Veritas in Guilford?

Guilford CT hosted its first Pride event this past Sunday, and it was a great success. Transqat set up its recording gear at a vendor table and asked attendees to say (on mic) what pride meant to them.

One encounter of the dozens from that day has left me feeling. . .wary. 

A young person, presenting as female, approached the table. She was wearing a crisp yellow sundress, as if she'd come straight from church. She was walking a small dog. She asked if I'd mind if she asked a few questions. I motioned her to sit down in the camp chair.

She was difficult to hear, because she (a) was all but whispering, (b) had an accent and (c) was drowned out by the music from the bandstand. As she sat, I noticed that she had her full face on: foundation, powder, mascara on top & bottom lashes. It was skillfully applied, and I remarked to myself that it seemed odd for a girl this age.

Maybe this is a young trans girl, out in public for the first time. Self-conscious of her voice, she was whispering. 

Nope.

Since I couldn't hear her, I asked if it would be OK if I moved to the chair next to her. She nodded yes. From the start, her questions seemed a bit off. She asked if I was a trans woman, then explained that she didn't like being referred to as a cis woman. She had no need for the modifier, and resented people's use of the term cis. She asked whether her question was disrespectful.

"Not at all," I said. "You're talking about your feelings, so as long as you're being honest, it sounds valid to me. I might disagree, but those would just be my feelings." She asked a question that I didn't fully catch, but the gist was about defining gender. I told her that gender identity was much more complex than biological sex. Society tells us to play with certain toys, behave a certain way, hold certain jobs; all that is gender too. 

"You're wearing this dress and makeup, but if you wanted to wear jeans & a T-shirt, it wouldn't change who you are on the inside, right? Gender is a lot of little pieces and behaviors taken altogether to form a whole. We're all at different points at different times in our lives. And all of that is OK."

She nodded, then proceeded to ask series of increasingly bizarre questions about language. "Do you think it's right to refer to pregnant women as birthing people? Or to call breast-feeding mothers chest-feeders?"

At this point I started looking around. Clearly, she's been coached to ask certain things. These are scripted questions shaped, not from a 10-year-old's actual concerns, but from right-wing talking points. And each query was prefaced by a Columbo-esque, "Oh, and one more thing."

I had to shift from educator, helping someone understand a complex issue, to the defensive. Am I being surreptitiously recorded? Is someone filming me sitting next to a tarted up little girl for use in a Project Veritas style expose?

I expressed surprise at the crudeness of chest-feeders, and honestly answered that I'd never heard the term, but that it certainly sounded hurtful. She seemed prepared to continue on in this vein, but I told her I needed to get back to my job. I invited some passersby to join me, and thanked her for her time.

So, you tell me. Was I being scammed? Was someone fishing for an outrageous comment, something to clearly reveal how much of a threat to society's wellbeing I am? Was she older than I thought? Why the makeup? Cui bono, as we in the Latin business might say?

I'm left with the question, "Who would script and costume a child, then send her into the figurative lion's den?" If my thoughts about trans issues and queer people are dangerous, why involve a child at all? Seems disingenuous and duplicitous to me.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid. What do you think?