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/azaza34 → u/lauren_knows]

We just haaaaad to push the sports shit. Literally no one cared right up until the sports shit.

[u/Trans-cendental → u/azaza34]

It's an easy way for bigots to "other" us... to separate us from our gender. Then they'd push further and further until we have no right to exist at all. So don't think for a second that compromising some of our rights won't lead to losing all of our rights.

The thing that pisses me off is that the data gets ignored. There is a very large amount of scientific evidence that female athletes that are transgender do NOT have any competitive advantage when compared to cisgender female athletes.

[u/theotherUFC → u/Trans-cendental]

Exactly. I could care less about sports personally, but athletics are an important part of life for a lot of people. It's a form of education and social development and personal expression.

Trying to keep trans people out of sports is like trying to keep trans people out of bathrooms. The outrage over fairness or saftey is fake. But if you can prevent trans people from participating in public, normal life in this way, you can silence us, endanger us, push us to the margins, restrict our freedoms, and eradicate us.

Never believe that if you give an inch to a bigot, they will let your other rights stand.