An attack ad against transgender people was aired by a super PAC supporting one of Dr. Oz’s Republican primary opponents in the race for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.
Another campaign ad, from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Vicky Hartzler in Missouri, targets transgender people in sports and has her referring to an athlete by her “dead name” and saying “women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who is running for reelection, ordered the state’s child welfare agency to investigate reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.
Derision and disparagement of transgender people, and even of those perceived as their allies, are proliferating on the airwaves and in statehouses across the country as 2022 election campaigns heat up. It’s a classic strategy of finding a wedge issue that motivates a political base.
It is easy to fall for a myth about a group of people you don’t know, and that’s just human. … It’s just really unfortunate to now see a group of politicians try to use that to their own advantage.
The idea of restricting transgender athletes resonates with parents of high school athletes, motivates the Republican base, and persuades swing voters.
Oz’s campaign — used inaccurate terminology to describe transgender women — said only that the celebrity trans surgeon doesn’t believe that “biological males should compete in women’s sports.”
At least 10 states have banned transgender athletes from participating in sports in a way that is consistent with their gender identity,although federal courts have blocked laws in Idaho and West Virginia.
And then there are states that are banning or investigating gender-confirming treatment, such as Texas.
Remember Anita Bryant’s anti-gay rights “Save Our Children” campaign in 1977.
The political framing is often around protecting girls, which is probably designed to broaden its appeal.
The NCAA in January adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes to document testosterone levels before championship selections. For high school sports, states have a hodgepodge of policies.
It’s sad when a political leader finds that the only way that they can get themselves elected to office is by attacking vulnerable children and their parents. Of all the issues that are before us in this world and this country today … to make it more difficult for a transgender child and their parents to navigate their life to adulthood is irresponsible. And un-American.
Democrats use wedge issues too — casting the wealthy in a negative light, for example. But focusing on the powerful is far different than taking aim at the vulnerable.
At times it seem that the whole United States is on fire with anti-trans legislation. It is our passion to protect the rights of people at the margins, including transgender folks.