User:Woozle/LwaC/2016-05-26
So, I received a reply from my dad just now.
Warning: Please be sure to turn off all irony meters in order to prevent accidental combustion, and make sure that your facepalm reserves are fully charged before proceeding.
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Dear W: Thanks for thoughtful note. Trip to UK went fine -- [...describes the trip...]
I don't want to argue with you about the TG business. An article in today's Times ('TG woman in lavatory victory') [s]hows what I mean. A TG woman told a Channel ferry company that she planned to use the Ladies. In other words, she started it. She was told she should use the Disabled facility and then got upset that toilets on the ferry were labeled Ladies and Gents. She complained to the appropriate government department and apparently won. The company agreed to change the words to symbols. A great victory was this!
I agree the guy in the video is an ignorant nutcase. TG people should not be discriminated against-- anymore than people who are color-blind or handicapped. But I see no reason to celebrate them, or treat them as 'normal' which they are clearly not. In other words, the whole thing looks like a battle for status, not the right to go to a bathroom, which was always available. The Charlotte decision was a response to this which, predictably, provoked an over-reaction by the conservatives in the NC state govt. But we should not let a few bigots, on both sides, capture the public attention.
A plague on all of them, I say. Let's get on with serious issues...And I don't want us to upset one another disputing such things.
[...goes on to discuss return plans for one paragraph...]
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"I don't want to argue with you about this", then proceeds to argue about it -- with a claim that seems designed to piss me off ("she started it" by saying she was going to use the women's room), though he's probably just repeating it from some other source, and is not himself the engineer of its unique and powerful pissing-off capability.
My choices seem clear: either ignore the TG discussion (which seems like the adult thing to do -- but again, there's no guarantee he won't bring it up again), or address it (in which case I'm starting a fight by continuing the subject after he suggested we drop it).
Maybe I should say something like "I'll ignore everything you said on the subject if you promise never to bring it up again ".
He'll agree, and then "forget" and bring it up anyway -- but at least I'll have his agreement in writing, and could bring it with me to future lunches.
I know how this goes, though: If he brings it up at lunch, and I bring out the proof that he agreed not to bring it up, he'll laugh it off and tell me not to take things so seriously. "Lighten up!"
There's just no setting boundaries with him.
Apparently he returns July 1.