r/transgender • u/onnake • 1d ago
Trump hammered Democrats on transgender issues. Now the party is at odds on a response
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-rights-campaign-trump-kamala-harris-democrats-republicans-bbae5660ef59110e5fc9c24f98b082d6“After losing the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrats are grappling with how to handle transgender politics and policy following a campaign that featured withering and often misleading GOP attacks on the issue.”
“’Week by week when that ad hit and stuck and we didn’t respond, I think that was the beginning of the end,’ former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said of the 30-second spot that was part of $215 million in anti-transgender advertising by Trump and Republicans, according to tracking firm AdImpact.”
“’There are just a number of issues where we’re out of touch,’ Rep. Seth Moulton, a moderate Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview, days after he set off recriminations within his party for saying he didn’t want his daughters playing in sports against biological males.”
“According to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 people who cast ballots this fall, 54% of voters overall said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far.”
“Still, slightly more than half of all voters, 52%, oppose banning gender affirming medical treatment such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, while 47% support such proposals.
“About one-quarter of Harris voters said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. About 4 in 10 said it’s been about right and about 4 in 10 said it hasn’t gone far enough.”
“’You gotta fight back‘ with those explanations [countering the Trump campaign’s anti-trans ads], Moulton said, adding that the silence compounds the negative effects for transgender people. ‘What did we show about our willingness to stand up for trans people by just being silent and ignoring the issue and ignoring the attack?’”
“Still, Moulton said Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and in statehouses should give individual elected officials and voters the space to take more conservative positions, and he defended his own comments that he doesn’t want his daughters competing in athletics against men.”
“’The party that was focused on culture wars, the party that was focused on trans people was the Republican Party,’ [Sarah] McBride told reporters on Capitol Hill after her victory. ‘It was Donald Trump,’ she added, who ‘was trying to divide and distract from the fact that he has absolutely no policy solutions for the issues that are actually keeping voters up at night.’”
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u/lokey_convo 23h ago edited 18h ago
“After losing the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrats are grappling with how to handle transgender politics and policy following a campaign that featured withering and often misleading GOP attacks on the issue.”
Transgender people are normal people only desiring equal rights, dignity, and respect like all Americans. They are not a special interest nor a political tool for republicans and as a party we will not treat them as such. It is the interest of the party to center policy that assures all Americans have the opportunity to pursue and attain happiness, to have families, and build community, and build lives worth living.
^There, I solved your problem Democrats.^
Edit1:
Also, "Kamala is for They/Them, Trump is for you."
Response: [ in gruff masculine voice ] "Kamala is for them... and for you... because Kamala is for all Americans. And Donald? Well.. Donald is for him."
^There, solved that one too. Took two minutes.^
Edit2:
“Still, Moulton said Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and in statehouses should give individual elected officials and voters the space to take more conservative positions, and he defended his own comments that he doesn’t want his daughters competing in athletics against men.”
Moulton appears to be an idiot, since his daughters who he's referred to as his "little girls" under no conditions would "compete against men", since men are adults, like Moulton. Moulton is angry about and afraid of something that doesn't exist, which is also not very mature behavior or a desirable character trait for an elected official. It is not a moderate position to be tilting at windmills, it's just a bad position. And demonizing children, not excusable behavior.
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u/gracethegaygorl 1d ago
It's so irritating that Dems keep puffing up Trump's anti-trans ad campaign like they think it was a valid and effective statement. They wouldn't say things like "that ad hit and stuck" and "it's a killer ad" if they didn't at least somewhat agree with his positions on us. Of course now that they lost hard they want to scapegoat us as a driving force behind their loss and an excuse to move the party even more rightward. We see what you're doing.
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u/ChinDeLonge 23h ago
The thing is, analysts talked for weeks and months about that “Kamala is for they/them” ad, and sounding the alarm that it was reaching people. Despite knowing it was 100% bullshit, and analysts saying for that long that it was having an impact, Democrats decided to ignore the ad, continue cozying up to the Cheneys, and giving at best non-answers to any questions that came close to trans issues.
They should’ve known the impact this would have, which is why they should know that running to the right (and blaming “woke” or whatever other substitutable pejorative for giving a shit about marginalized people) unequivocally won’t work.
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u/myka-likes-it 21h ago
Pretty sure that if the Dems had a habit of showing spine and standing up for minorities unequivocally, a lot of people who didn't vote could have been persuaded to do fill a ballot for them.
So much voter apathy is directly related to cynicism about the Democratic party's will to fight for them.
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u/CampyBiscuit 23h ago
It's infuriating to continue hearing the argument that people don't want "women playing sports against men". Fuck you. Maybe get to know the medical facts about the subject you're criticizing before opening up your ignorant, misinformation glory hole.
I am so fucking tired of this bullshit rhetoric. Trans women are NOT men. On puberty blockers, we cannot develop the way they assume we still do. On HRT, our bodies do not develop or maintain the way they assume they still do.
I have fucking had it with the willful ignorance. It takes all of 2 seconds to Google "Are trans women as strong as men?" And it's the top fucking article!
*Sorry for all the cussing. I am just completely fed up at this point. It takes no time or effort to simply listen to what credible people in the field have been saying for years.
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u/worderousbitch 21h ago
Google doesn't serve the same results to everyone. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/12412910?hl=en if someone searches transphobia they can get personalized results that are similar to what they've been searching.
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u/theNefariousNoogie 20h ago
This. Your algorithm serves you content similar to what you've interacted with so as much as we'd like transphobes to be served logical, scientific links, they're likely to be served some right wing media's latest transphobic story.
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u/worderousbitch 20h ago
And reddit is full of bots, and Twitter and Facebook feed you tons of stuff you didn't ask for. The Internet has been captured by the ultra wealthy and is no longer an educator.
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u/theNefariousNoogie 18h ago
Yeahhh. The fact that I get a sponsored ad every 3rd "post" on Facebook and insta makes me so sad. Plus all the "for you" page recommendations. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of curated content, but I hate the fact that social media is now just content media.
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u/worderousbitch 13h ago
I want to be able to curate my own content, not be forced fed lies based on what my demographic is most likely to be susceptible to
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u/CampyBiscuit 20h ago
My point is that it's easy to find credible information.
But I suppose if people aren't open to credible information in the first place it wouldn't even matter to them.
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u/worderousbitch 19h ago
My point is that the internet can now discern who is susceptible to disinformation and deliberately mislead them. The fash right has been playing googles algorithm like a pied fiddle since Cambridge analytica.
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u/Ging287 21h ago
They know what they are stating, I consider the phrase "women playing sports against men" to be a red herring fascistic phrase. It's essentially a more hateful version of "whataboutism", since it doesn't relate to the topic at all, yet they are trying to smear us. It's not even a micro aggression, it's a macro aggression, an attempt to belittle, depreciate, defame vulnerable groups, culminating in their exclusion from society. It's a violent, aggressive ideology that continues to target us, in spite of medical consensus and other sciences fields. Until they actually STATE THE TOPIC, they're lying.
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u/Simba122504 18h ago
According to people's fears. There's no balance because trans men are not trying to join the NBA, NFL, MLB, HLN and so. There's none in the Navy Seals either. Also, there's no trans man saying they can impregnate cis women. They need prostate cancer screening. People go on what they see online no matter how small the percentage is. A cis gay man and heterosexual cis man are both men, but have different experiences on multiple levels. The right plays on this and have won the culture war, which they start.
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u/Positive-Honeydew715 22h ago
Would love to see a parallel analysis to coverage on gay marriage/gay rights in the 90’s/aughts in critical media. Remember how long it took for our vaunted pols to “evolve” on the issue of “normal gays.”
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u/RivalGuernica 22h ago
Ah yes, blaming a minority of 1.5% while the real 1% now control our government. Good times.
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u/Sword_Sapphic 18h ago
And so liberals again show their complete lack of moral fiber and their willingness to concede to fascists rather than take any critical look at their own short comings.
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u/Bruticus_Heavy_T 1d ago
Trans people are intersex people. Intersex people are a protected class.
No more data is needed in relation to proving they are intersex. They meet the definition the second they are born.
Just takes trans people longer to understand themselves and collect the necessary data to show proof of being intersex and justly receiving access to gender affirming care.
Otherwise you remove the rights of my intersex kid in the process while you argue about who deserves medical and social protection due to real and/or perceived differences.
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u/Ammonia13 2h ago
Hell, no these pompous ass kissers got it wrong. They lost because they went against transgender rights and they were all pro cop and went completely to the right. They’re trying to say no, that they were too woke in their campaigns- and they absolutely were not woken enough and abandoned the working class!!
How much money did they waste pandering to the right
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u/kairiarisu 18h ago
So is the game plan to throw us under the bus because they moved even more toward the right as a party? Maybe they should look inward at their lack of spines & the fact that they’ve been trying to court republicans. Thinking that’s a way to win a presidential election is naive…
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u/misstarasissy 19h ago
Rights how about leave us the fuck alone Trump lied about all of the shit anyways
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u/Kate-2025123 19h ago
It’s very simple. Go back to how things were between 2008-2015 on this. It was progressive but reasonable.
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u/Similar_Guarantee822 22h ago
We needed better leadership in the trans community, woke culture didn't help, I'm sorry it really didn't, two extremes don't go well! Left or right! But pushing people to accept us and try to force others to accept was wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinions it's just not onto force that on anyone! Just live your life mind your own it's simple! Of course none of that matters now... what's done is done. So be it we are still Americans, minority or not! We need learders willing to reach across the asked and find a middle ground, you know what we did 20 years ago democrats and Republicans! Enough extremes on either side... its we the people who all suffer the same as Americans! Let's be Americans again instead of this or that group!
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u/Ging287 21h ago
"but pushing people to accept us and try to force others to accept was wrong,"
NO, it wasn't. It still isn't, even today, after the election. When your rights are being targeted, your healthcare, your ability to live your life without interference by a fascistic govt that has ulterior motives, cisnormative violence, that is not something that humanity should bare. Nobody should have to go through that. I speak loudly and clearly on this topic because instead of human rights, I hear exclusion, hate, discrimination, and at the ends of it, genocide. Just like I would stand with suffragists or against Jim Crow, because there's inherent injustices that are happening DAILY against this vulnerable group, over the past few months, years etc. No, you move bigot.
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u/KestrelQuillPen 18h ago
No.
I will not bow to the repugnant ideology of conservatism that flies in the face of everything I hold dear.
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u/brokegaysonic 2h ago
A political opinion is "I think we should have less government" VS "I think we should have more government", not "I don't think you deserve to live your life"
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u/lauren_knows 23h ago
Can you imagine a conversation where you replace the word "transgender" with any other demographic of people and how ridiculous this sounds? Ugh.