“We have enough. We can take care of people. We just choose not to.”
November 15, 2024 12:24 PM Subscribe
Infiltrating a Bay Area anti-trans meeting is hardly standard fare for a restaurant critic, but Soleil Ho isn’t your average food writer.
How Writer Soleil Ho Reimagined Restaurant Criticism
I attended a secretive anti-trans dinner in San Francisco. And then I puked
I attended a secretive anti-trans dinner in San Francisco. And then I puked
As a former restaurant critic, I don’t get to go to dinner on assignment much anymore. But last week, I spent a grueling few hours in the private back room of a restaurant in North Beach, listening to a crowd gnash their teeth about “parental rights,” and the Trans Conspiracy to Destroy the American Family, while noshing on very dry garlic bread.Do you eat dog?
We Asians have probably all been asked at least once, perhaps with the inquirer’s index finger pointed suggestively at our banh mi or Caesar salads: Is that dog? Is it true you eat dog?Craving the other (prev)
Their commonality is their insistence on appreciating a culture that exists mostly in their heads; they share a nostalgia for someone else’s life. Nostalgia traps the things you love in glass jars, letting you appreciate their arrested beauty until they finally die of boredom or starvation.
Mod note: URLs Fixed, please carry on.
posted by loup (staff) at 12:35 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by loup (staff) at 12:35 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
"Do you eat dog" is still returning the FPP.
I think it should be: Do You Eat Dog?
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
I think it should be: Do You Eat Dog?
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
The anti-trans people can all go die in a fire, but I went from "prioritizing neighborhood restaurants" over fine dining (neat!) to "plant-based options" (oooh that eyeroll gave me a headache) to "strong Virgo placement" and noped straight out.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 12:55 PM on November 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 12:55 PM on November 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
Here's an ungated version of the "anti-trans dinner" article.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:14 PM on November 15, 2024 [8 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:14 PM on November 15, 2024 [8 favorites]
I went from "prioritizing neighborhood restaurants" over fine dining (neat!) to "plant-based options" (oooh that eyeroll gave me a headache) to "strong Virgo placement" and noped straight out.
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posted by Why Is The World In Love Again? at 1:27 PM on November 15, 2024 [24 favorites]
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posted by Why Is The World In Love Again? at 1:27 PM on November 15, 2024 [24 favorites]
The formatting on that archives version becomes unreadable about halfway through for me on mobile forefox. Is it working for anyone else?
posted by Wretch729 at 1:28 PM on November 15, 2024
posted by Wretch729 at 1:28 PM on November 15, 2024
From the “Do You Eat Dog” link: As recently as 2016, an Oregon senate candidate suggested that taking in Vietnamese refugees was a mistake because, in his words, they were “harvesting people’s dogs and cats.”. Seems kind of dated now. But really, this is a great post about someone I hadn’t heard about and who deserves all the accolades that can be thrown at them. That anti-trans dinner was a brave move on their part; at least in my part of the country they might actually be risking their life as much as a black person infiltrating the Klan.
posted by TedW at 1:42 PM on November 15, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by TedW at 1:42 PM on November 15, 2024 [3 favorites]
Anti-trans dinner:
I must have missed the part where the speakers clearly identified the powers of interest behind the alleged indoctrination and clearly explained their motivations for supporting the stated end goals.
posted by flabdablet at 3:19 PM on November 15, 2024 [11 favorites]
During a Q&A session at the end of the event, the speakers gave the audience the moment they were waiting for. An attendee asked them, “Who are the powers of interest behind transgender indoctrination, and what is their end goal?”Goodness me, that does sound scary.
“The end goal is really dark,” said Garfield-Jaeger, and the crowd hissed and whooped in anticipation of the revelation. “Trans humanism, pedophilia … destroying the family, our culture and our society. Marxism.” The crowd went wild.
I must have missed the part where the speakers clearly identified the powers of interest behind the alleged indoctrination and clearly explained their motivations for supporting the stated end goals.
posted by flabdablet at 3:19 PM on November 15, 2024 [11 favorites]
“The answer flows naturally from that one value: We have enough. We can take care of people. We just choose not to.”
I have said that about the Bay Area where I live many many times. Having the huge homelessness issue that we do is an absolute disgrace.
posted by birdsongster at 3:24 PM on November 15, 2024 [16 favorites]
I have said that about the Bay Area where I live many many times. Having the huge homelessness issue that we do is an absolute disgrace.
posted by birdsongster at 3:24 PM on November 15, 2024 [16 favorites]
It's remarkable how powerful Marxism is despite almost no one knowing any actual, you know, Marxists.
I knew one once. He tried to convince high school students to attend his study sessions, without any apparent success. If only I knew then that he was part of a global trans indoctrination movement, I might have attended one of them.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:36 PM on November 15, 2024 [13 favorites]
I knew one once. He tried to convince high school students to attend his study sessions, without any apparent success. If only I knew then that he was part of a global trans indoctrination movement, I might have attended one of them.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:36 PM on November 15, 2024 [13 favorites]
I loved reading Soleil Ho when they were the critic at the Chronicle. Introduced me to Aussie Pies which are my go to frozen quick meal option! I always found their criticism thoughtful and grounded too, much better than Michael Bauer and certainly inclusive not just of his friends in SF, but the wider Bay.
posted by Carillon at 4:52 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 4:52 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
Mod note: One comment and one response removed.
Soleil uses they/them pronouns, so we have requested the editing of the removed comment and if that's ok'd, we'll reinstate it with the correct pronouns.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:47 PM on November 15, 2024
Soleil uses they/them pronouns, so we have requested the editing of the removed comment and if that's ok'd, we'll reinstate it with the correct pronouns.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:47 PM on November 15, 2024
Siderail
Introduced me to Aussie Pies
Cock Salt
snigger
posted by Thella at 6:31 PM on November 15, 2024
Introduced me to Aussie Pies
Cock Salt
snigger
posted by Thella at 6:31 PM on November 15, 2024
Soleil has plenty of guts. They're braver than I could ever be to be locked in with a bunch of drunken assholes.
I must have missed the part where the speakers clearly identified the powers of interest behind the alleged indoctrination and clearly explained their motivations for supporting the stated end goals.
There's nothing rational about these people. They just want to feed on each other's hatred.
My most generous suspicion would be that Sierra, the de-transitioner, is a victim of conversion therapy, or has been taught to hate her(them?)self by family of origin. Either that, or she's an out-right liar knowingly pandering for attention. She has ...stories of blood blisters and botched surgeries.... For reals? Surely, she would have also presented statistics if it's that common.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:54 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
I must have missed the part where the speakers clearly identified the powers of interest behind the alleged indoctrination and clearly explained their motivations for supporting the stated end goals.
There's nothing rational about these people. They just want to feed on each other's hatred.
My most generous suspicion would be that Sierra, the de-transitioner, is a victim of conversion therapy, or has been taught to hate her(them?)self by family of origin. Either that, or she's an out-right liar knowingly pandering for attention. She has ...stories of blood blisters and botched surgeries.... For reals? Surely, she would have also presented statistics if it's that common.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:54 PM on November 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
Extremely cool, thanks for sharing! Drag infiltration is both hilarious and sad. I'm curious how those meetings might have changed in the last year and a half.
>She has ...stories of blood blisters and botched surgeries....
>For reals? Surely, she would have also presented statistics if it's that common
I will say, complications arise for trans surgeries at about the same rates as comparable equivalent surgeries. Many of us who experience less-than-satisfactory results from our gender-affirming care are afraid to discuss and wouldn't want to be represented in stats for fear of our difficult experiences being used against us. I'm not sure how to make space to discuss this that doesn't lend a hand to anti trans rhetoric but I'm interested in doing so.
posted by Summers at 2:05 AM on November 16, 2024 [11 favorites]
>She has ...stories of blood blisters and botched surgeries....
>For reals? Surely, she would have also presented statistics if it's that common
I will say, complications arise for trans surgeries at about the same rates as comparable equivalent surgeries. Many of us who experience less-than-satisfactory results from our gender-affirming care are afraid to discuss and wouldn't want to be represented in stats for fear of our difficult experiences being used against us. I'm not sure how to make space to discuss this that doesn't lend a hand to anti trans rhetoric but I'm interested in doing so.
posted by Summers at 2:05 AM on November 16, 2024 [11 favorites]
...and wouldn't want to be represented in stats for fear of our difficult experiences being used against us.
This seems like the crux of it to me. I wrote and re-wrote a comment about how some of what you said hits pretty close to home for me because of reasons but it didn't sit right and I'm realizing the biggest difference is that me talking about my experience in no way, shape or form is going to change anyone's opinion about white men in a negative way. Plenty of folks have experience with medical procedures going wrong that can relate some but having to consider the impact on a whole group of people is whole 'nother, shittier, level.
So all I've got is, that really fucking sucks and I'm sorry anyone has to deal with that and I'm sorry there isn't more that I can do. /hugs
posted by VTX at 6:25 PM on November 17, 2024 [3 favorites]
This seems like the crux of it to me. I wrote and re-wrote a comment about how some of what you said hits pretty close to home for me because of reasons but it didn't sit right and I'm realizing the biggest difference is that me talking about my experience in no way, shape or form is going to change anyone's opinion about white men in a negative way. Plenty of folks have experience with medical procedures going wrong that can relate some but having to consider the impact on a whole group of people is whole 'nother, shittier, level.
So all I've got is, that really fucking sucks and I'm sorry anyone has to deal with that and I'm sorry there isn't more that I can do. /hugs
posted by VTX at 6:25 PM on November 17, 2024 [3 favorites]
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posted by german_bight at 12:31 PM on November 15, 2024