The New Normal on Trans Rights is Unacceptable
Anti-trans hate was a loser in 2022 and 2023. That’s good news for Democrats, but will it translate into better conditions for transgender people?
by Evan Urquhart
In the American political landscape there is some very good news… and some lingering bad news for the transgender community. Yet another election cycle has proven that campaigning against the trans community is a loser for Republicans. While there is a ton of confusion and prejudice against transgender people, the public doesn’t consider this issue important enough to vote for Republicans (especially when Republicans are taking their rights away, as with abortion).
As in 2022, the elections in 2023 proved that anti-trans rhetoric didn’t help Republicans win anything. Transphobia was a loser in the campaign to unseat Governor Andy Beshear, it was a loser in the campaign for the Virginia state legislature, and it was a loser in many of the local school board races where it was front and center.
That’s the good news, and it is very good news. As a transgender man in Virginia, I would never downplay that because it impacted my life directly, making it very unlikely that new restrictions on my medication will come to Virginia.
The bad news, of course, is that nothing has changed yet in the states where legislation targeting trans people made the most headway. We’ve seen bans and restrictions on transition medicine (including for adults in some places), schools banning books with LGBTQ+ characters, and laws removing the ability of trans people to update their documents to reflect their transitions. In addition to these bad laws there are ongoing efforts to use lawsuits against providers of transgender healthcare to drive providers out of the field and make obtaining treatment more difficult for everyone, even in blue states.
In the right-wing media, there are signs that the obsessive focus on trans issues is waning. Where a few months ago I’d see those outlets covering multiple negative, fearmongering stories about the trans community each day, for the a few months the hyperfocus has clearly been dwindling. Still, while it’s far from the fever pitch on the right, in the mainstream media respectable anti-trans think-pieces continue to be a staple.
What does this all boil down to? Life for transgender people in the U. S. is much harder than it was just a few years ago, and it is not clear when or if that’s going to get better. For trans people in red states, restrictive laws that were passed remain on the books, Supreme Court fights in the conservative dominated court loom over most of them, and there will likely be further anti-trans legislation in states that maintain a conservative government. Even in states with robust protections for trans people a rush to find care by those displaced or forced to cross state lines for healthcare has resulted in lengthening waiting lists, and there are whispers that lawsuits and terror attacks may be driving out providers.
At the federal level, Republicans legislators in the House are continuing to make anti-trans politics a priority by attaching riders to spending bills to restrict gender-affirming treatments. While these currently have no chance of passing, they’re a clear sign anti-trans legislation remains a priority for GOP politicians at the national level.
screenshot from Roll Call
In the wake of the most promising news in a while, we should first embrace our relief that transphobia remains a political loser. Unfortunately, this is ultimately much better news for the Democratic Party than it is for actual trans people, whose rights won’t be restored without major, sustained effort. It is unthinkable to allow a new status quo of huge losses to access to medical care, access to document changes, free speech losses, and increased acceptance for bigotry.
We can fight back. We must fight back. And Assigned Media intends to cover that fight and bring news of that resistance and hope alongside our continuing coverage of anti-trans propaganda.