I am just as concerned about the broader economic issues as anyone else. However, to state or imply that issues surrounding gender identity are somehow distractions or less important and should not be addressed in favor of the so-called bigger issues, is to attack me personally. Being a transgender woman, the so-called identitarian issues are very important to me. The intolerant right’s attempt to take away my healthcare and other rights and to further demonize me is very personal. In many ways the culture war issues trump the so-called larger economic issues. My very right to exist is being questioned.

What Ana is really saying is we shouldn’t care about trans rights because they do not affect her and most of her audience directly. To take this attitude is to be insensitive and essentially discard a whole group of people who deserve the same kind of equality she enjoys. Transphobic? You bet. Selfish and unenlightened? How could you think otherwise?