L
Lando
Guest
You got called out by the HRC because your interactions with them involved you explaining that being trans was like a cat pretending to be a dog. It denied the existance of trans people altogether and brought animals into the equation which ends up being dehumanizing. It's the trans equivalent of "Gay marriage? What's next, people marrying their turtles?" Can you see why the HRC assumed your motivations were less than noble given that you felt the need to explain to them that someone being trans was like one animal pretending it was a different animal?This was 2019 so I assume zzlp. Maybe not but it was what I would call the zzlp gang that went after me in that issue. I mean to me it was easy. Honor the mother or some person who had never met victim. I have never thought of myself as particularly thin-skinned, often joking that I grew another layer each year as an editor. I do believe - and this is on me- I took things more personal because I was not anonymous. There was a lot of stuff, especially early on. That I was too dumb to be editor or whatever. Also I think my job colored how I viewed the moderation and tolerance for other opinions. Part of my job was not only to tolerate dissent but to welcome it and display it.
I've had beliefs that I now regret. I went to high school with five hundred kids, one of whom wasn't white. If you dropped 20 year old me in a thread about DEI I would blow that thing up with ignorance. I didn't burst from the womb a champion of gay rights, and I'm certain that I have views right now that down the road will be regrettable. When I do step in it (and getting into that kind of spat with a major civil rights group qualifies as stepping in it) I can't pretend that the only reason people get mad at me is unfairness, political bias, or whatever other grievance bubbles to the top of my mind that day. You stepped in it and the board largely let it slide, which makes the grievance about unfairness irksome.