 Hi everyone, Raif DeRozzi here. I am here with Peppermint. Welcome. So, basically to cut right to it, we came across this film recently. It's a documentary released in the last month called What is a Woman by Matt Walsh? Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh. What is a woman? Can you tell me that? If one person can tell me what a woman is. You are not here for women. We ask you to leave. What is that? There is a bootleg version on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to check it out so that you know what we are talking about. I'll put a link in the comment box below. And don't buy it, whatever you do. Yeah, don't support it, monetarily. Yeah. And it just really, it really got us struck a chord. Yeah. I'm glad you sent it to me. It was, you know, I was actually talking to a very good friend today who's also in the public eye. She's trans. You know her. Okay. And we were just talking about how exhausting this is. As a queer person, we, we oftentimes, especially over 2020, I think people in general understood the idea of everyday activism of having to have these tough conversations and also being exhausted by it. Right. And so I think a lot of people kind of got that. People who probably previously weren't used to having these kind of tough conversations and really taking on this battle, these types of battles. Maybe in 2016, a lot of people had these types of political conversations with their families. I know that first Thanksgiving after, you know, who won was probably really awkward Thanksgiving for a lot of people. But anyway, I was having this conversation with her and a lot of the trans women that I know who are in the public eye, whether they're actors or artists or whatever they happen to do, they also are known as an activist first. And it's not by choice. It's because there's a lot of work to be done and we're willing to do the work of educating people around us. But it is exhausting and not to be so open and transparent very much personal, very personal life. But one of that's publicly. But the other thing that you have to do sometimes is you have to endure stuff like this movie so that you can see what's out there, see what they're saying, understand what's being said and how it's being received and how it's being used against you. And so I put myself through that, you know, a lot. A lot of these folks, Matt Walsh, the film creator, Mr. I think Jonathan Peterson, Scott Peterson, and Ben Shapiro, all are contributors to The Daily Wire, which is the conservative, right-wing, anti-trans propaganda machine, in my opinion. Anyway, we have to watch stuff like this all the time. But this movie being almost two hours long, a feature-length movie, was really, it really bugged me because it was so insidious, seemingly innocuous, but very poisonous and very insidious. Really successful, I think, unfortunately, successfully crossing the line of being able to plant the seed, a very strong seed of doubt about the truth of trans women, our authenticity, painting trans women as perpetrators, painting trans women as victimizers of women and girls, mostly girls. And I know a lot of people say, just to jump in, that that's just the truth. These are the chromosomes, and we think it's science, and I don't think you're a woman, and that's just my opinion. Unfortunately, what we're talking about is not people's opinions, whether you have the right to have an opinion about me. It really is whether or not the public discourse, what people say, what the public says, plus what media says, and the ideas that circulate from them, do those have an effect on trans people by way of the legislation, the rules that are created around about us? There's a lot of talk about trans people allowed here. Can they join this? Can they do sports? Should they have health care? Should they be able to do these? And these are other people, not trans people, having these conversations and making these decisions. Well, and it's funny you say other people because that's one of the imperatives for why I wanted us to talk about it, is because this video was shown to me by my barber, Eugene Hi Eugene. Eugene? Oh, no! Thanks for sharing it, bringing it to my attention, because I know it's going around in your circle. And so it's interesting that this movie is on social media. It's being passed around in a circle that is not filled with trans people. It's outside of that sphere. And it's seen as like an argument in favor of the movie. And then looking at Rotten Tomatoes, I noticed that it was all audience reviews. There's no critic reviews yet. And then I think it's like 95%. There won't be critic reviews. I mean, there could be, it is Rotten Tomatoes, but I don't think that any, if we're talking, I mean, this is separate. I think critics and journalists, what we've established over the past few years is a certain code of conduct with how to treat trans people. And a lot of people now know the definition of words like transphobic and things like that, because they've heard and seen that's basically the media. And so in 2012, Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera were sitting down for an interview with Katie Couric, who's a really accomplished journalist. And Katie was asking some really invasive questions about, you know, what surgeries have you had and how much all these things. And back then it was acceptable to treat trans people like that to find out what's between you, do you have a penis or vagina? What's going on in your underwear? Which is, that interview was featured in the Netflix special documentary Disclosure, which you all should watch. It's really good. Yeah. Anyway, and so we have done a lot of work in the community, transgender individuals and the community in general, to really try to establish that we want to be treated with respect. We don't want to be asked about our genitalia by someone who doesn't even know our name, you know. And and so I don't think that journalists, I hope I just hope that journalists seeing a movie like this and seeing the public discourse won't be like, maybe we should start asking them about their genitalia again, and treating them and examining them. And the thing for me is this documentary is packed full of so many different arguments and different fallacies and different rabbit holes that you can go down. And it just lightly touches on each one and goes, pal, I want you with that argument, pal, here's another argument, pal, here's another one. Like, as an average viewer watching this video, you don't have the time to sit down and go, let me analyze and research all these claims that he's making to make sure that it actually follows certain that makes sense. And so you just, you see, okay, this guy brought to the table 30 reasonable arguments, apparently based on what he's presenting in the film. So there must be some truth to what he's saying. And if you are a person who is supportive of the trans community, and you watch that film, you go, well, how do I rebut that to someone who brings that to my attention? How do I, what do I say? You can't, there's no one quick answer. And that was Eugene's point was like, you have to the person who brought this to me. Well, I need to definite something that I can say. I think we have to work backwards on this. For those of you who are trans allies and want to have something to say, this is the question that we all have. Caswell did a video recently. And he also had the same concern. He was like, I've got frustrated. I didn't know what to say. And I think that's exactly how we're feeling. Yeah. And our lives are in some situations are lively, our lives are on the line with these things. And if there is no easy argument for that, right away, because we are asking what what we are doing as human beings is dealing with certain rules and ideas that have been in place for a long time and are certainly very solid and well established. But everything is not black and white. If we can, if we can agree that everything is not just a yes or no, everything is not black or white, life is not just a yes or no. You know, it's really difficult when somebody says, when somebody comes up to you, I've seen journalism like this, but I'm smiling because you took the words right. Well, there's a parallel between the kind of answers that they want. And how they view the world, they want a black and white answer. And they view the world as black and white, right or wrong, heaven or hell. Sorry. Yeah, no, that's it. That's it's very binary. If someone comes up to you and says, you know, do you love your wife? Yes or no? That's an easy answer. But if they're like, you know, I don't know. Don't you sometimes want to, it's really convoluted, but the everything is not a black, white answer, especially when it comes to gender and sexuality. These things are not quite so black and white. Which is why rainbow represents the LGBTQ plus community. And you can even say even with a color, where does red start and end? And where does orange start and end? Is there a definite spot? That's a really good that's a good way to look at it because it's it's not so definite. You can look at something and say that's orange or that's red. But when you see them next to each other, you realize it's a little bit different. And you can look at a blue and white dress. Oh, no, not that dress. I think a lot of people, everyday people can agree that humans, there's millions of humans, billions of humans. And each one of us have different feelings about different things at varying times. And if we can start there, then we can understand how the views of sexuality, everything that humans deal with, taste, love, life, music, performance, this literature, art, sexuality, sex, gender, thoughts of gender, thoughts on the rights that people should have are varied, right? And, you know, I think that's the best place to start because it can it can reframe the conversation. There's a couple of things that I want to explain, but I'll let you take us through. There's some key things that are really important. I want to start here because you mentioned people's varying perspectives, perspectives, opinions, the truth, what is the truth. And that is a common theme throughout this film is what is fact, what is the truth and and Walsh makes this argument that there is a singular truth. Truth is objective. There's no subjectivity to truth. And so how does that play into this conversation? And what are your feelings about the truth? I understand the concept of the truth is an important thing that thematically we all want to uphold. It is really ironic that certain people who would ascribe to some of the things that are being said in this film, four years ago, we're also following a president who who's who's cheap. Press spokesperson was saying there are alternative facts and alternative truths. But I know that in general what we want as an ideal is to go to the truth and that the truth should be the same for all was the same thing for all of us. That would make it easier. That would make it very easy. But when you say your when you project your statement onto someone else and say, is it true or not that I'm right about this? Then that makes it really that boxes someone into into a corner makes it really difficult. There are some things that are not black and white answers. Sexuality is not so black and white. This is what we know as the truth. This is what we if we're going by the truth, then this is what we know. All men men have this is the truth that has been that we that this film would like you to believe is that all men and only men have penises. All women and only women have vaginas and breasts and can reproduce and can give birth. All men and pregnant women like only men can impregnate women and all men have the ability to pregnant women and all women are childbearers. That's like the broader version of that. The women's physiological job is to be a child bearer that the that men of reality. Yes. And that men are supposed to be the the providers and women are supposed to be the caretakers. That's that's a story that we've all heard that men work women stay home. That's a story that we've all heard we've all heard this story that met that men and women are that men and women were naturally intended because they can reproduce to be together and anything outside of that is against God or whatever you nature wherever you describe it. Also the idea of what is a woman to a lot of people starts with the physiological. You have vagina and breasts and you are curvy and you're pretty and you smell like flowers and all of these different things that you like the color pink and you you want to be a wife and you must be great at baking. I know a lot of sister and women in my life who don't fit into those boxes who don't like to bake who don't like the color pink who don't want to have kids who aren't heterosexual. So we know there that the this truth that has been put on human beings this set of beliefs that's been put on human beings. There are some people who step outside of that. I know there's a lot of people that say boys like to play with trucks and they're rambunctious by nature and girls will docile by nature and they're weaker and they don't like to play with trucks and they all like to bake. Which is tied to their physiological hormones. Exactly. I know that's what that's what we've been told but that alone isn't necessarily true because anybody who's watching this anybody who's been alive for many years can probably think of a man or woman who doesn't fit into typical standards behavioral all these different types of things even physiological. There's lots of men who aren't built a certain way different heights different body types different round thin and women as well. And so I think that's really the best place to stay grounded that we know that these things that we're calling the truth force us to view life in a black and white way in this in the context of this movie. And that is the not a good place to go. That's the first thing that's how I feel about the hit what he's calling the truth. That is I feel like that is more of the objective reality observable reality is the physiological biological characteristics of a classic male female. One of the things to to understand about sex and gender that a lot of people don't understand is we have the way a person looks. Let's just say blonde historically in this country if it's a female blonde she must be attractive. That's the standard in this country. One of the standards of beauty. Another piece that that I think a lot of people have heard of that plays into attraction and sexuality and all these things is pheromones. Pheromones are one of those things that can get people to be attracted to each other. We've all heard of them. I don't know how they work but it's like sending your your sensing something that is an entirely different set of rules that talk about attraction having less nothing to do with how someone looks right. And so we can understand that gender and sexuality can operate on a level different than just genitalia. You can be attracted to someone and not having not have seen them naked. So it's possible for you to not know what genitalia that person has. I know that's a mind blow for a lot of people but that's that is something to consider. And so there are secondary sex characteristics that come into play when we're talking about the anatomy someone's height the sound of someone's voice someone's body shape you know the bone structure in someone's face which is not necessarily something that you can just see right away. You know we've all seen those that the filter on the app that does your tests your symmetry of your face. And we all see that our faces are not symmetrical. Little tiny we might look at the mirror and think our face looks symmetrical but looking at the app we see that is it. And so these little tiny things are can be the difference in sending cues about gender and sexuality and gender and sex to someone. And so it's not just is that a woman yes or no. Does she cook does she clean. There are tiny nuances and tiny difference pheromones bone structure how far apart somebody's eyes are though all of these different things play into attraction and and how we connect with other people. And I believe that as many different ingredients as it does to take up a person and an individual their needs their wants their desires and their little tiny characteristics that are very minute all those ingredients as those are the number of things it takes to total a woman. When you if there's a hundred ingredients then there's a hundred different things to consider about what makes a woman. It's not just is she a vagina with legs. So that is someone from the outside from the third person perspective. Viewing a woman. Now how about a person one self and their self perception of gender. I think because that's what we're really getting out of the trans community is the self perception is different from the physiological. Yeah. Yeah. And put on. I think that we can all I'm trying to speak to the people in the back right now. Everybody can understand pressure. Being under pressure. There is a pressure that comes from your family to perform well in school. That's the type of pressure. We've been other people in the back. People watching this video who don't necessarily know feel like they know somebody who's transgender. Over 80 percent of Americans according to a Pew poll say that they don't personally know someone. So there's a lot of back. There's a lot of back. Yes. And so to a lot of people who don't understand this here's a one way of understanding it. Pressure. Pressure that you have on yourself. Pressure that you feel that society has on you. If you come from a family who's been award winning math mathematicians then they're going to be looking at you to do math in school. And if you're not good at math you might still try your hardest and almost like implode and become really emotional and depressed and worse if you're not good at math. I'm not trying to conflate or equate gender and math. But I'm just saying. Society pressure. Societal pressures. Yeah. Those things are felt by humans. Even before your family says we expect you to get a math degree. That child let's say they're a child knows that their family is good at math before they say we want you to go to a math college. That they value. They value math. And so societal pressures are things that even young children can sense. Oh yeah. The two rules after yes and no. And I'm not a behavioral scientist. But I believe that from that some of the things that we learn very early as as humans as children as babies as kids. The first things we learn besides maybe addressing your parents. If you if you grew up with your parents or whoever your guardian is. Is yes and no. Those are the first two things we learn. And the next thing we learn is girl and boy. Very early. And we very quickly start understanding what's good what girls do what boys do. What and when I say what they do what they're supposed to do. What they're supposed to be what you should be gravitating towards. What's rewarded and what's not. And so the expectation of what your sexuality is going to be. From a very early age. Is already set in front of you. Young boys know that the world expects them to partner with a girl. What later in life. They understand that. Have them lot of them boys ended up being gay. But they learned that lesson. That they were supposed to be with a girl. Very early on. And so. And if they and then what's what's more important. Is they also learned what would happen if they didn't go with the girl. That they would be chastised. That they would be teased. That would be outcast. That they're that they would be punished in some way. Not rewarded. For saying that they like another little boy. Gender. Is similar to that the pressure of gender is similar to that's not the exact same thing. But I'm thinking that that's something that everybody can understand. And can relate to. When at the moment. And if there's anybody out there who. Is. I would say that most of the people who who have the least understanding of this are probably identified outside of the lgbtq community that heterosexual and you can relate in the sense of growing up in a family that idolizes sports. You're an intellectual and you like reading books and that kind of stuff and you never really connected with that you felt that pressure and that wanting to be accepted. And I also think there's the sense of shame that that goes that can be attached to that if you're not performing within what the society wants you to do now that's a family like let's say your family is good at sports and that's what so you know when you go to Thanksgiving or when you go to dinner with the family. That that pressure is going to be more on and so you may feel more relaxed when you're not at the family function. Imagine if the entire world was good at sports except for you. And then everywhere you went school work out on the street at the store definitely with your family you felt these pressures and so that is that can that can affect you it can affect how you feel it can affect how open you are about talking about your love of art not sports or love of science not math whatever it can affect how free you feel in those situations and so the pressure that transgender people feel is a lot like that and for many of us that pressure is welling up and and what more developed because it's coming from the outside it's even before we have a good understanding of what it means to be transgender of what we've exactly settled on with our feelings because we're considering what will my mom say what will my parents say what will society say how will I be treated and so that's that's I think that idea is is more is important for people to understand and one other thing I think that people should understand is everyone seems to have stake in this conversation if you're a stranger on the street and you see a little boy reaching for a doll there's a good chance that you or some stranger would correct that little boy and say no no no that's for girls even if you don't know that child maybe in today's society you might be careful because somebody could be upset and are snacky for talking to their kid but we all feel ownership over gender and over biological sex and the behave the the gendered behaviors of boys and girls we all feel ownership over that and so a lot of people police gender society police's gender you don't have to tell you don't have to call your principal and say listen if my son reaches for a pink blanket tell him not to do it you don't have to tell anybody do that they're going to do it they're going to correct a little boy he's reaching for some girls thing or going to paint his nails yeah any of that you know boys don't do that they don't call the parents and ask them should I should I tell your son no they don't automatic it's automatic that is policing gender because we all know from a very early age we all learned what boys are supposed to do and what girls are supposed to do and so then we all have it ingrained in us so when we see anybody outside of the box it's including gay folks which I think now these days in 20 in the 20 in the aughts people are you know more open and understanding that they're going to see someone who's gay but 10 20 30 years ago that made people really uncomfortable and so everybody knew that being gay was wrong yeah right and people you would get fired for it and you would get or worse beaten up killed whatever and so everyone has those people who are gay bashers and see a gay couple it's not because they talked to the parents of those people and said if you see my son in the street with another guy get him that's not what it is these are people taking their own license to correct to tease to hurt someone that they think is going outside of the box it's a threat it's a threat to the what people view as what makes our society stable so my experience with a lot of social issues is that most people generally are well-intentioned and we'll say you know live your life do what you want with your life and let me do what I want with mine and that's fine and I don't I don't really care about what you're doing and what I'm doing however when it gets to the subject of children then suddenly everyone feels invested in what's going on I think that's a natural thing we all want to take care of kids we don't want to see kids in danger and we are inclined to act for many different reasons on many different levels when we when we think that children are in danger um and so I can appreciate that but one of the things that I think that I can appreciate it and and folks who are invested in negatively affecting the trans community also know it these are the same people again over and over again that have tried all these different things throughout time and what they did unsuccessfully in the 2016 election around that time was to introduce all these anti-trans legislation by way of bathroom bills there were like they were all over the place you couldn't even talk about it and and I think they realize that it didn't work because too many people were like yeah what am I going to do like the the alternative was when they were saying you know should we allow trans people into women's rooms because it was all about protecting white women really um when should we allow trans people in women's rooms and then if somebody would say no then then what what's the alternative you pull down the pants to check you bus bus down the bathroom door to see who's on the toilet and what they're doing so that they realized that that was not successful and I think the their time that the political right conservatives realized that wasn't successful was when Donald Trump in his campaign I remember this so clearly was being asked by somebody on Fox News if Caitlyn Jenner went into Trump Towers right there and wanted to go into the women's room what would you say of course they were asking them they were looking for Trump to say like I tell her to use the men's room or whatever but that's kind of a conundrum because Caitlyn Jenner is conservative so do they want to mistreat the only transgender conservative that is publicly speaking out so there was like a big conundrum and every every was on pins and needles and Donald Trump was like she can go into whatever bathroom she wants and that was the end of it and I think they realized there that they don't have an argument so they moved to children they moved to the issue of children because they knew that that's not something that people be like they can do whatever they want and if you put a kid in the restroom suddenly they're a victim at a wee spa what yeah what are they what are they afraid is going to happen if if their daughter is in the women's restroom and a trans woman comes in well this is the thing people have a really hard time distinguishing in their minds between a trans man and a trans woman people don't understand I think what that's so interesting is a lot of people still if you say that's a transgender man then they think oh that's a man who's dressed like a woman who's trying to get into the women's spaces and the other thing is because many people especially heterosexual people have I believe had a really hard time imagining that there's a type of that there is even a type of man that would never be attracted to any type of woman that's not natural for heterosexual people to even fathom so if they see if there's a man who goes around women they instantly think he may they he wants to have sex with them of course we want to make sure that people feel safe but I'm my only my point is that there's a lot of people who bristle at the idea of any type of man being around women because instantly they think that that man is is being ledgerous and wants to do harm as a sexual predator to these women that's the first thing second of all what they don't realize is again the difference between trans men and trans women it's important that people understand that the simple answer of it is a transgender person is a person who's assigned a certain gender at birth born a certain way and they're not necessarily for many reasons feeling comfortable in that situation and want to express themselves and possibly live another way that makes them feel more comfortable using using first social transition using clothing and names very harmless that's what children have access to clothing and names then later on when they have their own agency when they are adults and when they have their own money then surgeries and hormones in the film Matt Walsh is making the case that kids left and right prepubescent are going to be are going to have gender dysphoria and it's really just a mental illness they're really just unhappy at home maybe they have abusive parents maybe they're depressed whatever and they decided to act out by associating with the opposite gender and now they want to get reassignment and surgery and now they're getting injected with hormones that might cause cancer and they might be changing their body around before they even know who they are what they're doing that is the biggest thing for and leaving folks who aren't familiar with any of this thinking oh my god like this is a huge problem first of all it's not a huge problem it's not a huge problem meaning it's not very prevalent there are not even though a lot of people are talking about it and a lot of people are saying I think this is what I think how many people know somebody who's transgender not many people and that's because there's not a whole lot of us in comparison to the rest of the world there's certainly people who we don't know yet there's certain people who are high who are feel the need to to protect that information because they are in danger but we are talking about a very small set of the population first of all this is not a widespread issue being transgender is not contagious I know that that's hard to imagine for a lot of people right now but being gay is not contagious and I think people can understand that now and for 30 years ago people thought that being gay was contagious Katy Perry coming out with I Kissed a Girl and like oh no all these girls are going to come out be gay and be confused so if you are of an age that you can remember the 80s and 90s but still haven't retired yet then you probably can understand you probably there's a good chance in America that you've gotten comfortable with the notion that people are born gay that is a big question that people were asking 20 years ago during presidential elections and the president would talk about it and the everybody who's not gay has an opinion well I don't think they're gay so they shouldn't be able to do this that was a big thing that was happening and right now it's the same thing that's happening with transgender people transgender people I think it's fair to say that many transgender people anybody who's who who is has any self-preservation in them right now probably would not want to subject themselves to the type of treatment and scrutiny that is currently happening to transgender people right now what we have is people being a lot more aware and comfortable that there are when we were talking about black and white things aren't necessarily so black and white people being more comfortable with talking about and understanding and accepting that the humans do things in a multitude of ways and younger folks are understanding that idea as well because they have access to information and also they're seeing in in each other this reflected this kind of openness reflected kids understand it way more than adults then comes the rebuttal of what about detransitioners because what they say is we don't want young kids to make them do something to their bodies that's irreversible and then they'll regret it first of all no one is going to do anything that's that irreversible as a child because it's not possible in the United States if you are transgender children kids who identify as transgender only walk that path hopefully with loving caring parents and their doctors medical decisions now if a child wants to paint their nails and wear their hair a certain way or play with a certain kind of truck or wear certain clothes that's something that they're good you can't stop them from wanting to do that that's going to they're going to want to do it and that's a battle but when we're talking about when we're talking about people being concerned about kids making irreversible changes they're talking about surgeries and medication but young children do not have access to surgeries and medication not transgender children you can't just elect to go in and do something to your genitalia if you're eight years old it just doesn't happen most transgendered folks don't even medically transition until way after 18 until they're adults because it takes a lot of thought and you're dealing with all that pressure and a lot of money and so most when we're talking about surgery we're not talking about young kids being forced into a room and our doctor wanting to operate on them and that is what J.K. Rowling and other TERFs who are mostly in Europe are spreading is this notion you can define TERF for people who aren't familiar with it TERF means trans-exclusionary radical feminists feminism has come in waves there's feminists that were way older a long time ago that were like I just want women to be able to vote and that's all they wanted then there's feminists that were like women should vote and also get equal pay for their work that's second wave feminism I'm really oversimplifying it and then there's a new there's that it could be a whole way yeah there's a several way we're into fourth wave feminism now there's radical feminism is the notion that all people should be equal and able to do what they want when it comes to sex sexuality, gender and everything else that's that's radical feminism trans-exclusionary radical feminism is a completely different thing it's called TERF because it's trans-exclusionary radical feminists and these folks self-identify as a group of women they call themselves feminists but their sole purpose is to is to make sure that transgender women are seen as monsters in public and not allowed to have any of the rights or respect or equality that we've fought for so far reversing all of those things that's the that's the only thing so much so much so that there are certainly groups often conservative groups that are highly invested in the reversal of Roe v. Wade and anti-abortion making sure that women don't have paid maternity leave and a myriad of things there are groups that are invested in that many TERFs are on the record and have even said publicly that they are very happy to partner with these groups these anti-feminist groups who would in any other situation are actively working to dismantle the progress that has been made for women over the past several decades though these groups are working against women these TERFs are willing to work with them if they can just agree to attack trans women as well that is should be that should be kind of like what I mean it's almost like I can't even equate it but that's that's that's happening so these TERFs are working very hard to spread a narrative that transgender people and women transgender women are predators and out to hurt children and want to mutilate young kids and it's not reversible and all these things all of that is a lie if a child is transgender and identifies as transgender then most likely they are just talking about feelings and wanting to be wanting the ability to not be teased in public wanting the ability to not be victimized in public and feeling more comfortable in their own skin by way of the names that they're called maybe some of the fashions that they choose that's what we're talking about we're talking about transgender children so to be perfectly clear and correct me if I'm misquoting you but there is not a movement within the trans community to change the laws or or make it so that in the U.S. kids young kids can get surgery and start these hormones there are early ages there are no the short answer okay but there are there are there's different stages okay so what does it mean to be transgender is it surgeries every transgender person does not get surgery most people who identify as trans never get surgery most for different reasons because they don't have the money because surgery costs money everybody can understand that because they don't have the desire and and any other thing that's personal to them maybe because they their surgeon only operates on a Tuesday and they can't get a fork on Tuesdays whatever there's lots of reasons why people who identify as trans don't transition medically what most transgender people operate in the sphere of when we're talking about transitioning and operating the sphere of is clothing hair and names and pronouns that's what most transgender people are dealing with young or old that's why we've heard so much about pronouns the yes I believe that transgender people are invested in making sure that youth have access to information that will let them know that they're not alone because and this is we're touching on this LGBTQ folks have a disproportionate rate of suicide trans folks have a higher rate of suicide even within that group but it's not because they don't like themselves and we're born to just kill themselves it's not it it's because of those societal pressures the pressure that they feel from the outside the teasing the bullying the policing the person at the store that says no you're not supposed to do that the parents wanting to to spank them all of these different things are what adds to that pressure and so transgender adults and trans people are invested in lowering the number the suicide rate how can we do that making sure that there's rules and policies and practices in place at schools at libraries in people's homes maybe or on the internet wherever that young folks can access this so that they know that there are other options to suicide so that's what the trans community is mostly invested in is making sure that youth have what they need to feel comfortable in school in other places because these social settings school and school are the places where people are socialized at an early age that's where if you're going to get bullied it's going to be in school if you're going to get victimized in many ways it's going to be in school so we want to make I think many trans folks and the supporters of the trans community are invested in making sure that young folks in schools feel comfortable to use whatever names whatever pronouns and even whatever restrooms they want because let's face it children are not in the bathroom having sex with each other that's not what's going on at school and if it is then you have a then that's a completely that has nothing to do with trans being transgender you know the exactly the the the most people go to the bathroom just to literally we know what they do in the bathroom there's only there's usually two things and that's it including trans people it's the same thing and so that's what we're talking about when we're talking about going to the bathroom when a transgender girl a young person goes in who probably hasn't had any surgeries but doesn't matter either way and and what they're talking about is when you be comfortable at school to go into that bathroom is because when they go into that the the boys room they are more likely to get teased or beaten up yeah and so I want people to understand that we're focused on protecting the youth and protecting young girls from from what they're calling males but the truth is transgender people are more likely statistically it's on the books for if look it up are more likely to be beaten and victimized physically abused sexually abused and murdered than any other group in the united states and that also lines up with global numbers just like we're talking about this is a complete departure but when we're talking about mental illness in the united states and guns and violence yes there are people who are mentally ill who get their hands on a gun and yes we need to address mental illness but when we talk about situations that are unstable and can escalate people who have mental illnesses are so much more likely to be the victims of violence whether it's from other individuals around them the police are more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators of violence and it's and it's I'm not equating trans people with people with mental illnesses but I'm saying in the same way that conservatives have decided to point the finger and blame trans individuals and other groups for the problem or something going on oftentimes those are the victims we victim blame all the time people have heard of that and we also and I think in this documentary you'll see that a lot is we use the extremes the extreme example when we're trying to vilify the other side we'll we don't use we don't choose the average we choose the outlier the really crazy like example that only that there's only one of it's it's really really scary and then it's presented as representation of everybody everybody and so you'll see a lot of examples in the film that are the extreme example if if it's even 100% true I was gonna say and is that even the truth exactly and then you're left to assume that that's the norm what the trans movement is all about yeah the trans movement is not about forcing children into being transgender just like gay folks wanting to get married it's not about forcing young kids to become homosexual it's not will a trans person ever have hormone replacement therapy and regret it yes okay detransitioning is also another red herring it does exist just like there are women who have children who have said I really wish I hadn't been a mother is that indicative of every person who's had a baby no there are people who get married and who are in love we know that there's a high divorce rate there's lots of people who who regret it but should we outlaw marriage? no and I bring that up because in the film he has someone who is a trans man who feels that way and is really regretful and remorseful and I feel for this person it's really sad and I really empathize with with what they're describing and going through but you you can't confuse that with that is the plight of the trans community if we see that individual and we feel for them because of their story and we hear that they're going through pressures and that they're feeling insecure and that they're feeling like they're not enough and they're feeling like what how they feel on the inside is not is not connecting with whatever they're doing and what other people are telling them and saying if we can sympathize with that for that person who's detransitioning then why can't we sympathize sympathize with the same exact feelings for those who do know that they want to transition because when we have a bias we're looking for confirmation of course that's the confirmation that's the confirmation I get it yeah okay here's another hot button issue that is often related to the trans community there is a film called changing the game on Hulu that addresses this but it is related to trans people in sports okay so remember when I said that they were unsuccessful in really selling the notion of banning transgender people from the bathroom is because they were unsuccessful so they had to go back to the drawing board and they said we need to find a better way to attack them not to go too far off a tangent and sorry for interrupting but it seemed like that argument ended up really becoming about okay it's not a trans woman that's going to come into the bathroom and be perverse it's a male rapist yeah a male who's going to put a wig on and and be like haha I gotta go into the bathroom and pray on women and so then it's no longer about the trans community that's not first of all that doesn't even usually happen very much I don't even know that it does when have we heard about guys going into of course rape is a serious issue it happens it's but if it does we will all hear about it yeah it will be used as an argument it'll be used oh that person's transgender and they weren't and just like this is how I feel about it when I remember there was a I can't remember the name of the woman there was a and this is a terrible terrible story there was a woman who was watching her two sons and she had him in the car and the husband was away and the next thing you knew the sons did not survive in the car and the woman said and they had drowned and the woman who the mother was driving and then was out of the car she told a story of a black man who came to her with a gun and kidnapped the kids and forced her out of the car and now the kids are in the car in the cars at the bottom of the river and so many people were angry looking for this black man that was doing this there was no black man there was no man at all this woman committed that heinous crime they meaning the political left and conservatives are creating this image of them a man going into the room of young girls to to with the intention of raping them not that they've seen that that they've caught this person and even if they did does that person really even identify as transgender no people who are transgender are not raping people and and going into to attack others can you find a story of a transgender person who a transgender woman who is who has sex with women yes who is attracted to women yes but the the strange conundrum is this example only works if you can ignore the existence of trans men if you say you have to go into the bathroom of which you were signed at birth of the sex of which you were signed at birth then they think that that keeps transgender women out of the women's room and effectively it does I don't think that's fair let's put that on pause what it does do is it puts transgender men in the women's room these are men who are taking testosterone many of them identify as heterosexual meaning that they like to have sex with women they have big muscles and some of them not all of them but they are transitioning if they're transitioning the the direction of their transition is to be socially male to and to many people they do look male and honestly because of the way testosterone works it's it's very successful at achieving what a lot of trans men who do take it achieve looking like the average man or sometimes better than average man um and that's who has to go into the women's room now so these people who can't understand the difference between a trans man and trans woman are suddenly seeing a big beefy burly guy coming into the women's room who is attracted to women who is attracted to women and suddenly but that's what you asked for because that person was assigned female at birth and now is forced to go into the women's room now he is not going to be raping women in the women's room either but I'm just saying you put a man someone who identifies as a man someone who feels as a man into the women's room the only way this works is if you is the only way this example works is if you sell the idea successfully that trans women are not actually feeling like women are not actually women don't believe that they're women and and this and that this is something that's just a whim it's just an average straight guy who just wants to put on a wig today and decide to go in there a lot of those examples that Matt Walsh had that he was saying anecdotally like what if a guy just decides he didn't go that's you don't just decide when you're transgendered I've known my entire life that I was a woman and guess what even before I medically transitioned you know who told me I was a woman every single bully every single person who pushed me around every single person who was correcting me was like you're basically a girl that wasn't me telling I mean I knew it but those were people from the outside basically confirming what I already know and so this is something that has been very long going in me now not all trans people connect with that feeling right away but even as a gay man I can relate to that because my peers were telling me that I was gay well before I even had sexual feelings or could relate to the notion I didn't even know what it meant to be gay and I was being told oh you're gay gay they were just pointing out so why not let him be gay and so the same thing with being trans why not let the if you if you can recognize it I would that somebody that you think is a little boy oh that he's just a little girl or whatever somebody who you think is a tomboy allow them the ability to just let that out the thing that is interesting to me is that we allow young because of the patriarchy socially we don't correct girls as much when we know the notion of a tomboy it becomes very non-threatening cute that tomboy may have the feelings of either being a lesbian may have the feelings of becoming of actually being transgender male that is connected to that that's what that feeling is and there's the same thing that exists for trans women and so it's not some guy who just puts on a wig and sneaks into the room and so let's eliminate that if you can just understand that that does not happen just like you can understand that we can all a white woman saying a black man tried to kill my kids or a black man tried to do this are we instantly because of bias in the united states want to believe that want to believe oh black men are monsters and they're hunting white women and they're and she's telling if she says a black man then we want to believe it but we also know that it's not necessarily true that case was not true and so can we put ourselves in the mindset that just because this person has been we've been told that this person is trying to sneak around and hurt you can we just pause on that for a minute and understand that transgender people are fighting for the right to escape from being targeted being murdered and being persecuted and the places that they feel the safest are are the spaces that align with the gender that they identify with and it's not to do harm to others