the thing is that safety is a basic thing to provide, even to people you intensely dislike. I think you guys have got to realize that.
there is a trans girl at my school and i really do dislike her, like she is an absolute prick a lot of the time and her opinions are shit. when she asks me to walk her to the bathroom i do so. when she asks if i can walk her home at night because she’s afraid, i fucking do it. when she asks me to guard the door while she changes clothes so her parents don’t see her, i do it, and when she asks me to talk to a transphobic teacher because she’s afraid to, i do it for her. Yes, all while disliking her as a person. and people call me “fake” for doing this?
It’s basic fucking safety that she should feel entitled to. if you saw someone you didn’t like in an unsafe situation, you probably would still do something about it. don’t take advantage of someone’s status as a minority because you dislike them, it’s so shitty, and whether you realize it or not, you ARE doing it when you refuse to help a trans person stay safe because you don’t like them. it’s unfair, it’s cheap, it’s petty, it’s disgusting, it’s always, always wrong.
One of the things you have to learn to adult reasonably successfully is to work with people you don’t like, based on basic decency (as long as they’re not obviously out to harm you - you may have to learn to do that too, but it involves different tactics than basic decency). You especially have to learn how to work with people you don’t like when you’re the one who’s in a position of power in some way or other. What you don’t have to learn is to like people you don’t like, because it’s normal to randomly dislike people. And all that includes keeping people safe that you don’t like - be it from physical threats or from bullying.
