Polyamorous people need to brace: they might be the next target after trans people
I decided to look into, what group of people might end up the next target for the conservative discrimination, and I have some news for poly and other non-nuclear family structures (NNFS): late 2030s/40s might be rough.
Disclaimer: I used ChatGPT as a sanity check and a search and pattern analysis assist.
So initially I identified the pattern. Most of the discrimination history, at least in the anglophone western world, follows the same rough pattern:
1) low visibility, casual discrimination, ambiguous legality or rarely enforced prohibition 2) increased visibility, demand for rights, first successes, 3) loud backlash, often under the pretense of “protecting children and women” and laws sliding back often creating a framework of legal discrimination, 4) push back and then settlement with sufficient legalization and acceptance (not full yet but sufficient for livable lives).
Gay people, feminists and independent women, and POC are firmly in stage 4 or past it. Recent attacks on their rights were almost ultimately repelled.
Trans people are in the late stage 3 and early stage 4. Stage 2 was throughout the 2010s and very early 2020s. Thankfully, the conservatives overdone it with the backlash and now trans people are winning over hearts and minds by far.
Polyamorous people (and in general NNFS) are moving into stage 2. The online visibility is quite high, and there are first signs of legal recognitions and protections, like in Portland OR and Olympia WA. This already started to show up on conservatives' radar, with organizations like "the christian institute" taking note.
What is even more worrying about this is that despite it has been generally recognized that polyamory is more prevalent among LGBTQ population, there's no coordinated effort to include the NNFS into any extension of the abbreviation. (I admit I'm fairly conservative for stopping at ...T+ myself until recently, but I'm also welcoming anyone to add anything down the line). Technically Q includes anything that is outside of traditional family umbrella, but I wonder if most of us understand it.
ChatGPT identified few other groups that match the rough pattern: 1) childfree, which is way more protected by the bodily autonomy principles and probably will stay in stage 1 and swing right into post-4 due to low intensity and impossibility to, well, outlaw not having children, 2) neurodivergent people, which are often considered "faking it" by general population, and the workplace and education situation starts to show early signs of stage 3, as well as several others with low probability, some of which can be grouped with childfree (asexual/aromantic) and neurodivergent (any form of normative discrimination, like disabilities or body shape). But the NNFS has the clearest signals of being the closest to the worrying parts of the pattern.
Best case scenario: due to commonality of NNFS among trans people and low social impact, as well as possible positive demographic effect, NNFS will be carried along and just normalized. But the worst-case scenario is an emergence of anti-NNFS sentiment within the LGBTQ umbrella itself.
But as always, it will be something in-between.
Stay safe, and be prepared.
2087
romaincrisis
titsay
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
snowghoul
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
