I was browsing a trans forum when I saw something that made me think we need to have a little discussion about biopolitics and eugenics. For those of you who aren’t up on your Nazism, let me first explain what these two theories are.
Eugenics is the idea of “good breeding.” Eugenics proponents usually believe in a cleansing of the gene pool by only allowing people with desirable trait to reproduce.
Biopolitics is the idea that the state is a living organism, complete with “parasites” that need to be “cut out.” Usually these parasites are the poor and/or minority groups (blacks, gays, etc.). (I am currently writing an article for the Anarcho-syndicalist Review about how biopolitics is essentially true, except that the “parasites” are the elite: bankers, politicians, etc. When I’m done with it I’ll post it here as well.)
Both of these theories are usually associated with the far right (e.g. Nazism, Stalinism, etc.). They are, however, alive and well in mainstream America. Eugenics’ current form is in the pharmaceutical industry. By charging exorbitant amounts of money for essential drugs (cancer meds, antipsychotics, etc.), they ensure that the poor (uninsured) are less able to receive necessary health care. This is especially true with cancer medications; by denying such meds to the uninsured, they are hoping that the lower classes will die out and only the elite will be able to fight such a threatening ailment. It’s also true with trans people; they hope that by denying us essential support in our transitions, we will either self-destruct due to feeling “trapped” in a gender role we don’t identify with, or that we go broke transitioning. hat way, we are unable to breach the class lines and move up in the world. (Their plot is porving harder to implicate than they thought, though; they seemed to assume that we would simply roll over and die.)
Any way, the reason I wanted to talk about these topics is because in the past I’ve heard people talk of a “gay gene,” and now I see there is talk of a “trans gene.” These may seem like liberal notions, since they would seem to prove once and for all that homosexuality/transgenderism are natural (i.e., genetic). However, the far right is secretly parying to their “wrathful god” that this turns out to be the case. If these “lifestyles” are truly genetic, then they can once and for all be wiped out. The right hopes for a gay/trans gene, because if they were to discover such a gene, that means they could either: 1.) Figure out how to deactivate it, thereby “curing” alleged “sexual deviants”, or 2.) Identify individual carriers of these genes and take steps to prevent them from breeding.
I strongly urge all LGBT people to abandon hopes of such genes and stop talking about them as if they were a godsend. If such genes exist, they must never be discovered; it is vital to our existence. Fortunately, I highly doubt that a trans gene does exist (see my post on my views regarding gender), and I think that being gay/bisexual is a matter of fetishism. For instance, I am attracted to women, but what that means is that I have fetishes for soft skin, a curvy body, less muscle definition, and other things deemed “feminine.” I highly doubt being gay is genetic, I think it’s much more complicated than that.
Chez Alex 