This is mostly what I meant. The way people talk about Andy's gender isn't limited to Andy, but will bleed through to (and is reflective of) larger discussions. I don't mean to imply that anyone should have sympathy for Andy or let him get away with the things he's done, it's just that I see people accusing him of bad faith for doing things that are not uncommon and it gives me pause.
The majority position here seems to be that whatever happens in the future in unrelated discussions is of less concern than shedding light on what Andy's done--fair enough. But I also think it's worth pointing out when problematic things are being said. Andy has some serious internalized transphobia--so do lots of people. It seems to me that there's a fine line between saying 'Andy is a bad person and has used his gender identity in these ways' and 'Andy is a bad trans man and let me explain to you how trans men should be.' I see the same thing in discussion of his claimed mental illness(es) and, while it gives me pause, it's also a useful discussion to have. In part because it raises awareness about the realities of living with psychotic episodes and the like, whereas Andy's been obfuscating for years. I would hope that discussions about trans identities here do something similar, rather than reinforcing any sort of standardized narrative.
All that said, I understand why people here react negatively to that. Andy and his followers have used SJW concerns to shut down discussions and I can see how my statement would sound similar. I really have no desire to shut down discussions about Andy and am glad this community has a Gloves Off post. It's just something that I've noticed myself feeling uncomfortable about now that FFA's restrictive discussion rules are off the table.
Re: DIscussion of Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
This is mostly what I meant. The way people talk about Andy's gender isn't limited to Andy, but will bleed through to (and is reflective of) larger discussions. I don't mean to imply that anyone should have sympathy for Andy or let him get away with the things he's done, it's just that I see people accusing him of bad faith for doing things that are not uncommon and it gives me pause.
The majority position here seems to be that whatever happens in the future in unrelated discussions is of less concern than shedding light on what Andy's done--fair enough. But I also think it's worth pointing out when problematic things are being said. Andy has some serious internalized transphobia--so do lots of people. It seems to me that there's a fine line between saying 'Andy is a bad person and has used his gender identity in these ways' and 'Andy is a bad trans man and let me explain to you how trans men should be.' I see the same thing in discussion of his claimed mental illness(es) and, while it gives me pause, it's also a useful discussion to have. In part because it raises awareness about the realities of living with psychotic episodes and the like, whereas Andy's been obfuscating for years. I would hope that discussions about trans identities here do something similar, rather than reinforcing any sort of standardized narrative.
All that said, I understand why people here react negatively to that. Andy and his followers have used SJW concerns to shut down discussions and I can see how my statement would sound similar. I really have no desire to shut down discussions about Andy and am glad this community has a Gloves Off post. It's just something that I've noticed myself feeling uncomfortable about now that FFA's restrictive discussion rules are off the table.