For a simple example: my mother is Catholic and until Trump came along, a lifelong single-issue Republican voter who always said she would be a Democrat if it weren’t for abortion. She attends church in an extremely progressive, famously LGBTQ-friendly town.

There’s a transwoman who attends her church (let’s call her Rita). This lady is probably in her mid-50s to mid-60s and has been a fixture at the church for at least 5 years. My mom has been in choir and bible study groups with her for years now. She still just can’t see Rita as a woman. Treats her politely but behind her back refuses to call her “she” and says she’s a “man in a dress”.

She’s really offended that Rita uses the ladies’ room. I’ve asked her why and she can’t articulate it, she just feels like it’s an invasion of her privacy, because men don’t belong in the ladies’ room. And when I point out that Rita isn’t a man, she just rolls her eyes. I’ve asked her if she’s worried that Rita is in there for predatory purposes and she admits that she doesn’t think Rita intends any harm. I’ve asked her how she’d feel if she were forced to use the men’s room and she says “but that’s different!”

My mom prides herself in being a moral person, and still can’t manage to get past her bigotry to see Rita as a woman. There are just too many mental blockades against it. But since she thinks she’s so highly moral, she thinks she must be correct in this situation. It excuses her from finding empathy and bettering her attitude toward trans folks.

My longwinded point is that when people who consider themselves highly moral are bigoted, there’s almost zero chance of getting through to them. And I think a lot of the people who are bigoted against trans folks feel that morality is on their side and being trans is morally deviant, so they think they’re justified in their prejudice.

Republicans

I didn’t change my name. My perspective is that my identity doesn’t change just because I got married. My name has been mine since birth and it’ll remain that way.

Yup my doggo tracks in so much dirt, but I wipe her paws when she comes in so it doesn’t end up in the rest of the house.

I use Nature’s Miracle and it definitely does work IMO.

Aw I actually love Harry. He’s a nice balance against the egotists that make up most of the crew. Bright, even-keeled, reliable, funny, and willing to humor people like Tom Paris who is pretty much an unrestrained toddler. Dude should’ve been at least a full lieutenant by the time Voyager got home.

#JusticeForHarry

Holy shit I would’ve loved to see X!

It’s like orange cats sharing the one brain cell, but NOT CUTE.

Whatever mizu did, do the opposite.

I meant regarding his cooking - he did so much work and they just complained about how bad it was.

Poor Neelix tried so hard and all he got was guff from the Voyager crew.

This is what I always did before covid but now I don’t anymore.

Not the chancla!

Unsurprising - she lives in Doylestown according to the article.

I do actually like the tap-to-collapse feature. But instead of long-pressing on comments to get the voting bar, I’d rather right or left swipe them, similar to how BaconReader worked. The long press feels inefficient.

Agreed, but terrible bedside manner isn’t indicative of autism. And the Doctor seems to be garden-variety crotchety, which makes sense given that he’s modeled on Lewis Zimmerman. I’d need other criteria to convince me he’s supposed to be autistic.

I really don’t think the EMH counts.

How do they taste anything? Smoking dulls your tastebuds.

But they’re only hungry, not hungry hungry. Maybe just a bit peckish.

Thank you for sharing this, what a sobering story.