This is a depressing post. Please don't read on if that's going to make you feel bad.

I'm spiraling a bit today because that shitty, shitty opinion piece by Pamela Paul in the New York Times from like two days ago was somehow convincing to my mother. She's your standard lib, except she's pretty trans-positive, given that my sister and I are both trans and have worked hard in the 4 or so years since we came out to her to get her to understand trans issues. She's read Whipping Girl, she's read Beyond Pink and Blue, I've even gone over various articles she's found in the past and pointed out the transphobia in them and she seemed to see it once I pointed it out.

And yet. Yesterday she tells me that Pamela Paul's recent opinion piece might have some good stuff in it and since I hadn't read it yet, I assumed it must be better than Paul's usual absolute garbage. So I read it today, in order to give her a critique and point out the transphobia she'd missed, assuming I was in for a relatively bad time, but maybe not so terrible since Mom thought there was something worthwhile.

It's just as awful as you'd think. It's standard transphobic tripe. I feel really hopeless, because if my mother, who is relatively educated about trans issues, doesn't see through this shit, what hope can I have for any other lib? Apparently as long as you don't literally say "kill trans people", libs will read the rankest of transphobia and be like, huh, I guess that makes sense.