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Welcome to the Danger Zone: Trans Equality in Southeastern U.S.

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By Baker A. Rogers originally published on Ms. Magazine on March 13, 2020 - https://msmagazine.com/2020/03/13/welcome-to-the-danger-zone-trans-equality-in-southeastern-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR3X5GQAVGqbpnK7oD__UIUnNrdDnaOcdXj8kGdAle4sf1yT8d3yyVNbepw Welcome to the Danger Zone: Trans Equality in Southeastern U.S. 3/13/2020  by  BAKER ROGERS Although LGBTQ+ people have experienced increased acceptance and visibility over the past decade, the Southern U.S. continues to lag behind the rest of the country in terms of supporting LGBTQ+ people. Nevertheless, over a third of all queer people in the U.S. live in the Southeast.  ( Nathan Rupert  / Creative Commons) Overall, the South is a unique geographic location—both in reality and in the national imagination. People continue to believe the region is uniformly closed-minded and conservative—religiously, politically and socially.  Many have written the South off as backwards and, therefore, given up hope for progressive change in this region of the co
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The 4chan “#SuperStraight” Troll Campaign

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On March 6th, 2021, the hashtag #superstraight was one of the top trending topics on Twitter in the U.S. and Canada. There was a #SuperStraight Discord server bursting with activity. #SuperStraight TikToks were suddenly appearing.  What is "SuperStraight," you might ask? Supposedly, #superstraight people are a newly-recognized sexual orientation group who are only attracted to cis men or cis women. The claim is that anyone who defends LGBT rights must recognize, respect, and fight for the rights of SuperStraights.  Soon, the #SuperStraight posts were joined by posts from people claiming to ally with, or have identities as, #supergay, #superlesbian, or #superbi, being also only attracted to cis people. But let's be clear. The #SuperStraight campaign is really is a trolling attack hatched in the cesspit of the /pol board on 4chan. Here you can see it being discussed there on March 5th (warning: slurs galore): Let's examine this post. At the top, you can see the trolling
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The Military’s Transgender Ban: Bigotry Masquerading as Policy

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Since June of 2016 when then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that transgender persons would be welcome to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces, at least 1,500 service members have come out as transgender. On an early July morning in 2017, aiming to throw his base a bone, President Donald Trump tweeted that transgender individuals would not be permitted to serve, in any capacity, in the U.S. military. As a result, on April 12th, 2019, the Trump Administration’s prohibition on the military service of transgender people went into effect, reversing a move by the U.S. military toward inclusion. The announcement that trans people would be able to serve followed as a logical extension of a 2011 event that increased military inclusion: the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” At one point, the concern that formed the center of arguments against the open service of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals was that their presence would negatively impact unit cohesion. This claim wa
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