Who goes transphobe?
by Sandy Ernest Allen
It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go transphobe. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in California, in Iowa, and in New York. I have come to know the types: the born transphobes, the transphobes whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become transphobe.
I promise this entire essay won’t just be me riffing on Dorothy Thompson’s iconic Harper’s essay Who Goes Nazi?. And some are probably already thinking to themselves, well, “Nazi” and “transphobe,” these are the same; the Nazis were transphobes. Yes, I am aware.
Perhaps you too think of the image above, of Nazi book burnings at the Institute for Sexual Research.
And yes, maybe like me you’re pausing to think about another irony, the Harper’s of it all, and how thoroughly that magazine in particular, alongside many others, failed to clock the rise of fascism as it’s come back around again.
How if anything Harper’s itself … went Nazi.
For trans folks such as myself, the now-infamous Harper’s letter was an obvious anti-trans dogwhistle, and a harbinger of a broader media onslaught to come, signed by a who’s-who of intellectually unserious jerks, many of whom have made it their brand to bully trans people. As trans people (especially in media) we are perpetually aware of our more prominent antagonists.
One thing to keep in mind: Transphobia itself is a delusion. People who’ve fallen for this sort of hateful nonsense aren’t worthy of anyone’s respect, not as intellectuals at least.
On Bluesky, I use an account labeler that warns me when someone was a “Harper’s Signatory.” I admit it always makes me chuckle when I see it pop up.
Amongst media-aware trans people someone who signed the Harper’s letter is shorthand for this person didn’t give a fuck. This is someone who didn’t care, as fascism rose, whether I lived or died. Who maybe even joined in with the fascists in encouraging my demise. The flames were rising, threatening us, and they eagerly fanned them.
For a trans person such as myself, this assessment regarding who goes transphobe is mostly a matter of safety. Cis people who haven’t yet awoken to what era we are living through, right now, are dangerous — whether they’re merely clueless or actively malicious.
Cis people who still do their Wordles or who still like Harry Potter? I cannot trust them. They are a threat in the sense that a drunk behind the wheel is dangerous or a sleepwalker stumbling towards a staircase is dangerous. Willfully or not they may cause actual harm.