I can see it now, as a 1950s horror movie (that'd be riffed on MST3K): "I Was A Teenage TRA"!

... well, OK; not really. Both the teenage part (GenXer here: was decidedly... MATURE when this trans-shit hit) and the TRA part (my "support" barely got beyond entry-level, thus FAR short of rabid). But, like so many of us, I did have something of a journey to the T-droppin' Promised Land.

Struggled for years, as a good little liberal/leftist/progressive, to be cool with the whole trans-thing... but could never quite shake my discomfort: the sense that this just wasn't right. Which was there from the very beginning. Largely thanks to my pre-existing knowledge that "gender" was not only a bunch of bullshit, but singularly-pernicious bullshit, at that. So how could reinforcing it possibly be a good thing?

Still, I didn't see the true scope of its implications, never mind intentions. Largely because, being so isolated, my knowledge wasn't firsthand; I had to rely on the media for that-- web sites, books, periodicals, TV, radio. Which meant (though I didn't realize it) getting fed the TRA party line. AKA "They Just Want To Pee!" And thus assuming that, despite my certainty that "genderism" could only be wrong (in both senses of the word), "trans" people were less its proponents than its victims... along with everyone else. Trying to negotiate this destructive, all-pervasive ideology as best they could. We all do; we all make compromises. Maybe this is theirs. A way to escape at least some of it. Sure, ideally we'd all just straight-up reject gender-- but for those who lack the imagination, resolve, or courage... this might be the closest they're capable of getting. So we'll simply "agree to disagree".

Accordingly, I was dismissive of the so-called "bathroom bills" when they became a thing in other states. And I admonished myself for seeing "trans" people as their sex-- yet another example, no doubt, of my inability to meet social standards, with that going double for "cool" ones. But still, beneath the veneer of obedience... I always remained uneasy.

Then along came all the stuff that steadily chipped even this veneer away. The quintessential ladyfeelz linebacker-dude threatening a fellow talk-show guest with assault on camera (that I took Ben fucking Shapiro's side over his speaks VOLUMES). Trans Emperor Bruce Jenner and how everyone was expected to admire-- hell, CELEBRATE-- his new clothes. That, on overtly-liberal web sites like We Hunted the Mammoth and Pajiba, anything less than chug-a-lugging trans-Kool Aid would get you shut down INSTANTLY. Then of course the infamous Cotton Ceiling took a fucking sand-blaster to whatever veneer was left.

So... never really a TRA, then. But I still feel implicated, since it wasn't for lack of trying... and even THAT is way too close to comfort for me.

In closing: just wanted to thank you for this post, OP. An important question to ask, thought-provoking (maybe a bit too much in my case, huh?), and also really well-written. I share your distress; hope that knowing you're not alone, and having a place to vent, helps at least a little. :)