Trump’s transphobic attack is deeper than definitions(川普的跨性别恐惧症攻击比其定义的更严重)

SHOCK AND sickness produced a heaviness in my body that kept me pinned me under the covers all Sunday.

震惊和疾病使我的身体变得沉重,整个星期天我都被钉在被子下面。

Moments after waking up that morning, I saw the notification on my partner’s phone. There among the night’s e-mails and missed messages, one word stood out with urgency: “transgender.”

那天早上醒来后,我看到了我的伴侣手机上的通知。 在夜间的电子邮件和错过的信息中,有一个词紧急的站出来了:“跨性别者”。

By now, many people have read and responded, in words and actions, to the New York Times article revealing a Trump administration memo that directs federal agencies to “define sex as male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with,” the Times reported.

到目前为止,许多人已经在文字和行动中阅读并回应了纽约时报的一篇文章,其中披露了一份特朗普政府的备忘录,该备忘录指示联邦机构“将性别定义为男性或女性,不可改变的,并且是由天生的生殖器决定“,泰晤士报报道。

But as I scanned the article in an anxious rush, all I could feel was a void left in place of the expectation of a comfortable Sunday spent with my partner. All I could feel was myself coming apart as my limbs drifted further and further from me.

但是当我急切地扫描这篇文章时,我所感受到的只是一片空白,而不是期待与我的伴侣度过一个舒适的星期天。 我只能感觉到我开始分裂了,我的四肢越来越远离我。

The administration memo was a reminder of that precarious knowledge: that to be out in the world is, for me, not a right.

行政备忘录提醒人们一个危险的知识:对我来说,存在这个于世界上不是一项权利。


ACCORDING TO the Times, “the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex” under federal civil rights law that rolls back decisions made by the Obama administration to recognize that gender is not defined by the sex assigned at birth.

根据泰晤士报的报道,“健康与人类服务部正在率先努力建立性别的法律定义”,在联邦民权法案下,该法律废除了奥巴马政府的决定,即承认性别认同不是由出生时的生理性别所决定的。

The Times headline for the article — “‘Transgender’ could be defined out of existence under Trump administration” — was itself problematic, in that trans people are not at risk of being “defined out of existence.” Our existence is a fact and will never be up for question — just as systematic oppression, marginalization, violence, exclusion and the constant questioning of our legitimacy are also facts of trans existence.

“泰晤士报”的标题 —“’跨性别’可能在特朗普政府统治下被定义为不存在” —本身也存在问题,因为跨性别者并没有被“定义为不存在”的风险。我们的存在是事实和意志,这永远不会是问题—正如系统性的压迫,边缘化,暴力,排斥和不断质疑我们的合法性,这些也是跨性别者存在所导致的事实。

But in a way, that language about being “defined out of existence” — which could also be found at the Guardian, Washington Post and Reuters — reveals the precise intentions of the Trump administration.

但在某种程度上,关于被“定义为不存在”的语言 —也可以在卫报,华盛顿邮报和路透社中找到 —揭示了特朗普政府的确切意图。

The project of erasing trans life from public consciousness depends, above all, on the notion that our existence is a matter of debate that can be resolved by appealing to some unquestionable formula, rooted in a warped sense of “biology” — by identifying the genitals one is born with, through some imagined genetic test that could clarify the matter, if necessary.

从公众意识中抹去跨性别者生命的项目首先取决于这样一种观念,即我们的存在是一个有争议的问题,可以通过吸引一些基于扭曲的“生物学”感觉的无可置疑的公式来解决—通过识别一个人出生时的生殖器。 如果有必要的话,可以通过一些想象的基因测试来解释这个问题。

Besides the fact that “sex characteristics” are expressed very differently in different bodies, even when those bodies have been grouped under the categories of “male” and “female” — and besides the fact of the existence of intersex persons — the very idea that social rights can be determined by a false binary created through an assessment of genitalia at birth is absurd enough to make clear how politically motivated any discussion of the invalidity of trans life really is.

除了“性别特征”在不同的身体中表达方式是非常不同的事实之外,即使将这些身体被归入“男性”和“女性”的类别—除了间性人存在的事实之外—这个观点是社会人权可以通过对出生时生殖器的评估所产生的虚假二元来确定,这是非常荒谬的,足以说明对于将跨性别者生命无效化的任何讨论是如何被政治驱动的。

Though the full legal implications of the administration memo are unclear, it will doubtless give further license to transphobes, especially those with power over trans lives.

虽然行政备忘录的全部法律意义尚不清楚,但无疑会给予跨性别恐惧症进一步许可,特别是对于那些对跨性别者的生命有权力的人。

According to the Times, Title IX civil rights law is to be enforced in a way that will allow federal institutions to permit discrimination against trans people in hiring, cases of sexual harassment, access to housing and education and protection from hate crimes. As trans activist Evan Greer wrote, the memo “allows for government-enforced poverty and homelessness.”

据泰晤士报报道,第九条民权法的执行方式将允许联邦机构允许在招聘,性骚扰案件,获得住房和教育以及保护免受仇恨犯罪方面歧视跨性别者。正如跨性别活动家Evan Greer所写的那样,这份备忘录“允许政府强加贫困和无家可归”。

There is precedent in the courts that understands “sex discrimination” to include discrimination against trans people, so there may be limits to the overall scope and effectiveness of the memo.

法院有先例将“性别歧视”理解为包括对跨性别者的歧视,因此备忘录的总体范围和有效性可能会受到限制。

But for right now, trans activist and legal advocate Dean Spade rightly warns that administration officials will feel greater confidence to act in completely discriminatory ways — just as they have with regard to immigrants and detention centers. Spade writes:

但就目前而言,跨性别活动家和法律倡导者Dean Spade正确地警告说,政府官员将会以完全歧视的方式展现出更大的信心—就像他们对待移民和拘留中心一样。 Spade写道:

In areas where there has not been a clear definition or policy regarding how gender is established or changed, these plans could create a norm that keeps trans people out of basic services and makes us more vulnerable to discrimination and violence. In areas where advocacy has led to improved policies, it could roll those back. Trans people could see renewed and enhanced barriers in health care, education, employment, ID and other key areas.

在关于性别认同如何被建立或改变的定义或政策尚未明确的领域,这些计划可以创造一种规范使跨性别者远离基本服务,使我们更容易遭受歧视和暴力。在通过倡议导致政策改善的领域,它可以推动这些政策回滚。跨性别者可以看到医疗保健,教育,就业,身份证和其他关键领域的障碍重新出现并增强。

In other words, the Trump administration’s actions are part of a social battle over trans equality, over our communities’ access to society as a whole. The intent of the attack is to push us into the shadows, out of our jobs and our neighborhoods, and out of whatever sense of security we might have achieved after decades of struggle in the LGBT and feminist movements.

换句话说,川普政府的行动是针对我们社区争取整体进入社会的跨性别平等的社会斗争的攻击的一部分。攻击的目的是让我们退入阴影中,失去我们的工作和社区,以及我们在LGBT和女权主义运动的几十年斗争中可能取得的任何安全感。


ISSUES PERTAINING to trans oppression go to the basic question of participation in broader society.

关于对跨性别者的压迫的议题涉及参与更广泛的社会的基本问题。

Prior to this, the Trump administration had already rescinded protections for students in public schools seeking to use the bathroom that best corresponds to their gender. In North Carolina, a 2016 bill barred transgender people from using bathrooms that don’t match their birth certificate.

在此之前,川普政府已经取消了对公立学校学生的保护,这些学生试图使用最符合其性别认同的浴室。在北卡罗来纳州,2016年的一项法案禁止跨性别者使用不符合其出生证明的浴室。

What is at stake here is not merely a choice between rooms, but a fight over whether trans people should have the ability to go out in public space.

这里的利害关系不仅仅是房间之间的选择,而是对跨性别者是否应该有能力在公共场所出现的斗争。

The memo further extends the attempt to exclude into basic needs — in particular, housing and jobs.

该备忘录进一步扩大了将其排除在基本需求之外的努力—特别是住房和工作。

One in five trans people has experienced homelessness, and one in four trans people have lost a job due to discrimination. For many trans women and trans femmes of color, the threats police violence and sexual violence are constant.

五分之一的跨性别者经历过无家可归,四分之一的跨性别者由于歧视而失去工作。 对于许多跨性别女人和非白人跨性别女性而言,警察暴力和性暴力的威胁是经常存在的。

Statistics attest to the rates of sexual violence against incarcerated trans people, the number of trans women murdered just this year, lack of access to health care and disproportionate levels of poverty — all of which points to the same thing: trans people, and particularly trans people of color, suffer uniquely in the degree to which marginalization is experienced.

统计数据证明,针对被监禁的跨性别者的性暴力发生率,今年被谋杀的跨性别女人数量,无法获得医疗保健以及不成比例的贫困—所有这些都指向同一个方面:跨性别者,尤其是非白人跨性别者,在遭受边缘化的程度上是独特的。

On a cultural and ideological level, there have been significant gains in terms of inclusion and recognition of our community since what Time magazine referred to in 2014 as a “transgender tipping point” in awareness and recognition of trans people in broader society.

在文化和意识形态方面,自从时代杂志在2014年号称的更广泛的社会中对跨性别者的关注和认可的“跨性别转折点”以来,在包容和承认我们的社区方面取得了显著进步。

These gains have meant a profound change in mainstream willingness to accept transgender people. Clearly, this has not meant a change in safety and stability for all trans people, but the recent attacks by the Trump administration indicate the growing far right’s intense desire to reverse the situation.

这些进步意味着接受跨性别者的主流意愿发生了深刻的变化。 显然,这并不意味着所有跨性别者的安全和稳定都会发生变化,但川普政府最近的攻击表明,极右纳粹们强烈反对这种情况。


IN RECENT years, the movement for trans inclusion has become a rallying point for a growing far right.

近年来,跨性别者接纳运动已经成为势力越来越大的极右纳粹们的聚焦点。

For those with reactionary politics, complicated social issues can be explained in terms of the “decay” of traditional institutions like the family — and particularly the stability of male identity, which is all the more urgent for the right in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

对于那些有反动政治的人来说,复杂的社会问题可以用传统制度的“腐烂”来解释,比如家庭—尤其是男性身份的稳定性,这对于#MeToo运动之后的右派来说更加紧迫。

Trans rights are a paradigmatic case of ideological and cultural gains, and are thus highlighted for attack. In this sense, a political strategy undergirds the attacks we face, rooted in the questioning of the legitimacy of trans identity, as well as its presentation as a threat.

跨性别者权利是意识形态和文化进步的典型案例,因此被高亮以攻击。从这个意义上说,政治战略巩固了我们所面临的攻击,其根源在于对跨性别身份合法性的质疑,以及它作为威胁的表现。

As trans socialist Alyssa Pariah argued recently, to the extent that the Trump administration is unable to live up to its promises, issues which can bind and cohere a base around questions like trans rights and abortion become increasingly important.

正如跨性别社会主义者Alyssa Pariah最近所说的那样,川普政府无法兑现其承诺,因此能够绑定和联合一个以跨性别权利和堕胎等问题为基础的基本盘变得越来越重要。

One feature of conservative politics in the U.S. has always been a desire to impose control on people’s bodies, whether that be through security, policing or abrogating the right to bodily self-determination. The Trump memo can be seen as an instruction on how the state might determine and restrict people’s rights based on their bodies.

美国保守政治的一个特点一直都是试图对人民的身体施加控制,无论是通过安全,监管还是废除身体自决的权利。 特朗普的备忘录可以看作是关于国家如何根据人民自己的身体来决定和限制人民权利的指示。

All this rests on the premise that the state has the right to know about people’s bodies in the first place. And then, of course, there is the limitation of access to medical resources, which directly inhibits people’s right to modify their body however they like.

所有这一切都取决于国家有权首先了解人民的身体。 然后,当然,存在医疗资源获取的限制,这直接禁止了人们根据自己的喜好修改自己的身体的权利。

This is quite close to the way that the right turns the bodies of many cis women and other people who can get pregnant into a battlefield through the fight over abortion. The conclusion to draw is that bodily autonomy is integral to all fights against gender oppression.

这与通过对堕胎的斗争使得许多顺性别女性和其他可以怀孕的人的身体进入战场的方式非常接近。结论是,身体自治是所有反对性别压迫的斗争的关键部分。

Marxist feminists Tithi Bhattacharya and Sue Ferguson have written about how capital has an interest in producing and regulating bodies of a certain kind.

马克思女权主义者Tithi Bhattacharya和Sue Ferguson写过关于资本如何拥有在生产和管制身体上的特定利益。

They write that the trans impetus to manipulate our bodies with hormones or surgeries reflects a “prioritizing [of] life over capital” and a resistance against the way that capitalism finds cis bodies to be cheaper to produce and regulate through “psycho-social investment in the heterosexist, cis-gendered norms.”

她们写道,用激素或手术来操纵我们的身体的跨性别动力反映了“优先考虑生命而不是资本”,并且反对资本主义通过“对异性恋顺性别规范进行心理—社会投资”来发现对顺性别身体进行生产和管制更便宜的方式。(资本主义想要新的工人和消费者以增加利润,但又不肯自己承担成本,那么鼓吹异性恋顺性别霸权洗脑强迫生育就是必然选项。)

Looked at this way, the defense of trans rights has something quite important to say about what socialist liberation might mean. Although it is not the same as freedom itself, the right to modify one’s body in whatever way one chooses is an exercise in self-ownership that stands in direct tension to capitalism’s constant appropriation of bodies that labor.

从这个角度来看,捍卫跨性别者权利对于社会主义解放可能意味着什么来说具有重要意义。 虽然它与自由本身并不相同,但是任何人选择自己想要的方式修改自己身体的权利都是一种对自我所有权的实践,这种行为与资本主义对劳动者的身体的经常性的霸占直接关联。


AS I absorbed the news about the Trump administration memo last Sunday, I turned my head into my partner’s shoulder and squeezed, and she squeezed back, hard enough to keep my rib cage from coming apart, hard enough to protect my heart and lungs.

上周日当我吸收有关特朗普政府备忘录的消息时,我把头转向我的伴侣的肩膀并挤压,然后她向后挤压,足以让我的肋骨分开,几乎无法保护我的心脏和肺部。

Maybe this feeling — of dissipating, of dissolving — will be familiar to my trans siblings. It is easier to ignore one’s body this way.

也许这种消散—消解的感觉对于我的跨性别兄弟姐妹来说会很熟悉。用这种方式忽略一个人的身体更容易。

I ask myself sometimes why I seek out this oblivion. It’s not quite right to say that it is simply because “my existence isn’t recognized.” Perhaps it is that I am indeed recognized — just continually and violently mis-recognized. This leaves me with an incessant tension that takes and takes, leaving me exhausted.

我有时会问自己为什么要寻找这种失去知觉的感觉。 说这只是因为“我的存在不被承认”并不恰当。也许是因为我确实得到了认可—只是不断地和暴力地被误认。这让我不断处于紧张状态,使我精疲力尽。

This is the feeling that encroaches when I sense eyes upon me, when I raise my gaze to meet them or ignore the looks and scurry past, when my moments of confidence and beauty feel stolen by the words of a passerby. It is the sense of alienation born of the knowledge that what I am is not what I am for so many people.

当我感觉到有眼睛盯着我时,当我抬起目光面对他们或忽视外表然后匆匆过去时,当我的信心和美丽的时刻被路人的话语偷走时,这种感觉会侵蚀我。 ”我是什么“不是”对于许多人来说我是什么“的认识产生了隔离感。

On Sunday, I stayed in bed, ignored my phone and missed a brilliant protest with a number of trans organizers as speakers. Many of my trans friends, acquaintances and ex-lovers posted photos. I would have liked solace of knowing that the protest had happened, but knowing I wasn’t there only left me emptier.

星期天,我一直躺在床上,无视我的电话,错过了与一些跨性别组织者作为演讲者的精彩抗议。 我的许多跨性别朋友,熟人和前恋人都张贴了照片。 我本来希望知道抗议活动已经发生,但我知道我不在那里只会让我更加空虚。

But as I write, I am also excited and hopeful. A new socialist movement is being born, and my sincere hope is that we can respond to this attack, and all attacks against trans people, with the force of the largest working-class movement we can build.

但正如我写的那样,我也很兴奋和充满希望。 一个新的社会主义运动正在诞生,我真诚地希望我们能够以我们能够建立的最大的工人阶级运动的力量来应对这次攻击以及对跨性别者的所有攻击。

Still, trans lives are being turned into a battlefield at a time when the gains of our movement continue to rest on precarious foundations.

尽管如此,在我们运动的成果继续停留在不稳定的基础上的时候,跨性别者的生命正在变成一个战场。


LIBERALISM ISN’T equipped to respond effectively to the kind of reactionary politics we are seeing, and it is therefore the responsibility of the Left to take the defense of trans life seriously.

自由主义没能力有效地回应我们所看到的那种反动政治,因此左派有责任认真捍卫跨性别者的生命。

Many articles since the administration memo was revealed have offered wonderful advice on how to better treat the trans people around us, and how to support direct services for the most vulnerable. But it’s also important for the left to focus on more than just mitigating existing oppression. We have to fight for something better.

自管理备忘录披露以来,许多文章就如何更好地对待我们周围的跨性别者提供了很好的建议,以及如何为最弱势的群体提供直接服务。 但是,重要的是左派关注的不仅仅是减轻现有的压迫。我们必须争取更好的未来。

The multiculturalism put forward by the mainstream Democratic Party is a paltry response to the profoundly social forms of oppression experienced by the trans community. The kinds of solutions that could make the most substantial changes in people’s lives — affordable housing, free education, free and universal access to health care — are the kind of things for which only the left can assume responsibility.

主流民主党提出的多元文化主义只是对跨性别社区所经历的深刻社会压迫形式的微不足道的回应。能够使人们的生活发生最大变化的各种解决方案—可负担的住房,免费教育,免费和普遍的获得医疗保障—是只有左派才能承担责任的事情。(如果人们要为了基本人权而相互竞争,那么必然会相互憎恨,没有其他结果。)

But “universalist” demands alone aren’t enough, either to truly change the circumstances of trans people, or to build an emancipated, socialist society.

但仅靠“普遍主义”的要求是不够的,要么真正改变跨性别者的处境,要么建立一个解放的,社会主义的社会。

Medicare For All must guarantee the right to all medical treatments requested by trans people — including facial feminization surgery, for example, a procedure which is almost never covered. Public works projects must come along with a serious commitment to hire all, and not repeat the employment segregation that accompanied the New Deal of the 1930s. The same goes for housing and education.

针对所有人的医疗保障必须保证对跨性别者要求的所有医学治疗的权利—包括面部女性化手术,一个例子,一种几乎从未涉及的程序。公共工作项目必须承诺雇佣所有人,而不是重复伴随20世纪30年代新政时期的就业隔离。 住房和教育也是如此。

All these require a particular attentiveness and commitment to the interests of trans people that goes beyond providing a universal right.

所有这些都需要特别注意和承诺超越提供普遍权利的跨性别者的利益。

Trans people also have a stake in other fights — against police brutality, immigrant detention centers and border violence, for example — not only for these struggles to be effective, but also for the socialist movement to mean more than the distribution of social resources.

跨性别者也应该参与其他斗争—例如反对警察暴力,移民拘留中心和边境暴力—不仅要使这些斗争有效,而且要使社会主义运动的意义超越对社会资源的分配。

An analysis which understands these linkages is crucial, but so is a sense of solidarity that goes beyond tactical considerations.

理解这些联系的分析至关重要,但团结的感觉也超出了战术考虑。(只有同时对分身出手,才有可能击败本体。)

Working class agency is the crucial lever for exercising this kind of power — and here, a fight for the inclusion of trans people and their struggles in our unions is important. In my union, I’m working to get a resolution passed in support of trans people and against the Trump administration action.

工人阶级的机构是实践这种力量的关键杠杆—在这里,争取将跨性别者和他们的斗争纳入我们的工会是很重要的。在我的工会中,我正在努力通过一项支持跨性别者和反对川普政府行动的决议。

And in terms of the socialist movement, an awareness of trans issues must shape the propaganda that we put forward, and we must make sure candidates that we stand or support be prepared to not only respond effectively when there is a threat, but also articulate a positive vision, whenever possible in conjunction with the demands of trans activists.

在社会主义运动方面,对跨性别者议题的认识必须塑造我们推动的宣传,我们必须确保我们推出的或支持的候选人不仅要做好准备,不仅只在有威胁时做出有效回应,还要明确表达一个积极的愿景,只要有可能就与跨性别者活动家的要求相结合。

The possibilities for our bodies and our lives are limited under capitalism. The socialist impulse is to fundamentally change this condition.

在资本主义制度下,我们的身体和生命的可能性是被限制的。社会主义的渴望是从根本上改变这种状况。

Those of us who are trans are often people who so can’t bear the weight of this constraint on our very bodies that we live in a way which subjects us to further oppression. That impulse is, however, one that doesn’t solely belong to us.

我们这些跨性别者往往是那些无法承受这种对我们身体进行限制的人,我们生活的方式使我们受到进一步的压迫。 然而,这种渴望不仅仅属于我们。

A socialist emancipation will have to be an emancipation from the way capitalism organizes gender and alienates our bodily life. Toward that end, the defense of trans life must be a principle for the movement that we today seek to build.

社会主义解放必须是对资本主义组织的性别和隔离我们身体的生活方式的解放。 为此,捍卫跨性别者生命必须成为我们今天寻求建立的运动的原则。

Thanks to Rachel Himes for her help with this article.

http://socialistworker.org/2018/10/25/trumps-transphobic-attack-is-deeper-than-definitions