Strangely Naked

Angry white men are scared about transgender people and are taking that fear into the legislature with them, despite there only ever being any incidents of violence perpetrated against transgender people. These cockamamy bathroom laws supposedly created to “protect women and children,” grew out of some deep seated fear, but there’s nothing to justify that fear. So, where did it come from? Bugs Bunny.

Many people’s only frame of reference for a trans person is Bugs Bunny, so of course they’re left thinking trans people are only dressing like a woman to trick proud, gun toting Americans. It is their fear that they, proud gun toting Americans, will be seduced by animals in wigs. Elmer Fudd, a proud heterosexual Southern hunter is turned into prey by the Crying Game of the Looney Tunes universe. If it’s so easy for a bipedal rabbit to trick the salt of the earth hunter, what chance do our nation’s children have?

What’s worse, is that Bugs is taking away Elmer’s right to hunt, often stealing the gun from him. What could be more insidious (in the minds of people who have no empathy and have never met a trans person) than a man dressed as a woman taking away our guns? Of course these people have harbored this fear from a very young age. Bugs Bunny has taught multiple generations that men–even anthropomorphized, human-sized rabbits–that those who don’t conform to a gender binary are out to hoodwink white men.

There’s that, but Bugs probably made them feel funny in the no-no place, so there’s probably an element of sexual confusion that lead to self-loathing and bitter feelings towards Bugs and by extension, trans people. Imagine that personal confusion and shame being reinforced when they think members of Motley Crue  and Poison reawaken the shameful blood flow in their goo-producer. Even RuPaul and her magnificent Drag Race can’t erase the trauma of momentary sexual confusion from people who have spent a lifetime being told gay is somehow against God. In the minds of people who have been taught that sexuality is a choice, imagine their horror when their fleshy swizzle stick makes that decision for them after seeing a seductive Bugs.

Now that we know the source of the animosity of the American Right toward a tiny segment of the population, (yes, this is already accepted fact) how do we erase the decades of Bugs? Maybe it is as simple as having members of Congress actually meet the people their villainizing. But where’s the fun in rational logic and relying on human connections? Let’s instead make a modern Bugs Bunny cartoon where he dresses like a lady, pulls up in a NASCAR car and hands out guns and miniature American flags to Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd then he grills up steaks while singing hymns. That would solve everything.