Beavers, Transgender Rights, & Fascism

Recently, my husband and I watched a PBS Nature documentary called Leave It to Beavers (highly recommend!). At one point in the doc, it was explained how adult beavers scan their environment for threats and slap the water with their tails to alert their families. I admire the beavers for many reasons, but a big reason relates to something important I shared at the end of my note a few weeks ago: Community care is also practicing awareness about the threats to your community.

Neighbors, the LGBTQ+ community, specifically our transgender friends, are under incredible threat. That threat has a name: fascism.

Beavers to fascism. That escalated quickly. Ha-ha. Nervous laugh.

This is the point where I’m nervous you, my neighbors, will tune out because fascism is:

a) stressful,

b) scary, and

c) something we’re (not so) subtly told we’re not smart enough to discuss.

I hope you won’t tune out, though. I hope you’ll let me connect the dots to community care.

Photo from Wildlife NYC

Slap The Water

Here’s why I’m “slapping the water” about this threat:

“The hallmark of fascist regimes is to go after academics and the press while scapegoating minority groups. Florida is doing all of those under DeSantis by implementing a political takeover of the state university system and removing press protections while targeting LGBTQ people.” -Alejandra Caraballo, Attorney & Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic 

Whew. Let’s break this down, starting with what fascism is . . . because we ARE smart enough to discuss this, but fascism is one of those words that require lots of clarification.

What is fascism?

Fascism, as defined by Wikipedia, “is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.”

It's important to know that scholars have debated vigorously defining fascism since it first appeared in Italy under Mussolini, who first used it to describe his political movement. I have read a lot from many scholars for several years now on fascism (admittedly, water coloring as my hobby would be chiller), and I chose the definition from Wikipedia because I think it does the best job of pulling together many thoughts on fascism to arrive at one clear explanation.

It’s also important to understand the difference between fascism as a creeping ideological movement and a fully formed fascist government. As Jason Stanely, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and author of the 2018 book, How Fascism Works, said in this Vox article, “If you’re only worried about fascist regimes, you’re never going to catch fascist social and political movements. The goal is to catch fascist social and political movements, and fascist ideology, before it becomes a regime.” In other words, if we delay naming something “fascism” just because it doesn’t yet look precisely like Nazi Germany with Hitler in command, it will be too late.

Okay, we have a definition for fascism, even though scholars find it tricky to define it. We also get that just because we aren’t living in Nazi-era Germany doesn’t mean a fascist movement isn’t possible. Now, let’s talk about the hallmarks of fascism.

Hallmarks of Fascism

As you’d expect, it’s difficult to find one simple, short list that easily sums up common characteristics of a fascist movement, but Stanely provides a very helpful list of 10 tactics in his book, How Fascism Works.

The list covers the things Caraballo pointed out in her quote above. For instance, number two on Stanley’s list refers to how fascists use propaganda and helps connect to the press protections Caraballo referenced Florida legislators trying to remove. Number three on Stanley’s list refers to the anti-intellectualism adopted by fascists and clearly backs up Caraballo’s reference to Florida’s political takeover of the state university system. Here is what Stanley specifically writes about tactics two and three on his list:   

• Propaganda. Fascists lie and manipulate language in order to rewrite the shared reality of the population. Fascist propaganda is based around naming “friends” and “enemies.” The political opponent is declared to be a merciless threat to the nation.

• Anti-intellectualism. Fascists attack universities and educational systems because they could potentially teach people to challenge fascist ideas. The fascist leader sets the rules about what is true or false. Expertise, even reality, is a threat to the authority of the leader.

Stanley’s whole list is a highly valuable self-education resource in our community care efforts, but the other tactic I want to focus on for this note, which supports Caraballo’s reference to Florida’s targeting of LGBTQ+ people, is tactic number five:

• Hierarchy. Fascists create a hierarchy of human worth. They promote social divisions and harden social rankings over such things as race, religion, and gender. Once the hierarchies are in place, people are controlled by being kept nervous and frightened about the possibility of losing their place in the hierarchy.

Creating Hierarchy

Here is how the LGBTQ+ community, specifically those who are transgender, is being targeted in Florida, as the fascist elements there seek to create a rigid hierarchy of human worth:

• Fairness In Women’s Sports Act: Enacted into Florida state law on June 2^nd, 2021. This law, part of a vast education bill, requires schools to classify all sports as being for "males, men, or boys,” "females, women, or girls,” or "coed or mixed.” It prevents athletes whose "biological sex" is male from participating in female sports, with “biological sex” defined by the birth certificate issued at birth. This law applies to sports sponsored by public secondary and postsecondary schools. Students can sue a school if they claim they were harmed or lost opportunity due to violations of this law.

• Parental Rights in Education “Don’t Say Gay:” Enacted into Florida state law on March 29^th, 2022. This law bans classroom discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Parents can sue school districts for violations of this law. (This is one of the laws enacted in Florida that led to book banning.)

• Reverse Woke Act: Introduced on February 20^th, 2023. This bill would require employers that cover any amount of gender-affirming care to also cover all the costs of detransition care, regardless of the rate of coverage provided for the original treatment or whether the employee still works for them. It also requires coverage if the treatment takes place in a different state. If the employer refuses to cover the detransition care, the employee or former employee can sue the employer. (Detransitioning is rare and often the result of societal or family pressure. If this bill becomes law, it will effectively end gender-affirming care for all trans people in Florida. The tactic of state governments attempting to use insurance provisions to end transgender healthcare is occurring in other states too, like with bill HB1215 in Tennessee.)

• Public Postsecondary Educational Institutions: Introduced on February 21^st, 2023. This bill gives the Board of Governors of Florida significant power to review, change, and remove academic programs and staff, including removing tenured academic researchers. Additionally, it explicitly calls for removing "any major or minor in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality" or related academic programs. It also prohibits public universities from spending money on, promoting, supporting, or positively engaging with EDI or so-called "CRT" rhetoric.

• Defining “Sex” for FL Early Education Code: Introduced on February 22^nd, 2023. This bill defines sex solely on reproductive capacity without further clarification and requires sexual education classes to teach the definition as fixed. It also requires that any material a parent finds objectionable must be removed. It extends this restriction to public libraries and forces them to prove why particular material should not be banned. (Per the Trans Formations Project, this bill basically says, “books are guilty until proven innocent.”)

• Companion to Defining “Sex” for FL Early Education Code “Don’t Say They:” Introduced on February 28^th, 2023. This bill further expands the blanket ban on classroom discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity from K-3 to PreK-8. It also expands the ban to charter schools and private PreK (less choice for parents?). Additionally, every K-12 school must implement policies that state that a person’s sex is an “immutable biological trait” and that it is incorrect to use a pronoun that does not correspond to someone’s sex without defining how that is determined; this includes employees of the schools.

• Treatments for Sex Reassignment: Introduced on March 3rd, 2023. This bill would allow the state of Florida to take custody of trans children from their parents if if “they are at risk of or are being subjected to the provision of sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.” Parents and doctors would be charged with felonies for following medical practices endorsed by every major medical association in the US.

• Gender-Affirming Care Data: Governor Ron DeSantis also recently requested state universities to provide data to the government about all gender-affirming care they have provided since 2018, including the ages of patients treated, the number of “encounters” where sex reassignment was sought, the names of facilities where patients were referred, and the number of individuals prescribed specific hormone treatments and surgical procedures. Since the trans population of these universities is so small, there is almost no way to ensure data privacy. At least six of 12 universities complied.

(All of these bill summaries, except “Treatments for Sex Reassignment,” used information from the Trans Formations Project and Prism. The “Treatments for Sex Reassignment” bill summary used information from Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, Florida’s first openly LGBTQ Lation lawmaker.)

What’s the point of all this legislation?

That’s exhausting to read, isn’t it? This is just Florida! In the US, there have been 408 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced so far in 2023. That’s a feature of fascism. Wearing us all down in an already challenging social moment.

And think back to tactic number five and establishing a hierarchy of human worth . . . our trans neighbors are already extremely afraid. This cascade of legislation (Stanley refers to this as the “legal phase” of a fascist movement) is also meant to make those of us who are cisgender become fearful that we, too, could be legislated against.

The cascade of legislation also accomplishes something else for fascists. It shifts the Overton window. The Overton window is a political science concept demonstrating the ideas citizens see as acceptable. Just introducing bills that boil down to “some humans in our society have less value,” not to mention the harmful rhetoric and disinformation used in defending them both during legislative debate and in public discourse with constituents, leads to the Overton window moving toward public acceptance of anti-trans laws.   

Photo by Alexander Grey

Reciprocity

There’s one more thing to notice in the progression of the legislation: they are steadily upping the ante. As one church I follow said, “Banning books is always prelude to banning people.” Trans lives deserve protection for no other reason than being human. However, we should understand that if fascist leaders can fully control one group of people, they will seek to extend that control.   

As Martin Niemoller reminds us in his famous poem, who will speak for us at that point? Community care is self-care, but you must invest in reciprocity now, not expect it to cover you later. We must practice awareness of the threats to our communities, call them out by name (fascism), and speak up.

Our trans neighbors need us to slap the water.  

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IMPORTANT: I have been working on this note for over a month now. I actually had to make edits as late as yesterday (Sun, Mar 5th) to keep up with new pieces of legislation being filed in Florida. For instance, it was only from Rep. Smith’s social media and a friend sharing his post, that I knew about the “Treatments for Sex Reassasignment” bill introduced on Fri (Mar 3rd) and could look it up on Florida’s actual government website. Meaning, legislation is coming forward so quickly, sometimes online non-government bill trackers can’t even keep up. Again, a feature of fascism is the attempt to exhuast us. We can only withstand that in community, where it’s possible to take turns resting and fighting for each other’s safety.

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One Small Thing

One Small Thing is our call to a manageable community care step. In the spirit of the “slow, small, simple” approach that I am advocating for as we build this internet neighborhood, with each Monday note, I’ll share a simple action you can take to help (including sometimes helping yourself).

One Small Thing (for 3/6/23): Use the ACLU’s tracker here to learn what anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is being considered in your state. Just scroll down and click on your state on the map. Put a reminder on your calendar for 7 days out and check back on how that legislation advances. Share via social media that you are aware of and tracking the legislation. If you aren’t sure what to say on social, here’s some words you can copy. This is meant to help you practice awareness while showing your trans friends that you are publicly standing firm with them.

Let’s keep each other accountable! After you do the One Small Thing, comment, “Slap!” And let us know, do you find the discussion of, or even the word, fascism, uncomfortable? Do you have a trans rights organization that you support and could share here?