ON TRANSGENDER RIGHTS; OR AS SATANISTS CALL THEM, “RIGHTS”

Transgender men and women can now serve openly in the US military. (Should they for some reason want to.) To rational people, this is unremarkable news. It’s only strange that a contrary policy ever existed.

But those Americans hanging onto lucidity by only a thread decided it’s time to freak out. 

“Rapture Forums” declared “SATAN HAS WON…!!!” (Three exclamation marks are apparently the minimum when Satan wins.)

The comments on the page include references to the apocalypse and a few people renouncing their American citizenship. Which is funny as hell, of course.

But kooks flip out over something like this at least once a week.  Generally, it’s not worth getting distracted over.

 

One thing caught my eye, though. A few religious nuts have taken to saying “Satan is transgender.” Loons will call almost anybody who scares them the devil, of course. But this time they have what they think is compelling artistic evidence.

A friar on a Catholic blog noticed last year that Baphomet has both male and female anatomy. This floored him. “The Devil is transgender, or androgynous,” according to Friar Longenecker.

You’ve doubtless noticed the problem here. Baphomet is both male and female, yes. But that’s not what “transgender” means. That’s not even what “androgynous” means.

 

“Think long and hard about telling me which bathroom to use.”

I won’t say that Baphomet isn’t a powerful symbol for non-binary gender identities. Indeed, I hope a lot of people find the image affirming for that very reason.

But the friar, and the amusing lunatics who cite him, appear unfamiliar with the issues they’re upset about. They just stamp the word “transgender” on whatever they don’t recognize. Which is very like how they use the word “Satan.”

The kicker is, transgender rights really are Satanic. In that transgender rights are a humanistic cause promoting personal agency and universal dignity. And riling up some ancient prejudices.

So, in this case, the loons are technically correct. They’re just not right. Which is maybe the best they can hope for…

 

“We never realized how easy it is to horrify these people. We’ve been trying way too hard.”