How Is This News About Me, And Other Bumps in the Learning Curve

Painting by Marion Winik

While I was trying to learn how to support trans people —and I picked a good time for it, with anti-trans bills being passed all over the country — I watched a couple of episodes about the J.K. Rowling controversy on the great Baltimore-based YouTube channel, ContraPoints, the video essays of a trans cultural critic named Natalie Wynn. J.K. Rowling has become the queen of a movement called “trans-exclusionary radical feminism,” (TERF) which has more problematic aspects than I can possibly go into here — check out ContraPoints or other resources for details. Within the first three minutes of the show, in reference to the 1970s anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, Natalie says, “I think it’s really noble how she’s able to project all of her emotional baggage onto the marginalized group whose rights she’s trying to take away.”

My jaw dropped.

Thank you, Natalie. You have explained so many things to me over the years. And your penchant for sorting carefully through the logic of fallacious arguments inspires me here.

By Marion Winik