#guidelines for discussions

[doomdoomofdoom]

Apparently there's currently discussion in science (humanities in particular) about whether video essays could be accepted as academic writing on par with the academic papers we currently have

I think that's awesome as fuck tbh

[themonkey2025]

idk i've taken enough religious studies classes and read enough texts from conservative christians, progressive christians, and atheists alike to know that this is a fundamental misrepresentation of how different sects of christianity understand the bible but ok

[unganseylike]

as i previously mentioned, i wandered an art museum today and of course searched for some sargents. used jordeclans guidelines for finding his paintings and saw a couple including one with a dreamer trilogy mention. anyway i was passing by one sargent and overheard a middle aged couple go "huh those are some nice rocks!" i was like yes my friends. appreciate the rocks i suppose but there is so much more let me lead you into the portraiture of john singer sargent.... but i didnt say that.

[elithemiar-blog]

As I'm writing Chap 11, my brain just decided to insinuate that Chay may have gotten some, if not, most of those pictures on his Wik Shrine on his own.

I mean they could be printed from sites/magazines but he's the original source.

Gotta help make money somehow, and if he just so happens to make sure that nothing negative can ruin Wik's reputation by having his stalker evidence stashed somewhere, then uh, no one needs to know.

Chap 11 is currently pulling bullshit out of thin air cause I need to get to a certain point, except it's not getting there.

So far we got:

Chay & Kinn

Kinn & Porsche (about Chay)

Chay, Khun, Wik, & Kimhant

Kinn, Khun, & Porsche

OC (brief), Chay, & Khun (about Kinn)

Khun & Kim (about Chay, Wik, & Kimhant)

Trying to lead to:

Kinn, Khun, & Wik

Kimhant & Porsche

Kinn & Kimhant

This entire chapter is crucial for:

Kim & Chay

I god damn pray everyone enjoys this nonsense when it gets posted.

[readandneedle]

Can’t sleep so I’m starting the time travel historical fiction book self published by a major donor to the local history museum I volunteer at.

The man can’t write fiction for beans, but his devotion to detailing all the appropriate safety precautions his fictional grad students are taking is endearing.

[crowleytwstrp]

Notice from Ghost Janitor

A) I have one message in the inbox that's been sitting since Dec 11th and that's due to me being somewhat lazy. I want to actually do some research into it as I'm somewhat curious and do wonder if it could give a better idea of how busy Crowley actually is.

B) I have two anon asks relating to ocs? Like one is definitely an oc, but the other doesn't really specify if it's an oc but I'm assuming it is. So reminder from the guidelines.

"Anyone may interact though for anyone wanting to use their oc I do request that anonymous not be used. I want to be certain the actual owner of the character is wanting to interact."

So for the vague RSA student, I'm not entirely sure if I should answer that. I don't know for sure who it's referring too and have no way of making sure it's not some popular fan oc that someone else is talking about. I only want the proper owners to refer to their ocs, not use others' ocs.

As for the other one, I plan to send a dm to make sure they did send the ask. If they weren't the one to send it, then I'm deleting that ask.

C) I got a picture of a spider in my inbox. As far as I'm aware, there's not a way to censor just the image. I don't want to spook anyone with the image so hopefully everyone with arachnophobia has the tags for spiders and such filtered.

Though considering the spider, it might be a bit spooky for people that are fine with spiders. Should I just answer the ask like normal and have the appropriate tags or do you all think it would work better if I reworked it into a post so I could hide the image under a "read more"/"keep reading" cut off?

Should I do that for any potentially triggering stuff?

Also I had to look up how to spell arachnophobia and google thinks it's a wise idea to show pictures of spiders being held right next to the definition. Pretty sure that isn't helpful for anyone with that fear and maybe wanting to grab the definition directly for someone and/or double-check their spelling.

I do plan to answer the ask with the spider, I just want to gather a general idea about how I should treat it as I do think fear of spiders is a well known phobia. (I myself really hate when I see a spider inside my house. Otherwise I'm usually fine though sometimes staring at a photo of a larger species can freak me out a little.)

Sorry for those waiting to be answered. I'm lazy.

[honeykaes]

Heads up again, if you risk commenting and interacting whether good intentions or to make snide comments

If you’re blog doesn’t have an age on there, I’m blocking you

[imbalanceofhumors]

Hey guys, I'm just inputting a paper that discusses the use of osteological 3D scans of human remains here (because of the history of bone stealing scandals that this website has):

Interaction with human remains has been a long-standing & I'm glad if interacting with these models sparks anyone's interest in medical or osteological 3D imagining! It's a relatively new field that's exciting & developing fast. But in these cases it's best to also keep in mind the ethical issues related to the field that most people are not necessarily aware of, such as who are these scans from, how old are the remains, have the people given consent for the scans & where are these scans from geographically. The scans are not even necesarily from people, the scans might just be artistic renditions of bones or other organs. These are a variety of reasons why these scans exist, ranging from educating medical or anthropological students to having information from publicly-funded studies available to said public. The paper I've linked above has a useful set of guidelines about 3D scans that are very interesting to read about :)

Tl;dr: I'd urge people to read more about the ethics of 3D scans of human remains & proceed with those in mind! Please remember to remain respectful if the scans are from deceased people.

i feel like the knowledge that there are some medical databases with free-to-use 3D scans of various human organs available for 3D printing would have drastically reduced tumblrs amount of bone stealing scandals. plus you can make ones that glow in the dark.

look at my glow in the dark humerus boy

[sadbicth]

elon musk did a nazi salute twice at the inauguration, and republicans are defending him.

trump revoked executive order 11246, which prohibited discrimination.

trump put all dei employees on leave to be fired.

trump blamed the dc plane crash on dei.

trump banned all lgbtq+ flags from being hung in government buildings.

trump ordered the pentagon to cancel celebration of mlk jr. day, black history month, women's history month, holocaust remembrance day, asian american pacific islander heritage month, lgbtq+ pride month, juneteenth, women's equality day, national hispanic heritage month, national disability employment awarenessmonth, and national american indian heritage month.

trump proposed removing all palestinians from gaza, turning the area into a vacation resort called “riviera of the middle east”.

trump posted an ai generated video showing what he hopes to turn palestine into, with a large golden statue of himself in the middle of it.

trump rolled back biden’s executive order to lower prescription drug costs for people using medicare and medicaid.

trump rescinded the $35 cap on insulin, and prices are expected to rise to $1500 a month.

trump ordered the national institutes of health to cancel their review panels on cancer research.

trump ended the guidelines to prevent ai misuse. the guidelines prevent many things, but notably it prevents production of ai child pornography.

when sean hannity asked trump about the economy, he said “i don’t care”, after campaigning with the economy as his main talking point.

trump has withdrawn the us from the world health organization.

trump is ordering health agencies to stop reporting on bird flu and halt publications of scientific reports.

trump has pardoned over 1500 people who stormed the capitol on january 6th.

trump changed denali back to mount mckinley.

trump signed an executive order to rename the gulf of mexico to gulf of america.

trump shut down cbp one, an app which granted legal entry to 1 million+ immigrants.

trump has discussed introducing a “gold card”, which would allow the wealthiest people to buy us citizenship for $5 million usd.

trump is allowing ice raids at churches and elementary schools.

trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the us-mexico border.

trump signed an executive order to expand the use of the death penalty.

trump disbanded the school safety board that works to prevent school shootings. it was comprised of survivors, educators, and gun violence prevention advocates and formed after the school shooting in parkland.

trump has threatened to invade panama to claim the panama canal.

trump withdrew from the paris climate act.

trump revoked all protections for transgender troops in the us military.

trump rescinded executive orders made by biden that benefited and protected women, lgbtq+ people, black americans, hispanic americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, and pacific islanders.

trump is attempting to make it legal to refuse to hire or fire pregnant women.

multiple state legislators are drafting bills to allow the punishment for abortion to be the death penalty.

trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted under the freedom of access to clinic entrances (FACE) act for their anti-abortion activism, including oftentimes violent protests at abortion clinics.

trump signed an executive order allowing deportation of foreign students who they believe express support for hamas or hezbollah.

trump announced that the us government will from here on out only recognize male and female as sexes. intersex is not legally recognized anymore.

trump has told all schools and universities that they have two weeks to end all diversity initiatives, or he will cut federal funding. (as of feb 19, 2025)

trump told harvard to stop accepting immigrant students.

trump fired the staff of the federal aviation association after a deadly plane crash in dc.

trump has fired the heads of the tsa and coast guard, and gutted a key aviation safety advisory committee.

trump denied disaster relief funding for north carolina after tropical storm helene.

in georgia, a black woman named adriana smith is being kept alive on ventilators because she was 9 weeks pregnant when she died. she is legally brain dead. this was an exact plot in multiple episodes of the handmaid’s tale.

the state of louisiana just rolled back desegregation laws because of a petition from the department of justice.

the trump administration removed the federal government’s memorial to victims of gun violence. they took down 120 portraits of dead americans, including police officers and children.

the supreme court weakened the clean water act's limitations on raw sewage discharge into our water in a 5-4 ruling.

the official white house twitter account posted an “illegal alien deportation” asmr video where they did closeups of chains and the sound of ankle chains hitting the metal stairs of the airplanes deportees were being loaded onto.

on truth social, trump posted, “LONG LIVE THE KING!”.

at CPAC, a republican group called the “third term project” held a rally to support changing the constitution so trump can run for a third term. on their posters, they’re photoshopping his face onto julius caesar’s, seemingly forgetting what happened to julius caesar.

the trump administration paused health communications to prevent the fda from announcing food recalls.

the trump administration will not renew biden-era grants worth $1 billion that were aimed at boosting mental health services in schools.

the u.s. has surpassed 1,000 measles cases for the first time in five years, with 96% involving unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status. rfk jr. has repeatedly claimed that measles can be treated with vitamin a.

republicans on tiktok are recreating elon’s salute to prove that it “wasn’t a nazi salute”, and they’re either doing it completely wrong because they know if they replicate it then it will actually be a salute, or they’re doing the proper salute and posting it online.

google and apple maps now display the gulf of mexico as “gulf of america”.

rfk jr. wants to ban SSRIs and put everyone on them into labor camps.

andy ogles drafted a constitutional amendment to allow trump to be president for a third term.

the us senate confirmed russell vought, one of the main authors of project 2025, will lead the white house budget office.

nancy mace repeatedly used the t-slur during a congressional meeting, three times were out of spite.

andy biggs introduced a bill to abolish osha and completely eliminate federal workplace safety protections.

georgia republican congressman mike collins called for the deportation of new jersey born mariann budde, the bishop who urged trump to “have mercy” on the lgbtq+ community and immigrants during a service at the national cathedral.

florida republican anna paulina luna has introduced a bill to add trump to mount rushmore.

new york republican claudia tenney introduced a bill to make trump’s birthday a federal holiday.

west virginia republican delegate lisa white has introduced house bill 2712, which would remove rape and incest as exceptions for abortion, even for minors. you can call her at (304) 340- 3274 or email her at lisa.white@wvhouse.gov and let her know your opinion on that.

there is a bill named the SAVE act which would require americans to provide their birth certificate, passport, or other citizenship documents every time they vote, and would require the last name on their driver’s license to match that of their birth certificate. this would prevent married women who have changed their last name from voting.

the u.s. government is considering suspending habeas corpus, which protects people from unlawful detention and ensures you receive due process.

bill h.r.1161, which is available publicly on congress.gov, would authorize trump to enter into negotiations to acquire greenland and to rename it to "red, white, and blueland".

six states (arizona, idaho, iowa, kansas, mississippi, and north dakota) are planning on challenging obergefell v. hodges, which would end same-sex marriage nationwide. about a dozen more states have representatives are also considering filing similar resolutions.

a bill to ban the mRNA vaccine has passed out of the house committee.

amazon revoked protections for lgbtq+ and black employees.

the cdc has removed their hiv prevention page.

the united states state department has officially changed its “travelers with special conditions” page which previously said “lgbtqi+ travelers” to “lgb travelers”, completely getting rid of the tqi+.

every single republican told us we were overreacting. trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025 yet continues implementing details outlined in it. not a single person has the right to tell us we’re being dramatic anymore.

hope “cheaper eggs and gas” was worth it.

EDIT: i removed the “trump refused to swear on the bible” point because it was being taken as me being an offended christian. i’m not christian, im agnostic. the reason i included it in the first place is because he’s the first president in history to ever refuse to swear on ANYTHING. meanwhile his “conservative christian” followers had no issue with this, and decided to continue to scramble for excuses instead of admitting he may not be as religious as he claims he is. i figured taking that point out entirely is probably better than filling this with an explanation in the middle of the other important issues.

[staff]

A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:

We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally. 

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.

Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr. 

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblr’s policies, and Automattic’s policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We’re sorry for how this all transpired, and we’re actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.

— This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.

[alltheotherblogs]

Removing Playlists. Whistle-blowing a dramatically over-reaching and unapologetically illogical feature.

You can have your playlists removed for "Violating guidelines" which are not clear in the first place and never have been. This feature is blatantly wrong for a lot of reasons that take two seconds to think of.

Removing the playlist doesn't remove the videos which violate the guidelines, thus it's censoring the collection of said videos. Collections which are typically unbiased or are used for whistle-blowing purposes, such as the infamous animal abuse playlists, which whistle-blew YouTube's massive animal abuse scenes. Or the Control Points, Cheese Pizza, Command Power… Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Those playlists.

Pornographic playlists are still up despite being directly mentioned, takes two seconds to search a term like "Sexy" and check.

Pornographic content and videos are all still up despite having been included in said Playlists which have been getting removed.

"Hateful Content/Hateful Speech" Isn't clearly defined and my personal friend just got his curated playlist of funny videos permanently deleted for "Hateful Speech." What happens when someone makes a playlist involving a figure which is typically seen as being hateful, despite not being? Chris Chan for instance, often can be conceived as hateful, yet documentation of him is a valuable thing. Just like it is for a political figure which may be misconstrued as hateful. A very popular delusion is that an individuals personal opinion is the correct one, when often times reality disagrees with them on that. YouTube is an organization that happens to love pretending they have the right opinion, and have the right to remove whatever content they please. Which, they don't. These guidelines are put up for a reason, misuse and abuse of the rules goes both ways. Not just for the users. There are user license agreements for a reason, and it isn't just for Steam to say "You don't own your games."

Mentioning Chris Chan before reminded me, historical documentation. Having unedited historical videos, or even just colored versions of films, could be misconstrued as hateful due to having certain figures in said films. Yet, documentation is dramatically important. Which is what most playlists are used for. The ability to go back and look at videos, which are not your own, in order to help remember, document, or educate others on something you are interested in. For instance, I use many playlists to help with my Sinus issues and injuries retained while doing fighting sports. What if one day one of these educational playlists is falsely flagged as: "Educational content featuring nudity or sexual themes for the purpose of sexual gratification. Non-sexual content but focus on specific body parts or activities for sexual gratification. Documentary videos of graphic violence for the purpose of glorifying or shocking." (according to the YouTube guidelines as written.) Especially my playlists of favorite boxing matches, fighting advice, or god forbid the one that helps me clear my sinuses gets deemed as sexual because it focuses too much on the nose. I understand why this is a guideline. Point 1 addressed some of the more harmful playlist types, but it is a clear use of over-reach to police user generated content sharing despite all the videos which would be in the playlist, being allowed isolated, but when together they magically violate guidelines. I cannot stress enough, a playlist of funny videos was removed. Not 'Offensive videos to laugh/scream at' or whatever, a playlist of short silly videos. It did NOT violate the guidelines. We watched it enough to know that it was fine. It was removed for hate speech. That doesn't make much sense to me considering a majority of it involved no speech whatsoever. Closing thoughts, all the points I mentioned seem entirely valid and were vetted by other individuals prior to posting. My personal suggestion upon just learning about this horrible issue is that you personally make those around you who use the Playlist feature more aware about the abusive guidelines. Despite having nothing to do with the content there-in, people should be weary of what they use it for. Considering it can be false-flagged and instantly removed without any form of actual questioning. This is a feature which, as far as I know, can give you a strike, despite all the logical points I made prior. Be safe out there. If someone is going to start a petition, as little as that would actually do, I'd sign it. I am an American who believes in the human rights including free speech, so those from less fortunate countries may not understand or agree. TL;DR Warn those who don't know, you can have playlists taken down for no reason because the guidelines are written poorly and abused regularly. Bad playlists are still up, go check. The logic behind this guideline feature is non-existent but it's understandable why a proposal was made to be able to this.

[nuttysaladtree]

to be fair the intersection of GNG (not pictured) and more specialized guidelines like NARTIST (Fig. 2) is fuzzier than anyone would prefer

I don't always agree with the decisions of Wikipedia's volunteer editors, but having learned that their decision on how to handle the James Somerton situation was to deem him non-notable and turn his article into a redirect to a brief writeup of Hbomberguy's plagiarism investigation – well, like I said, this may not be a good decision, but in context it's an extremely funny one.

[bamsara]

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'

[ao3org]

Regarding Fandom Trees & AMTs

Tag wrangling is, on the whole, a fluid process. It's meant to be, because the way language is used and the way tags are used change over time. We're the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, and that we do sometimes make mistakes despite our best intentions. This is why wrangling decisions are not set in stone and are reevaluated periodically as circumstances change or as new information becomes available. 

In light of the impact that removing the Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms metatag has had, we have put that metatag back in place. 

When it comes to fandom metatags and fandom trees, there is no 'one size fits all' approach that works for all fandoms. Consequently, we have placed a hold on all structural changes to fandom metatags, All Media Types fandoms (commonly called AMTs), and fandom trees while wranglers discuss the need for additional guidelines and adjustments to our approach regarding these tags going forward. 

This hold will remain in place until tag wranglers have had ample time to fully reevaluate our fandom wrangling guidelines with the aim of making it easier for Archive users to find the content they’re looking for and filter out the content they aren’t. This guideline reevaluation process is something we are actively working on, but it will likely take some time to complete. We will update again once these fandom guideline discussions have come to a close.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

[admiral-ampersand]

in the interest of clarity, and to help other people make their choice, these are the guidelines being refered to.

Twitch is gonna start kinda censoring queer people and it would be really helpful if you could read the next few sentences and then also go to a link and click the word vote.

They're implementing a new rule where if you discuss "sensitive social issues" at all you have to flag your streams as such, these issues include things like war and political unrest but also any lgbtq topics (once again our existence is political).

Essentially a streamer will have to choose between never ever mentioning anything queer (or even just discussing their own life if they're queer themselves) or flagging every stream with "sensitive social issues" and scaring away 90% of viewers.

If you have a twitch account you can go here and log in and click vote. They do listen. Please vote.

[afloweroutofstone]

Hannah Arendt, who fled Germany in 1933, later wrote that long before Jews, Roma, gays, Communists and others could be herded into death camps, they had to be “denationalized” — excluded from the society that guaranteed their legal rights. Enlightenment thinkers had posited that just by virtue of existing, each person has inalienable rights. Arendt, however, observed that the “right to have rights” could be guaranteed only by a political community. Without a state to claim them as their own, people have no laws, no courts and no political mechanisms for protecting rights.

Arendt once said that “the generally political became a personal fate when one emigrated.” As a stateless person, she experienced that loss of rights — unable to get papers, hiding from the police, interned as an enemy alien in France — before making it to the United States. She was lucky. Her friend Walter Benjamin committed suicide in his eighth year of exile, when the French authorities blocked him from crossing the border ahead of advancing German troops...

A country that has pushed one group out of its political community will eventually push out others. The Trump administration’s barrage of attacks on trans people can seem haphazard, but as elements of a denationalization project, they fall into place...

The message, consistent and unrelenting, is that trans people are a threat to the nation. The subtext is that we are not of this nation...

The rights the Trump administration is taking away from trans people are relatively new. Only in the past few decades, for example, have clear legal procedures existed for changing the gender marker on identity documents, and only in the past few years have federal and some state authorities made the process fairly easy. But before transgender, gender-nonconforming and intersex people were recognized as a group — or groups — of people who had rights, many could blend in, fly below the radar. Now, in their new rightlessness, they are exposed...

Living with documents that are inconsistent or at odds with your public identity is no small thing. It can keep you from opening a bank account, applying for financial aid, securing a loan, obtaining a driver’s license and traveling freely and safely inside a country or across borders. I was once detained in Russia after a routine road check because an officer thought I was a teenage boy using his mother’s driver’s license.

It’s not just American identity documents that are being scrambled. Like all things American, Trump’s denationalization campaign affects people far beyond the United States. In late February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued visa guidelines, ostensibly designed to keep foreign trans athletes from competing in the United States, that seem to direct consular officers to deny entry to anyone whose gender markers appear different from their sex assigned at birth.

The new regulations require visitors, when filling out the paperwork to cross the border into the United States, to indicate the sex they were assigned at birth. Lucien Lambertz, a German curator who is trans and was planning a professional trip to the United States, told me they worried that they would be denied entry if they complied, indicating a birth sex different from the gender marker in their passport, but also if they didn’t comply.

Lambertz emailed the Foreign Ministry in their country to ask for guidance. “The issue is the subject of tense discussions here at the ministry, and your concerns are absolutely understandable,” the response read, in part. Ordinarily, the Foreign Ministry would suggest asking the U.S. Embassy, but by doing so, as the letter noted, Lambertz “would then ‘out’ yourself to them.”

Trans and nonbinary Germans fear that their country’s incoming conservative government may take its cues from the Trump administration. Far-right parties, ascendant in Germany and other European countries, have made the specter of “gender ideology” a centerpiece of their politics.

“Something has changed,” Heinrich Horwitz, a German choreographer, told me. Horwitz, who is nonbinary, was recently assaulted at the main train station in Vienna. The attacker was demanding to know whether Horwitz was “a girl or a boy.” Before they could make out what the attacker was saying, Horwitz instinctively tucked the Star of David they wear around their neck inside their shirt. “I thought that would be safer.” Horwitz, who was born in Munich in 1984, is the child of a Holocaust survivor. “I grew up with this idea that I could always go to the U.S. if the Nazis came back,” they told me. That no longer seems like an option.

You know how this column is supposed to end. I rehearse all the similarities between Jews in Germany in 1933 and trans people in the United States in 2025: the tiny fraction of the population, the barrage of bureaucratic measures that strip away rights, the vilifying rhetoric. The silence on the part of ostensible allies. (Trump spent about five minutes of his recent address to Congress specifically attacking trans people and 10 minutes attacking immigrants; the Democratic rebuttal mentioned immigrants once and trans people not at all.) Then I finish with the standard exhortation: The attacks won’t stop here. If you don’t stand up for trans people or immigrants, there won’t be anyone left when they come for you.

But I find that line of argument both distasteful and disingenuous. It is undoubtedly true that the Trump administration won’t stop at denationalizing trans people, but it is also true that a majority of Americans are safe from these kinds of attacks, just as a majority of Germans were. The reason you should care about this is not that it could happen to you but that it is already happening to others. It is happening to people who, we claim, have rights just because we are human. It is happening to me, personally.