[@The Harbinger of Ferocity]

Here is the thing. I don't really care that you feel that they aren't suffering enough to warrant championing. I don't care that you feel like you shouldn't be forced to apologize for misusing pronouns. I don't care that you feel that they are demographically insignificant.

I believe people should be treated fairly regardless of who they are, or how many of them there are, or what sort of burden the are being forced to unfairly bear. That means fighting for womens rights, fighting for gay rights, fighting for trans rights, fighting against racial and ethnic discrimination you name it. People say it is impossible to every completely remove discrimination and injustice but fuck that. Just because something isn't possible doesn't mean the effort isn't worth it. 

I can force people to care about them, even if it is just to think about it a minute before they make their insensitive statement. There will always be people like [@NightinGem] who take up the fight for the rights of minority groups. I can support her financially by contributing to charities and legal defense funds and the like. I can make it a point to stress to every intern I teach that trans rights and sensitivity to others are important. I can give my pronouns before every lecture to demonstrate my privilege as a cis-woman. Oh I won't get all of them, some will roll their eyes but I'll get some and I only have to get enough to reach a threshold that will snowball. I'f I ever become a citizen I can even vote.

I can make it harder for people to be openly trans-phobic or insensitive. I can levy a social cost for such behavior. Once upon a time it was much easier to be a homophobe for example, but the social cost has risen as a result of raised awareness, of activism, and of positive media portrayals from Hollywood. 

For me, being progressive, means constantly pushing forward wherever I can. Look at how far Western (and by extention American) society has come, women's suffrage, civil rights, gay marriage and this is in just a century! Conservatives of various stripes have opposed every single one of these moves repeatedly but they have slowly been overcome. There have been set backs, even defeats, maybe even severe defeats, but if we just stay the course, we can create a world that is more just, more kind and more progressive than that the one our mothers bequeathed to us.

Hopefully, one day I'll be sitting at dinner with my great grand daughter and she will say to me (in words which have radically shifted in meaning and nuance from my own youth): Great Grandmother, don't you think that joke about your great grandsons sentient robot life partner was a bit insensitive? 

And hopefully Ill have the where with all to sit back, look a little chagrined and reply: Yes great grand daughter, I'm sorry how very conservative of me.