LGBTQ people are constantly dismissed as angry radicals. That’s the first tool most transphobes and homophobes use to dismiss us when we demand full human and civil rights — or just basic human decency.

Demands to tone down anger are traps. Because the demands have never been sincere. They’re just rhetorical tools designed to avoid facing real issues.

If that tool doesn’t work, the antis just pool something else out of the tool kit.