So as I mentioned yesterday, I'd like to share this Majority Report interview with trans actress Laverne Cox about the fascist assault on trans rights, the dehumanization of trans people, and how what I've come to define as the anti-trans pogrom fits in to the larger capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist, and ultimately fascist project. While Cox is a well informed, focused, and insightful guest that's worth listening to in any setting, as a trans woman one of the things I liked best about this interview is how the two cisgender hosts of the show allowed her to control the discussion and ultimately create a conversation that I think is equally valuable for trans people, other members of the LGBTQ community, and cis-het folks who want to serve as accomplices, not just allies, for a trans community in the fascist crosshairs as we speak.
Cox and the hosts discuss the recent history of anti-trans legislation, the larger fascist quest to eras trans people in public life, and how dehumanizing language and anti-trans propaganda serve as a permission structure for both eliminating trans people's civil rights and further dehumanization. They also talk about the reality that this project to justify and create the anti-trans pogrom is a well-funded, highly coordinated endeavor with architects across the entire American right, as demonstrated by the fact that almost everything to demonize, oppress, and erase trans people that GOP fascists have accomplished since Trump took office, was laid out in advance in Project 2025. Cox even articulates what most trans people already know in their hearts but many cis liberals treating us like a political football don't seem to understand; that the path the fascists are adopting here may lead to the genocide of trans people.
The group then shifts focus to talk about the relationship between the anti-trans pogrom, white supremacist patriarchal Christian Nationalism, and a larger fascist project that ultimately serves to enrich and empower predatory capital. Cox notes that what folks who aren't on the firing lines call a "culture war" is really about civil rights for those who are. The gang points out that policing of trans people in public life, is really just an extension of an ideology that views women as property, and that opens up a pathway to gendered power dynamics and enforced policies that harm *all* women, not just trans women. As both Cox and Vigland note, the fact that dehumanizing anti-trans propaganda ultimately serves as the thin end of the wedge for this larger fascist project and touches on other forms of targeted oppression towards non-white people, women, migrants, and young people, means that taking about the anti-trans pogrom is not a distraction, but rather a vital step towards defending us all from fascism.
Finally Cox talks about the importance of folks who support trans people actually rehumanizing trans folks in the broader culture, why allowing the right to force the discussion into a lens of medicalization is an unworkable strategy, and why nobody who isn't trying to get trans people murdered should be "consorting with the likes of Charlie Kirk." In a moment that may come as a surprise to cis people, she points out that even conceding to the idea that trans identities, trans rights, or trans existence are topics to debate, is an unacceptable level of dehumanization and helps the fascist cause. As Cox poignantly notes, "there is no middle ground when someone wants you extinguished."
The Majority Report: Humanizing Trans People with Laverne Cox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auink7NlQr8
