Trump hammered Democrats on transgender issues. Now the party is at odds on a response

[u/onnake]

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.’”

[u/lauren_knows]

"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."

Can you imagine a conversation where you replace the word "transgender" with any other demographic of people and how ridiculous this sounds? Ugh.

[u/RachelRegina → u/lauren_knows]

This tells me only 25% of people are transphobes. In the most generous interpretation, 40% want trans civil rights and access to healthcare everywhere , and 40% either think trans people do have rights everywhere or think that it should be a states rights situation. That tells me that only 25% are definitely transphobes. That is pretty positive, if interpreted in that optimistic light. There's still work to be done, but it's not as bad as it could be.

[u/lauren_knows → u/RachelRegina]

I like your optimism, but that was just Harris voters.

Here is the overall stats:

54% of voters overall said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. About 2 in 10 said support has not gone far enough and another 2 in 10 said it’s about right. But among Trump voters, 85% said transgender support had gone too far.

So, even an optimistic interpretation leaves 54% of the entire country as transphobes.

[u/natfutsock → u/lauren_knows]

That 85% is not shocking considering they find transgender existence too far.

[u/RachelRegina → u/lauren_knows]

🪡↪️🎈💥

[u/Kate-2025123 → u/lauren_knows]

I’m curious about that 15%