Well, the Democratic party’s anti-trans heel turn that many people have long expected may finally be upon us. After years of trying to bully trans constituents and their allies on the left into accepting more anti-trans candidates—particularly in red and purple states—many major candidates broke to the right last week, coming out against a variety of trans freedoms.
Engaging in right wing talking points and transphobic framing of them is in fact, transphobic, whether or not the candidate has any particular hate in their hearts about it. In fact, it’s about the easiest thing to deflect and redirect to a solid issue with something like “I trust that our state and local sports associations are best positioned to make and define rules that are appropriate for their sport as they have done for decades, but what I am worried about is the rising cost of living.”
If one is willing to cede to conservatives on that, what is the next thing they are willing to cave on? Bathroom use? Heathcare? Civil rights?
I’m not including that deflection you reference as putting them in the anti-trans camp and sounds like you are not either, but I have seen online instances where people proclaim that because the Democrat is not proactively advocating for a certain position on sports, they are then anti-trans. That’s what I’m talking about.
That deflection is nearly perfect, by the way. There are far more issues that are far more cross-cutting than trying to get a Democrat trapped in talking about sports and then paint them as being fringe or hating women/girls, or whatever.
And no, none of those other things should be budged on.