They’re Burning All the Witches, Even if You Aren’t One

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one

-Edmund Burke

Time tends to distort history and it’s never surprising when myths, instead of facts, are more commonly remembered.  Humans, at our core, are storytellers and this has been part of humanity since time out of mind. When a tale is told and then retold it’s not rare when a small fabrication or exaggeration sneaks its way into a story.  Sometimes that little white lie, even innocently snuck in, grows and what is real and what is imagined becomes entwined.

Of course, some people intentionally distort history for their own personal gain and to further an agenda, but that’s another topic for another day. 

Folklore, urban legends, and fairy tales often have a tiny shred of truth but over time and over retelling these stories replace what is real with what is imagined.  I would argue that most of the stories I heard in Sunday School are too.  

Before you call me a heathen in the comments, let me clarify.  Do I think the Bible (or any spiritual tome) is literal?  No.  I do not think there was a Garden of Eden with a talking serpent or an ark that housed two of every animal, insect, and fish.  The magic of the Bible (and really, any book) is storytelling. 

Like a fable or a fairytale, these stories are told with a purpose.  To teach a lesson, to offer guidance.  Is the book of Genesis meant to chronicle the adventures of Adam and Eve?  Maybe, but I think this part of the Old Testament was written to teach a relatable lesson about temptation.  The story of David and Golitah is a metaphor (that is still used today) about the size of someone isn’t necessarily a barrier when it comes to overcoming an obstacle.  

People love stories and it’s much more fun to learn a lesson through a fictional tale as opposed to being lectured.  The Bible (and again, other spiritual works) are much more interesting to me when they teach lessons through simple storytelling.  They don’t have to be real, they don’t have to be historical or factual.  The point of these stories is to teach.  That’s the magic.  That’s where faith is born.  You don’t HAVE to believe that David was real, but it’s important to remember the lesson of what he accomplished, despite all odds being against him.

Actual history is filled with nuances and facts and details, many of them long-forgotten or glossed over.  When we talk about the Boston Tea Party we often think about rioters tossing tea into the harbor and that’s all that most people know about that event.  We forget about WHY this happened and how many of the details that led up to this are relevant to today, such as tariffs.  Even recent history, such as the infamous lawsuit about the woman who sued McDonalds over hot coffee leaves out much of the details.  

Seriously, you should familiarize yourself with the actual story.  It’s fascinating and will likely shift your perspective on it.

I got to thinking about how legend replaces fact and my thoughts drifted towards the Salem Witch Trials.  When most people think of this part of history we tend to simplify what really happened.  “People thought women were witches so they burned them” is generally how people think of it.  But like everything, there are countless details that are left out.  

I am not going to get into everything that led up to these killings, but like fairy tales and Bible stories, there are lessons to be learned through metaphors and allegories.

These trials (and stories of these trials) happened because of fear, gossip, and hysteria.  People were led to believe that their neighbors, their family, even their own spouses were witches and demons.  These lies were fed and fueled by authority figures in a community whether it was a leader in a church or an elected/appointed official.  The lie was told and soon spread amongst the community.  It really doesn’t take much for this to happen as some people like to identify a scapegoat for their problems.  Bad crops?  Witch.  Bad luck?  Witch.  And so on.  It was, and still is, ridiculous to falsely single out a person or a group for misfortunes.  

Although it was a ludicrous idea then, we can relate to it if we consider the scapegoating that we see in our modern times.  Bad crime?  Immigrants.  No jobs?  Immigrants.  And so on.  

Now, I could cite sources and provide data that negates this, but it probably wouldn’t do any good if you already think that a family from outside of the United States is the reason we have crime or that someone can’t find a job.

How did this line of thinking happen?  Like the witch hysteria, someone in authority blamed a disenfranchised community (such as women).  It’s a lot easier to blame immigrants for inflation when some companies are experiencing record profits.  We are being directed to demonize our neighbors and other humans because it takes the attention from the real cause of problems.

It’s alarming how easily this happens.  

It’s even more shocking when someone is so easily deceived by narratives like these and turn against the people in their lives.  One day someone gets along with everyone they work with, but over time they are convinced that their coworker from Mexico is here to destroy their way of life or whatever.  

This is what it means to indoctrinate someone.  It’s defined by Merriam-Webster as to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle.  People are led to believe something, and that belief is taught for a reason, such as political or religious or economic.  It could be a community being told that they had a bad harvest because a lady in their neighborhood is a witch or that the housing market is bad because immigrants are being given houses for free. Both are lies.

It’s distressing (at the very least) to see this happen.  It hits very, very close to home when this happens within the LGBTQ+ community.  For the most part, I feel that all the people that associate themselves with the letters in that acronym are harmonious and support each other, but nothing has a complete consensus.  I get the occasional hate comment when I tweet and when this happens I pop over to their profile to block them, but my heart sinks a little when I see in their a Pride flag in their bio.  It’s not rare (but thankfully not too common) when someone identifies as queer but would love to see trans people disappear.  Of course, there are also instances of trans folks directing hatred towards gay people.  

Everyone in the LGBTQ+ community is a disenfranchised individual.  There are likely more queer people than we realize but for the time being the world feels it is mostly straight and cisgender, or at least the people in power are (or seem to be).  Everyone in the queer community needs to support each other, or at least not demonize someone when they identify in a different way than they do.

Just as there can be division within the LGBTQ+ community, there can also be further division within the non-binary community.  For the purpose of this writing I am using NB as a broader term that includes people who are transgender, people who identify as crossdressers, and other identities.

It bothers me when a transgender person refers to someone else as “just a crossdresser”.  It bothers me when a crossdresser tells me that they are not “a confused transgender”.

These two identities are even more disenfranchised from the broader LGBTQ+ community and the NB needs to be even more supportive of each other than ever. Why? Because I feel those two perspectives neglect something important.  At one point many, many people who identify as transgender likely identified as a crossdresser.  It’s also very possible that someone who identifies as a crossdresser today may indeed shift their gender identity in the future.  I can relate to both of these.

And to clarify, I don’t feel that transitioning is required to identify as transgender.

Criticizing someone else in the NB for identifying differently than themselves is, well, kind of elitist and dismissive.  It can suggest that someone else is less valid than others.  It’s not unusual for tension to develop.

Here’s what I mean.  The NB community isn’t the most highly regarded and respected group of people in the world.  If you identify as NB you are likely frustrated by this lack of dignity.  We are frustrated by the lack of acceptance and inclusion.  We are laughed at, we are ridiculed, we are lied about.  Misconceptions are born from this.  

Where does this ridicule and hatred come from?  Like blaming a witch or an immigrant, we are told that the NB community is perceived the way we are because of the very people within our community.  We are led to believe (again, by people in power and authority) transgender people are confused and that crossdressers are perverts and drag queens are recruiting kids.  

These things are not universally true, but we are led to believe they are.  These beliefs are aimed at the broader population but if these beliefs are adopted by the LGBTQ+ community, hey, even better, right?  If the queer community can turn against itself, then further division takes place.  Once people realized that worked (turning queer people against the NB community), then dividing the NB community was next.  

The transgender community is a pretty easy target right now.  We are more visible than someone who identifies as a crossdresser.  What I mean is that generally, GENERALLY, a crossdresser tends to dress in secret and keeps their wardrobe preferences to themselves, but someone who is transgender has possibly transitioned or is living their life in a public way while they present as their preferred gender identity, whether at work, in their community, or with their family.

When I am in male mode no one knows I am wearing panties.  No one knows that me, a masculine presenting person, is wearing a pink thong, but when I am en femme I am very obviously a transgender woman.  I think this is, for the most part, true for most people who identify as a crossdresser or as a transgender person.

Since transgender people are, well, easier to spot compared to someone who is underdressing, then it’s easier to single them out.  This visibility makes it easier to demonize them. I’ve been harrassed in public while I am en femme, but never when I am presenting as male but wearing lingerie under my boy clothes.

Again, when a group is demonized, it can take attention away from others.  It can take away the attention from a real problem.

What I mean is that I get emails from crossdressers who believe that they are “safe” from any legislation that targets the NB community.  They are convinced that transgender people are, well, evil and confused because, that’s what they have been indoctrinated to believe.  Stories in the media that focus on the NB community tend to be about transgender people, not crossdressers.  The narrative may touch on a transgender woman using the bathroom that aligns with her gender identity.  There are no stories about someone living their life and privately wearing lingerie.  Of course, if you don’t keep this aspect of yourself a secret, then you are vulnerable to being exposed and therefore no longer wearing what you wear privately.  

All of this sounds like I am pointing a finger at crossdressers.  I’m not.  I also get emails from people who identify as transgender who insist that crossdressers are perverts and are contributing to the sexualization of the transgender community.  This can be a hypocritical perspective as there’s a strong possibility that they themselves at one time identified as a crossdresser.

People and subgroups in the NB community are not the reason we are singled out.  Like I mentioned earlier, people in our government, churches, and media create these stereotypes to promote an agenda or a narrative.  

People who identify as transgender and people who identify as crossdressers cannot demonize each other. We have to support, or at the very least, not attack each other. We in the NB community understand that there are different ways we can identify and that there is a difference between someone who has a gender identity of male and wears panties and someone who identifies as a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

But outside of the NB, these differences are not commonly known and to many people they really don’t matter. What I mean is that none of us are safe. Many people do not care or acknowledge what differentiates someone who crossdresses and someone who has transitioned. We are all ridiculed and slandered.

The narrative that conservative media and politics promote is that drag queens are strippers, transgender women are confused perverts, and crossdressers are just a joke. Regardless of how you identify, you are not immune to this demonization. I promise you that the people in charge do not know the difference between someone who is transgender and someone who is “just a crossdresser”. They don’t know and they do not care.

Additionally, even if you support the people in charge, you are not spared from their agenda. Caitlyn Jenner, one of the president’s most vocal supporters, had her passport updated to reflect the gender that was assigned to her at birth. Again, her support of the president did not exclude her from this new law even after she pleaded to be immune to this policy.

“‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”

Pitting people against each other, whether it is a witch trial or turning people in the LGBTQ+ community against one another is a tactic that has been part of humanity for centuries. None of this ends when “the witches are dead” or when “transgender people are eradicated“. If the GOP has their way and NB people are, again, eradicated, they will then move onto the gay/lesbian community and strip away rights such as marriage equality. The folks in the queer community who “helped” get rid of transgender people aren’t rewarded, they are simply next.

Although it was written decades ago, the writing by Pastor Martin Niemöller is still relevant.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Love, Hannah