Any discussion about rights for transgender people that starts with the roster choices on children’s sports teams is a bullshit discussion. It’s incendiary rhetoric designed to unsettle people who have never engaged with transgender people.
The counter-argument for that should be “do you know how many kids that affects? This is not a serious issue. You know what is? Trans victims of discrimination and hate crimes. That’s what we should be talking about, not some kids’ soccer league.”
Start treating this talking point like the ridiculous corner case that it is and pivot to the real problems.
Ahh the New York Times, never missing an opportunity to throw trans folks under the bus.
Gov. Beshear talks a big game about vetoing anti-LGBTQ legislation, but the article they even link to about it points out (in the headline no less) that every one of those vetoes were overruled (and that doing so is trivial in Kentucky). He is describing a pantomime of concern for the queer community, wrapped in dog-whistle language (“all children are children of God”), while functionally doing as little as possible to actually help them.
This is a lesson for despondent Democrats in how they can softly give up on protecting a persecuted community to get what they want.
As a trans person, I agree the Democratic party’s messaging on trans issues has been lackluster and easy to counter.
The kids sports talking point was so effective because is brought up a good point that blanket trans acceptance hadn’t considered. Testosterone is literally a performance enhancing drug, so maybe going through male puberty makes someone ineligible to compete on a women’s team. That sucks, but in the same way that it sucks that other medical conditions would also keep you off the team. Being trans is not a disability, but the disqualification can be a point of disappointment as opposed to actual injustice.
I’m a late-transitioning trans lady, and I’m willing to concede that. These are the kinds of discussions that I’ve had with conservative family members that are very compelling, but they get bulldozed by broad, non-nuanced talking points that the media slaps against one another.
I’m also not a politician or an expert communicator. It is so frustrating that the people I literally rely on to do those jobs for my benefit are doing this so poorly.