This elderly man showed up to support an anti-trans bill in my home state and then, because he had to wait hours to testify, he was stuck listening to queer folks rally against it
By the time it was his turn to speak, he'd changed his mind
Never doubt that speaking out can change hearts and minds
By the time it was his turn to speak, he'd changed his mind
Never doubt that speaking out can change hearts and minds
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My own views on the subject changed and matured, watching my bestfriend’s child grow from an infant to an adult and wrestling with the transgender issue.
hard to believe a old white cis straight able NT dude listened to one word from any one else Other let alone change mind
But also, some questions that are not hard, maybe, but important.
How come he in all his years had not properly reflected on these matters?
How was he prepared to realize that he was wrong / ignorant?
Why did he explain himself?
I don't wonder, I just suggest thinking about it.
Partly his own fault, but also on society and how we raise people.
Sometimes it needs personal impact - somebody you already thought you knew. Sometimes people are just more open-minded than they themselves realise. Fair play to him.
But at the same time, this environment incl. upbringing and such, primed him to, when the opportunity came, reexamine his position.
Statistics aside, do you mean that this man maybe was too occupied by such feelings to let reason and facts in?
https://bsky.app/profile/johnmashey.bsky.social/post/3lga4q3zcys2f
People will change their minds quite often if they just sit and *listen* to a lived experience outside of their own.
https://youtu.be/GFOMXXDlBTw here's a good video on it
This timeline sucks but if we're going to have to be stuck in it, I want more Larrys in the world!
I was starting to lose hope that all the sane people had fled to MN.
If only we could rapidly reproduce that experience for around 70 million more people...
That’s when I began to cry.
Nice he changed his mind but what an arrogant asshole to fight something he admittedly knows nothing about.
there are many similar issues that have those same people in a froth, arguments that would simply cease to exist if there weren't other voices in the way, like here
we should absolutely celebrate this
We are all susceptible to that.
He got there and realized he could not, but someone somewhere got to him before that and convinced him he could.
Usually they don’t admit to a reporters that they know nothing like this guy did.
It's an unfortunate trend of human psychology. We are not immune to these fallacies.
Not with whatever you're doing.
So I tried to use that frustration for good. Still frustrated, but killed some time that I would've spent doomscrolling, so...
From that start, stuff like "They must all be bathroom perverts" doesn't seem as crazy as it is.
That said, they weren't talking about trans people nearly as much back then, and it wasn't until they did that I learned. I don't understand how people can believe that stuff now.
If you're cis, being trans is genuinely a foreign concept that you've never felt yourself.
It's true, everyone is at least a little bit gay, but being a different gender, I'm sure there are some, but not a lot.
most of us have had expectations laid on us by our parents, communities, society, that doesn't fit, that hurts, that feels false, that we're mistreated and guilted and shamed over
it's not the same…
again, it's not the same. but i think it rhymes enough to build on.
It’s very easy to dehumanize someone when you don’t see them. When you don’t know them.
The moment you see that person face to face and they tell their story… you feel their emotions wash over you. And then you understand.
Great job to the fearless people in line who changed this man’s perspective just by being out or allied.
I moved from Oklahoma to Wisconsin in 2023 and telling these ppl the hell I was in , they are just shocked people are this evil! and when they aren't around white ppl that loudly say their bigotry/racism constantly they don't realize just how deep the evil ideology goes!
that’s why
I'll still never understand disparaging an entire group of people due to your ignorance.
People just want to live their lives in peace.