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Q. McLamore

@ghawinriver.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.6K following 2.8K posts

Assistant Professor of Social Psychology (They/Them). Views expressed are strictly my own and not those of my employer.

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Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 9h

One thing that needs to be stressed here: the fact that the refs (namely, the news media, dominant political parties, academic institutions, social media platforms) consistently sided with these people is how we got here.

Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 12h

More history from this Nazi adulated by the Trump team. These are explicit, proud Nazis who scream and cry and call every referee they can find when you quote their Nazism back to them.

Multiple tweets from Nazi Jack Posobiec in 2016 making "jokes" involving the Nazi code "1488."

Reposted by Q. McLamore

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 12h

Siva Vaidhyanathan on the Trump admin’s proposed “compact” for universities (to give up academic freedom in exchange for favorable treatment by the Trump government): “This ‘compact’ is more like an invitation to borrow money from the mob, with substantial control and future penalties assured.”

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 16h

And from me:

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

You know me, Lexi! I made absolutely zero attempts because bluntly, it was impossible for my community to hate me any more than it already did. Had nothing to lose by pretending otherwise.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

Like to be clear: this isn't a social constructionist blank-slate take here; I'm just saying that even if none of that was true (which it is), not one thing would change, because it would still be immoral and cruel to arbitrarily quash TGE identities.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

Oh, to be clear: this is true. Obviously. What I'm pointing out is that even if it provably was not, nothing would change. TGE healthcare would still be a right even so because self-determination is a right. That the best evidence we have also suggests a biological component magnifies this.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

Probably because doing anything else--like taking calculated risks, acknowledging the difference between frontline and support roles, what-have-you--would involve actually imagining a future. It's suicidality the long-way around, and it's a problem that doesn't get talked about.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

When people seek martyrdom, let's be real, it's not because they think it will actually help build a movement around them, it's because they, specifically, want to die and can't imagine a world in which we actually win, so they throw themselves with abandon and demand everyone else do the same.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

I do want to gently point out that a lot of the people saying you have to be willing to die--bluntly--are suicidal and don't think we can win. There's a difference between wanting to die, and being willing to die, and because of how desperate the situation is, folks miss that distinction now.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

That, and that we shouldn't allow known bad actors/paid provocatuers like Cole to dictate the frame and terms of discussion about detrans people, because the second we accept the underlying argument she makes and only dispute the evidence, we've already lost, right? More than I even knew.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

But the broader point I'm trying to get at here is that this whole "born this way" biological essentialism was never for us; it was a narrative told about us because the idea that being gay or trans is a right in and of itself was a bridge too far for cis liberals (and still is).

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

This last one actually is relevant for the cultural moment, because "detransitioner" actually has a wide range of possible operations, as well. For instance, some metrics are purely medical (stopped taking hormones for health complications) whereas others require explicit cisgender identification.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

That is fair, and I apologize for doing the same sort of oversimplification I just decried. You're right, of course. Same principle applies to them, as well.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

The central claim of gender liberation is one of individual agency and freedom, that one's gender identity and expression need not be anchored to your chromosomes or your genitals, and that you can and should explore that space even if you ARE cisgender. No more, no less. But that scares libs.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

Particularly because the central claim of "transgenderism" is not, and never has been, that it is an innate, immutable trait since birth. That's cishet liberal bullshit they use to convince their alcoholic aunt why they shouldn't use slurs against their enby cousin.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 10h

I reject this, and anyone operating in good conscience should also reject this, because the problem with conversion therapy is not that it was unscientific, it's that it's just plain evil. I mean hell, beating children to write with their right hands worked; still abuse!

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 11h

Accepting the frame AT ALL lets Cole, Project 2025, and everyone like them win, because it signals that all you gotta do to convince liberals that it's OK to not bother protecting human rights for trans people is convince them it's all elective and therefore not "real."

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 11h

But bluntly speaking, even if being gay or being trans WAS a choice with zero biological basis, conversion therapy would still be wrong, because coercive therapy in general is wrong! Even if you COULD have effective results for "ex-gays," it would STILL be immoral and cruel!

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 11h

Cishet liberals only actually tolerate gay people and trans people because they think we can't change. If they thought we could be "normal," they'd endorse conversion therapy in a millisecond. That's why they were swallowing Zucker's bullshit for decades. It told them what they wanted to hear.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 11h

Also this just...plain isn't the case. First, conflating ex-gays with detransitioners writ large is just plain inaccurate. There are actually detransitioners, most of whom want nothing to do with Cole and her like; I've yet to see evidence of any actual ex-gays. The broader argument is what's wrong.

Reposted by Q. McLamore

Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 4d

"If you’ve figured out your core principles, then they will guide you about what to do. Remember, you’re not just performing an idea, it’s your life. It’s who you are."

Andrew Perfors @andyperfors.bsky.social · 4d

I'm a bit late to the game on this, but I finally read it and if you haven't done so, do check it out. It is a very thoughtfully kind (yet incisive) examination of where a lot of people on the left are right now, with Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates serving as rhetorical poles of sorts.

You don't have to swallow frogs

Klein and Coates show that if you don't know what your core beliefs are, you're going to get played.

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

Reposted by Q. McLamore

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 2d

My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Reposted by Q. McLamore

Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 1d

New from me and @brendannyhan.bsky.social

Why Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence" is a devil's bargain and should be rejected in all forms

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.

Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 13h

A more accurate title would be, "25% of professors took a glorified lottery ticket we call a job application in the North and will leave the state if they get a good enough offer prospect to do so and have no other realistic plans to flee."

Q. McLamore @ghawinriver.bsky.social · 13h

"Considering" is also doing a lot of legwork here. Sure, I'm "considering" leaving the South, and leaving the country, in the same way I'm "considering" cozying up to the Innsmouth people and walking beneath the sea forever, because that's about as actionable for pretty much every American academic

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Discussing this phenomenon w/ a group of profs. Someone morbidly joked, “& northern profs are fleeing the country.” The next person said…”even if we were all willing & able to abandon this place there are not enough jobs for us globally and the U.S. employs a huge # of international scholars too.”

‘Fear and hopelessness’: study finds one in four professors consider leaving US south

Survey by American Association of Professors shows nearly quarter of respondents are switching due to states’s politics

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Q. McLamore

Teresa Völker @tevoelker.bsky.social · 2d

New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵

Abstract