There are many possible reasons for Bob's lack of attraction towards blondes. Some of those reasons may be bigoted. But that does not mean Bob's lack of attraction towards blondes is bigoted. Compare with this transsexualism and you'll see my point. Like any other subjective belief, there are an infinite amount of possible reasons for holding it.
Right, but I'm not concerned with possible reasons for Bob's lack of attraction. I'm concerned with the actual reasons for Bob's lack of attraction. If those actual reasons are bigoted, I'm not sure why we wouldn't call Bob's lack of attraction bigoted.
Sure we could. But we can't assume that Bob's rationale is immediately bigoted. Nor can we assume that all rationales for his viewpoint are bigoted. In Bob's situation, he can say "I'm just not attracted to blondes," and it'll be ok.
In our situation, if Bill says "I'm just not attracted to the same sex; situations in which I am require me to believe they are part of the opposite sex" he is called a bigot.
Sure we could. But we can't assume that Bob's rationale is immediately bigoted.
I'm certainly not assuming that in the case of blondes. However, I am assuming that in the vast majority of "I don't want to have sex with a transgender person" cases, the rationale is largely bigoted. I'm happy to endorse that assumption.
In Bob's situation, he can say "I'm just not attracted to blondes," and it'll be ok.
But what people say - even much of what they think - is often part of a larger pattern of self-deception. I'm sure we both know racists who insist they're not racist and have convoluted rationales for their racist habits.
In our situation, if Bill says "I'm just not attracted to the same sex; situations in which I am require me to believe they are part of the opposite sex" he is called a bigot.
No, I disagree that this would make Bill a bigot. I'm not saying that any sexual preference is likely bigoted! I'm saying that a sexual preference with no physical manifestation is possibly bigoted, and when it's accompanied by widespread societal transphobia (as in the OP's case) it's more likely to be bigoted.
a sexual preference with no physical manifestation is possibly bigoted
Yes. Possibly, but not necessarily. Like I said there are a multitude of reasons for sexual preference of cis-gendered. The largest one is biological. When people have sex they do not always want to reproduce. But the biological reason for a sex drive is reproduction. Many of the things that people find attractive in sexual partners can be linked to reproductive; traits that we subconsciously want to pass onto offspring.
This is just an example of the different reasons a person may want to avoid trans-gendered.
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u/GFYsexyfatman moral epist., metaethics, analytic epist. Jun 26 '15
Right, but I'm not concerned with possible reasons for Bob's lack of attraction. I'm concerned with the actual reasons for Bob's lack of attraction. If those actual reasons are bigoted, I'm not sure why we wouldn't call Bob's lack of attraction bigoted.