Oklahoma County District Judge Bill Graves has denied at least two women, Christie Harvey and Angela Ingram, their requests to legally change their names. Why? Because he’s an anti-trans bigot. Jesus, DNA and “fraudulent purposes” also figure into his inane ruling, in some obscure way. To compound the cruel bullshit, The Oklahoman’s news site refers to Harvey and Ingram by their birth names and masculine pronouns.

Furthermore, the article reports that Ingram goes by Angela in her social circle. She also carries a purse and wears a bra. Well, I nearly fell over from shock when I heard those details. I mean…can you imagine someone’s friends calling her by her name?! And a purse? How odd! I’ve never even conceived of a modern white bourgeois woman in the US using one of those. And what about this “bra” thing? She must be conforming to the ubiquitous societal expectation that all women in the modern US should wear elasticated garments that restrain and support their breasts. Can you even imagine a woman in this culture doing things that most women in this culture do? Why would that even happen? I can barely wrap my brain around it. It makes no sense!

Wow, if the author of that article thinks that Ingram’s underwear is news, he is not only perpetuating the objectification and sexualization of trans women, but he’s also seriously underestimating his readers’ capacity for understanding and empathy.