Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

atlasobscura.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 60 posts

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#51

Post by sctb »

shiohime wrote: post #23
orf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point me to the guideline that says stories must be related to development please?

It says under what to not submit: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Ideological or political battle or talking points. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. Note this is obvious political banter bait - hence I'd argue it falls under the ideological / polit…

Maybe you're right and this story can't be discussed civilly here, but if that's the case it would be our own failure and not because the article itself was comprised of ideological or political talking points, which it isn't.

Other commenters: can we try to avoid a pile-on in cases like these? There are some personal barbs here that aren't part of good community behavior.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#52

Post by mikestew »

rexpop wrote: post #15
irrational wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what are you doing that cops are looking up your information so often? Is this from being pulled over for traffic violations? I'm struggling to think of the last time I had any interaction with someone who wanted to see an ID from me. Maybe I just don't get out often enough ;-)

Your lack of experience does not matter, in this conversation: your comment reads as a victim-blaming apology for state violence.

Bullshit. The comment started with "I'm curious..." I am curious as well, because as I try to be empathetic, it is difficult because I cannot create a scenario in my mind where a cop asks about my gender. So instead of just blowing it off as "$DISPARAGING_WORD_FOR_TRANS's had it coming" or whatever an unsympathetic phrasing would be, I'd rather be sympathetic by asking, "help me out here, how do the difficulties that you face (that I apparently don't) play out?"

But you call that "victim blaming". It's one of the reasons we don't get nice things.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#53

Post by lampington »

shiohime wrote: post #19
arkona2 wrote: post #10

Seems like Hacker News is being co-opted by people with an agenda. I see more and more of these off-topic articles popping up on the front page

lol this and so many other articles aren't even remotely related to development. Literally off topic according to the site guidelines.

If you think the life experiences of gay/trans people in 1930s Europe aren't remotely related to development then you might want to read a little bit about the life of Alan Turing. While it's a little over-dramatised, the recent movie "the Imitation Game" is a good starting point.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#54

Post by DanBC »

ythn wrote: post #20
Pixeleen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it was only once with a cop in recent memory, and yes it was for a traffic violation. I am a frequent international traveller as well. In neither circumstance should what the computer has about my previous genitals come into play. I write that I am a transsexual here for simplicity, but I am not "trans". That is not who I am. I am a woman, not a woman with an asterisk.

> I am a woman, not a woman with an asterisk. I think the information the asterisk conveys is important. For example, I don't think trans women should be allowed to compete against cis women in sports on even terms since it is physiologically unfair.

unfair, you say?

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/26/560210230/...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/emily-nash-golf-tour...

> US teenage girl wins golf tournament but is denied trophy because she's not a boy

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#55

Post by Pixeleen »

mikestew wrote: post #52
rexpop wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your lack of experience does not matter, in this conversation: your comment reads as a victim-blaming apology for state violence.

Bullshit. The comment started with "I'm curious..." I am curious as well, because as I try to be empathetic , it is difficult because I cannot create a scenario in my mind where a cop asks about my gender. So instead of just blowing it off as "$DISPARAGING_WORD_FOR_TRANS's had it coming" or whatever an unsympathetic phrasing would be, I'd rather be sympathetic by asking, "help me out here, how do the difficulties tha…

There are a lot of people who want to be the heroes of transsexuals because we are the topic of the moment. They twist words around or exaggerate, like this undue accusation of violence when I described comments/questions/looks and nothing physical. Those people do not speak for me.

That said, there are other people in my situation who have suffered actual violence, not just harsh looks and words.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#56

Post by mikestew »

Pixeleen wrote: post #55
mikestew wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. The comment started with "I'm curious..." I am curious as well, because as I try to be empathetic , it is difficult because I cannot create a scenario in my mind where a cop asks about my gender. So instead of just blowing it off as "$DISPARAGING_WORD_FOR_TRANS's had it coming" or whatever an unsympathetic phrasing would be, I'd rather be sympathetic by asking, "help me out here, how do the difficulties tha…

There are a lot of people who want to be the heroes of transsexuals because we are the topic of the moment. They twist words around or exaggerate, like this undue accusation of violence when I described comments/questions/looks and nothing physical. Those people do not speak for me. That said, there are other people in my situation who have suffered actual violence, not just harsh looks and words.

There are a lot of people who want to be the heroes of transsexuals

Thank you for a more charitable view of the comment to which I replied.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#57

Post by khedoros1 »

orf wrote: post #43
khedoros1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Ideological or political battle or talking points. There's some overlap between hackers and people interested in the history of gender politics and sociology, but I'd say that something like this is closer to an "ideological or politi…

Perhaps, but it's not literally off topic and the implication that articles have to be related to development in some way is false.

When I say "technically off-topic", I do mean "literally off-topic". I think that based on a reasonable reading of the topic guidelines, the post is off-topic.

Specifically, I think it plays easily into an ideological talking point.

> the implication that articles have to be related to development in some way is false.

I agree. I wasn't trying to imply that something needs to be development-related to be on-topic. "Good hackers" often find things besides development interesting, and I'm not arguing that point.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#58

Post by emmab »

heterodoxia wrote: post #45

I created an account to comment here on the topicalness of this. Given many of us on HN work in the field of online identity, this is supremely relevant topic. As someone who has had acquaintances who transitioned, (one operation, one "asterixed" as another commenter described) and worked with a more than a few non-binary people, identity as experienced, and how it gets implemented by bureaucracies, companies, and th…

It can be really hard to get credit/background checks under the new name to work for a couple years after getting a name change. And you sometimes get stuck with having to use new name and old name for the same thing for different reasons with no resolution.

Credit checks would come back as "suspected fraud".

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#59

Post by norikki »

Lazare wrote: post #47
shiohime wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if you don't think that talking about trans people in the Weimar Republic and how their life was affected by the rise of Nazism is opening yourself up for a political battle or talking point I don't know what is.

Unlike the linked article, your comment actually IS explicitly against the site guidelines, so I maintain my view that you did NOT read them before posting, and are now just trying to come up with an argument retroactively. > "Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it." Second, I think the argument you have come up with is laughable. No, I don't think historica…

So if someone were to link an article about how "prostitution and single motherhood rates went way up during the Weimar Republic before the Nazis cracked down on degenerate behavior" that would just be an interesting "historical detail" and would not be off-topic? Or is it only off topic to say things that discredit progressive politics.

Re: 1900s ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe from Harassment

#60

Post by jasonkostempski »

Pixeleen wrote: post #30
rexpop wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would? I wonder.

You are both right. If there was a transsexual exception to this field, I just KNOW that some criminals would abuse it, to the detriment of those of us who actually need this protection.

Maybe just don't let know criminals legally change names. Is that not already a thing?
Post reply on HN