This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
If you’re a regular reader of TWIBS (a TWIBSie, perhaps?), my long-time column that never has to veer away from its foundational concept of humor in the face of darkness precisely because there is such a glut of evil put upon us that it’s impossible to find even a single ray of sunshine in this vile communal gloom we inhabit, you might recall that a few months ago I declared our various frontrunning Democratic candidates to largely be insufferable twerps.
Well, I haven’t changed my mind at all! I still think they all suck! Graham Platner finally bowed out of the Maine U.S. Senate race after the sexual assault allegations against him became too numerous for median voters to ignore, but his replacement stands accused of marrying and having kids with his cousin.
Sure, it’s quirky and romantic when Rudy Giuliani does it, but don’t you think it’s a slippery slope? Soon everybody will be marrying, and subsequently bumping uglies with, their cousins! At this juncture, a national Alabamization of the gene pool is just too much for the republic to withstand. Our empire will crumble.
As best I can tell, James Talarico has not addressed or clarified his patently incorrect “two sexes” comment, which was the focus of that May article, but he has said something I both appreciate and agree with: Democrats will not win by throwing transgender Americans under the bus ahead of the midterms.
Speaking to Rachel Maddow on, of all things, The Rachel Maddow Show, Talarico said, “I don’t think we win by selling people out. And we’re refusing to do that in this campaign.”
Awesome! That is exactly correct, and he should say it with his whole chest and maybe a bullhorn. Talarico has used language that suggests trans people are a “distraction” for Republican politicians, which I think is incorrect, because curtailing our civil liberties, driving us out of public life, and ultimately carrying out complete and total genocide against our communities is the main event, not a distraction… but I get where he’s coming from. We’re a convenient and expedient tool to score political points among a voter base who are rabid and foaming at the mouth to see us destroyed.
Unfortunately, not every Democrat running for office in a red state is following the same playbook that Talarico is. Take, for example, Amy Acton, a physician and Ohio’s democratic nominee for governor. Previously, Acton was the first woman to be appointed director of Ohio’s Department of Health. In this position, she became one of the nation’s preeminent supporters of shutdowns and safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Acton is becoming the face of liberal transphobia in American politics.
In late June, Acton made waves by saying she doesn’t support “boys playing in girls sports,” a thing that does not happen. Buffoonishly, she said, “This is already settled law in Ohio, and as governor I will enforce and uphold the law. As a doctor, public servant, and a mom, I will always stand up for fairness and protect kids’ health and safety.”
Sure, that sounds great on paper. Protect the kids. The question is always, of course, which kids? People like Acton never seem particularly interested in protecting our kids. Why is it that every conversation about the sanctity of our beautiful children and their right to be free and safe and happy doesn’t include trans teens?
Why won’t anyone think of the sneetsnarts?
Don’t get it twisted: Even if Acton wasn’t being a transphobic turd, there’s not much she could do as governor to protect trans Ohioans. Ohio’s General Assembly (their bicameral legislative body) is oppressively conservative, and Ohio has had a trans sports ban on the books since 2024, a malignant act of discrimination that was inexplicably rendered constitutional in January by a politically motivated Supreme Court that can no longer be relied upon to accurately interpret the United States Constitution, or even understand the basic tenets of law and justice.
What we’re asking for is not ostensibly liberal politicians in red states, like Acton and Talarico, to magically protect trans people from hostile legislators. I’d like it if they could, but realistically speaking, your effective power as a governor whose opposition has a supermajority that can override your bill vetoes is limited.
What we are asking for is that people like Acton, who are supposed to be on our side, not to mention are in possession of whole ass medical degrees, speak out against transphobia and acknowledge that transphobic legislation needlessly harms their constituents.
Acton addressed those remarks by deflecting childishly, saying, “We are in the middle of political season, and one of the hallmarks of political season is pitting us against one another and intentionally creating fear and chaos for people who are already dealing with a lot, and I think that’s a crime. Nonetheless, this is settled law in Ohio as well as now the Supreme Court, and what I am hearing from Ohioans is they want me to focus on lowering costs in this state.”
The situation hasn’t improved in the month since Acton made, and defended, her transphobic remarks. Following Acton’s lead, United States Representative Marcy Kaptur broke from her long-standing history of voting in favor of LGBTQ+ rights to support a Republican bill that would out trans kids to their parents against their will, and deny federal funding to schools that don’t reject the existence of trans people. Shockingly, the Ohio Democrats Progressive Caucus actively censored critique of Acton’s remarks. Her campaign held a Zoom meeting with LGBTQ+ leaders in the state, which she did not bother to attend herself, and which appears to have been a complete disaster, with some leaders being denied entry outright or removed mid-call.
Acton’s campaign added some firm pro-LGBTQ+ language to their website after the June gaff, but they are just words. She has made no concrete promises to defend trans Ohioans, and it seems clear to me that she is not half as liberal as she’d like her potential constituents to be.
Is this the future of liberal politics? Is this the America we’re doomed to live in? One where Democratic frontrunners foolishly abandon us to try and score votes from a demographic that would sooner run them over with a lifted Ford F350 (extended cab, dualies) than vote for them? I certainly hope not. If I haven’t made it clear, Talarico’s remarks to Maddow are exactly right.
If they have any hope of defeating the current wave of fascism and conservative dominance in the American political sphere, Democrats must not betray the left-of-center ideals that make them appealing progressive candidates. They must resolve to protect trans Americans’ rights, as they would any disenfranchised minority put upon by a slavering horde of bigots.
