a quick note on free speech online

The other day I saw a tweet stating that online trolls are the canary in the coal mine of free speech. These people consider themselves heroes, noble crusaders in a world in which censorship runs amok. 

People who might charitably be referred to as “online trolls” like to regularly send me vile tweets insulting and dehumanizing me as a trans person. These people are not radicals fighting against oppressive institutions. They support the transphobic, transmisogynistic status quo. They are part of the reason why I live in a world that is hostile to trans people, why I never forget when I leave the house that I, as a visibly trans person, am entering a world that hates trans people. 

Now, I could care about the right of these people to freely express their hatred of trans folks online in the name of “free speech.” Or, in the name of “free speech,” I could care about the right of tomorrow’s young trans woman to leave her apartment and enter the world, inhabiting herself fully and speaking herself honestly without the fear that comes from living in a world in which you are hated simply for being who you are. 

Should people have the right to express racist, homophobic, misogynistic, or transphobic ideas? I suppose, and in any case they do have that right. But in a sensible, equitable culture that recognizes the full, intrinsic humanity of people who are currently marginalized and dehumanized, these ideas will be distasteful and their expression frowned upon. Instead of trans people being afraid simply to leave their homes for fear of assault or murder, transphobes will be afraid to express their transphobia for fear of being shunned for their hateful ideology. 

Make racists afraid
Make misogynists afraid
Make homophobes afraid 
Make transphobes and transmisogynists afraid

so that women, people of color, queer and trans folks might live and speak their truths without fear in a world that does not hate them or dehumanize them simply for being who they are.