It’s sad she’s so close but still on ‘I want a middle ground on these issues’ really? Like…. She is okay with a little disrespect? A little discrimination?
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
315 points (97.0% liked)
Progressive Politics
3443 readers
629 users here now
Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)
(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
...I could have told you that 🤷
Source: https://x.com/BriannaWu/status/1984574165643403370
Not my usual kind of source (Xitter), but I want any centrists out there who ask trans people to "just get along" / compromise with actual hate groups that want them eradicated to know that it doesn't work.
There is no such thing as a reasonable bigot, by definition.
Just a little second class citizen, as a treat.
Taking the middle ground with Nazis is saying you want the holocaust to happen but only three million jews should die.
She is desperate for a place that she can be considered "one of the good ones" with the implicit idea of "there are bad ones and they deserve to be treated worse than the good ones". She doesn't understand that the world builds rules on foundational ideas that are just straw men dressed in stereotypes - no one bothers with distinction.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
First off, Brianna Wu is not my sister or comrade, so she can write that down.
"The problem is, they are getting crazier and crazier."
They're not, they just don't feel the need to hide those parts of their goals any more, and you should have listened to us when we warned you about those goals.
And you should be listening to us now about their future goals.
They kinda are. Not at the fringes, there used to be targeted outing campaigns in the hopes of getting trans people fired or killed back in the day, but what was once extreme personal bigotry has become a pipeline and is increasingly legitimized by mainstream right wing politics. If you ask the average bush era republican if the medical establishment should be forced to institutionalize trans people, they'd reply with a slur for sure but they'd not support overriding medical institutions.
Goldwater was absolute dogwater but he was right about republicans in 1981…
“On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs."
"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."
Even after all of that, she still doesn't get it:
I think many of our most extreme ideas are bad. But theirs are worse.
The problem is that "our" (using quotes as I'm only progressive, not LGBTQ+) most extreme ideas are only held by a minority of progressive people, and meanwhile the things she thinks are their "most extreme ideas" are the ones that she saw personally, while interacting with people who don't mind interacting with a trans-woman. Those aren't their "most extreme ideas." They're their mainstream ideas.
She's comparing our most extreme ideas against their mainstream ideas.
I'm not sure who she's referring to when she says our there but whoever it is would be insane to invite her in with that take
Also, she doesn't say what our most extreme ideas are. The most extreme idea she mentions is allowing trans-women to compete in women's sports. But I think that's probably a mainstream belief, and also the one that is best supported by science.
(Meanwhile, the most extreme idea of theirs that she mentions is that trans-women should face non-stop violent rape if they go to prison.)
Also, she doesn’t say what our most extreme ideas are.
If I were to try to define the most extreme positions held by any in our community (in regards to trans issues), they might be:
-
Bathroom access based on identity only. Very few people are actually like this. But some folks would say that all that is needed to switch bathrooms is identifying as a different gender. So it's perfectly acceptable for a person dressed in male clothing, with a beard, using a deep voice, etc. to use the women's restroom as long as they identify as female. Very few trans folks would be caught dead doing that. Most recognize that there is a certain give and take, a negotiation of social spaces. I imagine most would say you shouldn't have to pass in order to use the bathroom, but most would recognize that it's going to cause a ton of unnecessary friction and hate if someone fully masculine-presenting uses the women's restroom. I don't think people who can't pass should be banished from the bathroom that matches their identity. But I myself would be very uncomfortable sharing the women's restroom with an entirely masculine-presenting person, trans or not.
-
Unrealistic/impractical pronoun expectations. Some folks confuse "gender is a social construct" with "nothing is real and nothing matters." Pronouns are a social construct. That doesn't mean they mean nothing; it means they have socially constructed definitions. If I invent a new pronoun tomorrow and start demanding others call me it, that isn't a social construction. That's just something I invented and am now imposing on others without their participation or consent. In order to socially construct something, there must be a meeting of the minds, a shared milieu of understanding. A pronoun, if you expect people to actually use it, can't be something you just invented. It has to be something negotiated among a large number of people. This is why the pronouns people tend to actually use are he, she, and they. Most others get little use beyond extremely online teenagers. Pronouns are meant to be shorthand for characteristics of your identity. If your pronoun is so unique that no one has any idea what the hell it means, you're not using a pronoun, you're just using a nickname.
-
Sports based purely on identity with no qualifiers. I support trans women playing on women's teams and trans men playing on men's teams. But that's not just because of identity, but because I recognize that the science says that trans women don't have any advantages after a few years on HRT. I wouldn't however support trans women who still have male testosterone levels competing on women's teams. That's just about basic fairness. But, some would say that it's just sports, and that respect for identity matters more than athletic fairness, and that no one should have to seek out medical treatment they may not otherwise want. Fair enough, but I would disagree.
Still, these are extremes. The vast, vast majority of trans people wouldn't switch bathrooms before at least changing their presentation, use pronouns they can actually expect other people to use, and wouldn't expect to switch sports teams without altering their own hormones. If TERFs really were interested in compromise, these are the issues we could compromise on. So maybe we restrict bathrooms based on legal identity, but in turn we make it really easy to change your legal identity, say up to once per year. And we have clear social expectations about the rules of bathrooms. So it's OK if you don't fully pass, but you shouldn't be rocking a beard in the women's restroom. Or, we come to a compromise on pronouns. You can have your close friends call you whatever you want, but the only pronouns you should expect others to recognize are the broad and generic he, she, and they. We compromise by, for example, making it workplace harassment to not respect someone's pronouns. But in turn we trans people also don't demand that people learn hundreds of new pronouns or start referring to human beings as inanimate objects. Or, we regulate sports, but we don't try to ban trans people from sports all together. We follow the science that says trans women have no advantage after a few years on E. You can't change your teams based purely on self-ID, but we do give trans men and women a clear and open path to participate fully and equally in athletics.
If TERFs and other conservatives really were just looking for a reasonable compromise, these are the types of issues we could compromise on. But, as the post notes, you give these bastards an inch and they'll take a mile.
For those who are not familiar with Brianna Wu: She has tried to be a left-wing grifter, before she discovered that it got her nowhere and thus decided to be a right-wing grifter instead. She tried to the right-wing's "good trans woman", agreeing with everything they said, until the above message. And yeah, she is already trying to spin this yet again...
And if you think that all of that is rather weird, she is also the creator of this masterpiece.
what the hell was that last image
"You know, I'm starting to think these ethnicity-critical Nazis can't be reasoned with."
In a negotiation its important to ask for more than you want. Compromise is what you reach during negotiations. If you start your negotiations from a pre-compromised position, you're just ceding ground to the other side.
Support the extremists. Support those who go too far and ask too much, as that's the only way to reach a fair and reasonable compromise.
Congrats, you have a better grasp of negotiation than a 6-figure-salary consultant contracted to the DNC.
Oh, they ask for more than they want.
i like how she’s still worried about "our extreme ideas"
what extreme ideas??? that trans women should compete in women’s sports??? the extreme idea that trans women are women???
i’d say my most extreme idea is that trans kids should be able to start HRT when they (and their cis peers) start puberty. and that’s only an extreme idea if you believe that trans kids are less deserving of a normal puberty than cis kids.
load more comments
(4 replies)
You don't move the Overton window in the direction you want by preemptively moderating yourself. You move it by taking a more extreme position perhaps even than you actually want, in order to normalize it.
Make the middle ground billionaires are humanely executed.
We don't want compromise with the far-right. We want FULL POLITICAL POWER 💪🏼
load more comments
(1 replies)
I feel like I'd rather die for having to much faith in humanity than too little. And on that metric, I can't help but think BriannaWu was doing something right approaching right-wing nutjobs the way she did.
But more importantly, I'd rather not die in either of the aforementioned ways. What she did was definitely done out of (perhaps admirable) naïveté. And she's clearly grown as a person from the experience.
All that said, I don't know that she's got the best positions on everything. She says she believes that "trans women don't belong in women's sports" and she wants a "middle ground on bathrooms", both of which seem... problematic (even if the right wing wasn't so maximalist and radical about things.) And that part makes me wonder if the rest of the tweet was made in good faith, honestly.
Even if it is, she needs to sit her ass down and talk to other trans people irl. Like, this is terminally ill online brainrot and it's internet famous brainrot. Ms Wu needs therapy, she needs to go to a day of remembrance ceremony, and she needs to delete Twitter.
She comes to us as a sister again, but she still ain't treating us as one. We don't call each other family because it's some quirky thing, we do it because our community is filled with people who lost our families over this, where people we know will be buried with the wrong name. So yeah, she's my sister, but I don't think she thinks of us as such and I think she's been very out of touch with us for a long time.
Naaaah, she was throwing around the Cass Review last I checked (a year ago). This wasn't a virtuous arbitration between two differently informed parties. She's always done reactionary politicking and shouted "lalala cant hear you" whenever forced to break bread with mainstream trans advocacy.
Cheers to her if she's opened her eyes a bit, but I'm not holding my breath.
Importantly there is an immediate follow up tweet,
2/ I consider my business settled with all trans sisters. If anyone wants to reset things, unblock and move forward, I am happy to do that
I'm glad she was able to admit she was wrong, that's absolutely a step in the right direction, but it's just a step. I don't want to speak of behalf of "trans sisters", but I certainly wouldn't consider the matter closed. She's apologized, great, but there is A LOT more work to be done.
Is Brianna wu grifting to the left because she realizes there isn't a place for her on the right anymore? I'm a bit too cynical to believe this is legitimate since the right has been like this for quite a while. Just with the trump admin the center right position on the trans movement is not a profitable option for pundits anymore
If this truly is a come to Jesus moment, I'll believe it if she can back it up over time
My attitude after the last election is trust no republican, they'll go back the second they can while crying to the left when they're being mistreated by their own.
Me over here with actually somewhat radical positions.
All HRT should be available OTC. (Yes, including T.)
A parent denying a child access to puberty blockers should be required to pay reparations if the child continues to identify as trans into adulthood.
Require unisex bathrooms for any business larger than a bananna stand.
I'm going to push back on OTC HRT because of the health risks. Supraphysiologic estrogen and testosterone can both have lethal side effects, so correct dosing and monitoring for health complications are essential components of trans healthcare.
Both are already OTC in most of the world, specifically most developing countries.
More importantly, you are applying an insane and bad-faith standard when assessing medication. ANY medication can have lethal side effects. Down a bottle full of Tylenol and you'll condemn yourself to a slow agonizing death of liver failure. Yet you can buy that shit at gas stations.
You answered the wrong question. You asked, "can HRT be dangerous?" Any rational person trying to form an unbiased opinion about it would ask, "is HRT of comparable risk to existing OTC medications?"
DIY saved my life. I purchased bloodtests and monitored my own treatment. But it would have been a lot safer had I not needed to order estrogen online from a foreign supplier.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I don't believe parents should be able to make any permanent decisions about a child's body.
This includes hormones, tattoos, genital mutilation of any kind, plastic surgery, piercings.
Children cannot provide consent for anything.
load more comments
(2 replies)
It's easy to dunk on how wrong she used to be, Brianna absolutely and clearly was. But now that even she agrees, it's not super helpful to mock her about it.
There are a oodles of different social pressures to conform for trans women, I truly understand her motivation. Girl let her internalized transphobia take the wheel and went look for nonexistent middle ground. Especially early in transition it's alluring to be *one of the good ones" and get a very specific type of applause for it.
We need to recognize that Bri didn't have to admit her faults, glad she did, but even on far more trivial issues most folk struggle. I'm glad she got here, and I look forward to her being better advocate for our rights. But her past should only be as an example for others, not a crudgel to mock her previous bargaining.
Welcome Hon, glad to see ya. ♥️
She still says she believes in “middle ground” with violent, homicidal, totalitarian fascists. Despite everything, she still hasn’t realized that “middle ground” is a fallacy that rightists use as a trap to take everything from others.
“Meet me in the middle” says the unjust man. You take a step forward, they take a step back. “Meet me in the middle” says the unjust man.
She’s close, I think, but only when you admit that compromising with the unjust is ALWAYS perpetuating injustice can you be forgiven.
Brianna should go home and read, forever.
She was wrong. She remains wrong. The most help she can be to anyone is to butt the fuck out.
The trans movement in no wise needed a quisling to suck up to TERFs, and we aren't going to coddle her for getting what she was told she would.
This is not a matter of innocent ignorance. This was a matter of willfully ignoring all of the people telling you what would happen, complete with historical record.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Sounds great IF she does agree. She's dropped this ball before. I agree with you, except very tentatively.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Not my sister.
Better late than never but bitch we ALL warned you
TBH this is probably just more grifting from Brianna Wu. Are there any actual sources for "laugh as she got aids from being raped" type comments? afaik terfs would be more like "that's unfortunate but not our problem"
Progressives have given so much ground that their encampment is on middle-ground.
I have no sympathy whatsoever.
Fuck off and have the day you voted for.
once again ignoring entirely that trans masc people exist and we are impacted by the bullshit she spouts as well. what impacts one of us affects all of us, and I am not your fucking sister.
Uncle Tom transitioned to Aunty Tom.
The fact that this is dated Nov 1st... How the hell could it take you this long to figure it out??
view more: next ›