we wanted to look at Demographics and popularity of issues, I'm sure we could find some very strong correlations to race, gender, education, age, etc. Basically the majorly important issues to minorities would lose out in the bigger picture on some issues (like Trans bathroom rights)

~~~~

I had honestly never heard the term "boutique issues" before, and my idea of what it means is kind of evolving even as I'm typing this  

Idk, I'm just thinking out loud at this point, one of these days I'll learn to think outside of circles  

Anyway, I'm moving into an apartment in 9 hours, so I'm gonna sleep  

[Luiz 4,253]

legalizing marijuana: stops the arrest and imprisonment of mainly POC for non violent offenses. they go in pot heads and come out of criminal college(prison) with criminal records making it harder to find a job. i wonder what they turn to in order to pa their bills? crime

 

lowers drunk driving like it did in colorado

tax revenue for the state that can be used towards the betterment of the public(funding for schools and whatnot)

lessen the power of the drug cartels who chop people's heads off in southern cali and texas and basically have a strangle hold on south american governments leading to so much corruption. 

 

decreasing the stigma of marijuana making it an acceptable alternative to pain killers and the like that get people addicted every day and kills people in the thousands. 

viable treatment for SOME with depression and anxiety issues such as myself and also treatment for cancer patients. the usage and prescription of medical marijuana becomes more accepted with legalization.

 

sorry but i do not see legalizing marijuana is a boutique issue but thats just because of where i come from.

 

 

trans rights on the other hand idk. they're such a low percentage of the population and if you make a big thing about it now it could lead to you losing one of the biggest allies to the movement you have, the president of the united states. shut up about it until november and be allowed to make big noise about it for the next 4 years. or make a big thing about it now and have a president who will not address the issue for the next 4 years. i'd say keep it going in coastal states but dont mention it in middle america

[uo111 5,285]

People get offended even when their best interest are being taken to heart.

Okay? I'm not mad that Obama said marriage is between a man and a woman because I know he didn't mean it, he just needed to fool the people who believed he did. I get it, it makes you sad that people can't always be honest but you need to get over it unless you want someone who really means it when they say they don't care about transgender rights, or actively want to hurt transgender people.