Today, on the way home, I debated in my head what I gain or lose by participating in politics. "Participating in politics" for me means keeping a civil rights blog and writing comments online.
What I lose when I participate in politics is the opportunity to achieve a pure heart. If my life were going to end tomorrow, the thing that I would regret the most would be not having lived up to my highest potential for broadmindedness, compassion, and peace-making. If I talk about this from a pagan perspective, it would be loss of the opportunity to be a genuine devotee of Concordia, rather than a part-time one.
However, in the debate about transgender civil rights, I would like there to be down-to-earth, non-ideological voices. For that reason, I feel uncomfortable stopping.
The trans-critical religious right wing offers ideology and attempts to shoehorn reality into it while posturing as realism. Trans-critical feminism has made some valid points (e.g., the Vagina Monologues is not transphobic!), but it too rests some of its assertions on ideology. Transgender activism, for its part, rests some of its assertions on ideology as well.
What I like are those whose loyalties are both to compassion and to following the evidence.
This is my dilemma.
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