RE: Need help with Pie analogy

The “rights aren’t pie” mantra originally was used in the cause for gay marriage rights. And the way your friend was using it isn’t even close to how it is intended.

Basically, it was to say that straight people weren’t losing a piece of their “pie” by the legalization of gay marriage. It was a good analogy for that specifically, because the visual was that “marriage” was supposed to be a whole pie - belonging entirely to heterosexuals - and those who opposed gay marriage believed that they were having to cut a slice off and give it to “the gays”, thereby diminishing their pie. But the whole point was that rights aren’t pie. Straight couples lost nothing by allowing two men or two women to walk into a courthouse and obtain a marriage certificate, and have all the legal protections that go along with heterosexual marriage. There was absolutely no change to the legality, status, or validity of heterosexual marriages.

But in the case of “trans rights” - these people are arguing for special changes to rights they already have. They have the right to use the restroom in public, they have the right to play sports in school, they have the right to marry. They aren’t happy with the terms of those rights, while everyone else is. So unlike in the case of gay marriage - where a person had zero legal access to something that others did, on the sole basis of their sexual orientation - trans people already have the rights they demand changes to. And those changes actually do take something away from other people (women and girls). They take away our right to segregation by sex in areas where not being segregated puts as at a disadvantage, in the sole basis of our sex.

If we really want to go back to pie - everyone has pie, and are regularly served enough to eat forever. Trans people demand a different flavor of pie be served to them every minute, which ends up meaning the baker doesn’t have enough time to bake all the other pies anymore, and a lot of people go hungry as a result.

But if it was my friend, I would remind her that rights are not food, nuance is imperative, and complex ideas cannot be boiled down to a third grade reading level. Oh and that men’s rights end where mine begin.