Trans hate is the new gay hate
Back in the days before Obergefell v Hodges (2015)[1] as the marriage equality movement gained momentum and states around the nation were legalizing so-called gay marriage, I debated this issue with two conservative coworkers.
The first one, let’s call him Bob, was an Opus Dei conservative Catholic libertarian type who constantly railed against what he saw as the Leviathan government over-reach. Incidentally, he died of covid, so I am sure he refused to follow the lockdowns and distancing that were being recommended or required by our all powerful government.
The other coworker, let’s call him Larry, was a Russell Kirk Christian Reformed type of conservative.
Here are the kinds of thinks they would say:
Gay marriage will lead to plural marriages.
Gay marriage will lead to people marrying their refrigerators.
Gay marriage will lead to people marrying their dogs.
Yes, really, they said crazy stuff like that. They posited this wacky slippery slope.
My response at the time was that there was NO slippery slope. Our tax structures and other social structures were set up for couples. It was irrelevant on one’s tax forms if the two names filing Joint were Eve & Steve or Steve & Jeff, for example. As to people marrying their pet dog or a refrigerator, marriage requires consent which neither can give.
Fast forward now to 2022–2023, well past the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges decision [1] and none of their slippery slope issues came true. Sure, there have been some minor ripples as cake bakers object to supplying wedding cakes to a same sex couple. As of November 2022, Pew Research reports 60% of Americans say legalization is good for society[2]. Of course, when one views the data and demographic breakdowns, it is conservatives who still cling to the “it’s bad for society” trope at 66% and white evangelicals leading the charge as 71% of them hold this view.
So with regards to marriage equality American society has largely society has moved on. So where to go to drum up hatred for votes? Enter the trans community.
From the Oxford Dictionary, Trans: denoting or relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex registered for them at birth; transgender.
I worked with another conservative co-worker at a different job in 2015 as the transgender movement began to see traction and get more publicized. His big concern, allegedly, was a man dressed as a woman using the women’s bathroom and assaulting his daughters. Yes, really. I pointed out that this was already illegal. A true transgender person has no interest in assaulting his daughters, the person just wants to use the bathroom that conforms to their identity of themselves. They weren’t going to be going in an flashing penises at other occupants of the bathroom!
But the rightwingers are hungry for more social issues on which to campaign. They lost the marriage equality battle. They are losing because they cling to the anti-abortion battle. So they gin up gun rights, transgender-phobia and CRT.
Incidentally, if you are a working class voter and are on board with their social issues drumbeats, just know that they are using it to distract from their poor economic and political policy positions which have never benefitted the working class, but rather, funnel wealth to the wealthy at your expense!
Trans hate is their new hate.
