In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
Democrats have forgotten their history. They like to say that trans rights are a “distraction.” They forget that not only were trans people some of the first victims of the Holocaust, but that liberal papers like the NYTimes similarly dismissed Nazi antisemitism as a “distraction” as well. They predicted that, just like Trump and trans people, Hitler was just using Jews as a scapegoat to get elected. They thought that despite widespread antisemitism in Germany, it was just a campaign distraction. They thought there simply weren’t enough Jews in Germany to make real oppression something worthwhile for the Nazis to pursue.
In pre-Nazi Germany, Jews represented about 1% of the population. That is the same portion of the population that trans people represent in the US today.
Itt: liberals still fever-dreaming that Democrats (as a corporate party, not the voters) are on the side of marginalized communities.
More than Republicans, I guess. But Jesus what a low bar that is.
Its a bar low enough, that if you try to run like that as a Democrat, you will lose your election.
Being barely better than Republicans when Republicans are in a foot race to worse, isn’t a viable electoral strategy.
We largely couldn’t in the first place, but thanks for the heads up. There was a hope, sure. But little trust due to little action.
It’s a matter of degree. I felt a heck of a lot more protected than I had previously. Action? Not as much as there should have been but hardly zero.
hardly zero.
Yeah, like I said: little. It felt like they were content to do enough to get credit and then kick the can down the road until they were forced to do more. Now we enter an era that will likely strip back what progress has been made. In four years we’ll be pushed back forty.
They are political creatures. I wouldn’t say they were “content to do enough to get credit” so much as lacking the courage to do more. But I’m also not going to blame them for doing what they think is most likely to keep them elected even if I vehemently disagree with that.
A shocking percentage of the US population is transphobic and the answer is not to expect politicians to put votes on the line to “do the right thing” (LOL) but to work to ensure they don’t have to because that transphobia goes away.
How the hell does 1% of the population get 50% to stop hating it and believing bullshit about it
I feel like you are thinking in absolutist terms. We do not need every person to accept our right to exist, only enough to move policy and cultural-level acceptance forward. That is already happening, slowly but surely. In my lifetime we’ve gone from “lock em up and give em a lobotomy” to being able to be safely visible most of the time and for it to be common to state pronouns.
It’s not perfect and it’s not where we need it to be but it is light years ahead of where we were. And this progress, even if things get forced back for a time, is inevitable.
Maybe I am thinking about it in absolutist terms, but im also young. I see nimbyism stifle housing in blue states and conservatives having a ton of kids and fear the country will only get redder. In my lifetime, we reached gay marriage only ten or so years ago and things are already being pushed back far further. Roe, a ruling made decades before I was born, has been overturned and set abortion law back just as far. I think having lived through most of it, you may be biased; but progress is not a guarantee. Things can always go backward, and there’s no limit to how far
Things can always go backward, and there’s no limit to how far
Yes, there totally is a limit. Look at public sentiment and polling on questions of support for trans rights. This has shifted dramatically for the better in the last 10 years and that’s a cultural shift that doesn’t suddenly disappear just because a vocal group temporarily gets their way. People who support us don’t suddenly become transphobic over night. I’d argue big cultural changes like this do actually ensure that progress is guaranteed.
Even on abortion law, the response in many states was positive and many state-level protection were put in place in response. And even where they were not, a significant majority of the population is in favor of strong protections for reproductive rights.
There’s a lot of noise made by a very vocal minority. Think about why the country “swung right” and what that means. When asked what they support in a neutral context it turns out many people who voted Trump actually more strongly support Democratic party policies and are not actually right wing. They voted out of ignorance and out of frustration. Or many of those who were frustrated didn’t vote. These are solvable problems - solvable through advocacy and education.
The way I look at the current situation is to see the MAGA movement as an extension of the Tea Party crap. This is in many ways the last gasp of a heavily white supremacist Christian Nationalism that can be more vocal and influential than their numbers would suggest. Their views are solidly minority views and don’t actually have broad support. But they win elections and influence politicians by being incredibly well organized and politically active.
My hope is that rather than throwing up our hands and giving up, this period will spark more engagement and activism in the trans community and in progressive circles generally. Because frankly we’ve gotten complacent and a bit lazy and worse, we bicker constantly. These are literally the only reasons the MAGA cult has even been able to take hold at all.
You only get action when you’re living in a blue city, under a blue state, with a blue President.
If anyone on the stack is Republican, your civil rights dissolve in the face of bureaucracy and legalese.
Republican courts, Republican governors, Republican sheriff’s department, Republican school board… anything is enough for Dems to defer and compromise on your liberty.
They won’t even stand up for their own elected Congressional coworkers to use the fucking restroom.
With Trump in office, you’re going to see Dems retreat from any kind of LGBTQ rights on a sweeping scale. Just wholesale capitulation, as they blame their electoral defeat on being insufficiently servile to bigots.
If anyone on the stack is Republican, your civil rights dissolve in the face of bureaucracy and legalese.
This is so easily disproven and it’s not the way our political system works. If it were, a single Republican in congress would kill a bill.
Republican courts, Republican governors, Republican sheriff’s department, Republican school board… anything is enough for Dems to defer and compromise on your liberty.
No, it’s not and frankly that level of hyperbole isn’t constructive.
With Trump in office, you’re going to see Dems retreat from any kind of LGBTQ rights on a sweeping scale.
What do you mean “retreat from”? If you mean being vocal on that stance I’ll bet you a cookie you are wrong. What kind of cookie is your favorite? If you mean being actually able to effect any positive change, you are only right up until the midterm elections next year.
If you mean being vocal on that stance I’ll bet you a cookie you are wrong.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
~ Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass
- That’s the opposite stance.
- They did actually say that and were obviously not afraid to do so.
Edit: I’ll share cookies with you anyway.
Democrats were pretty cool about protecting trans people. But thanks to non-voters and $hill Stein voters (along with tens of millions of “low information” Trumpledorks), Trump has all three branches of government at his disposal.
Considering Democrats are now complaining that their protection of trans people cost them the election, I wouldn’t say they were all that cool to begin with. They use trans people as a political tool and then toss them aside the second it becomes inconvenient for them to support trans rights. Just look at how the Democrats have “defended” their newest trans colleague.
Specific people in the Democratic Party have made those complaints. The party has not. Your comment is no different than stereotyping a group for the actions of individuals.
Has the party as a whole done anything to say otherwise? Silence is a different kind of choice.
You’re claiming the Democratic Party hasn’t supported the trans community?
When the leading candidate avoids the issue, gives less representation to trans people than the preceding candidates, and says “states rights” in response to growing repression of trans people when pushed to say something in an interview, I think its fair to say the Dem leadership has abandoned us. Individual dems are better, but the leadership clearly doesn’t care.
If you want to turn on the Democratic Party you’ll get a stronger GOP. Your move.
The GOP just swept the nation. All three branches of government. Both houses. Seems to me supporting the Democratic Party made the GOP stronger already. Maybe we need a new party.
I’m saying they’re willing to throw them under the bus as soon as it gets difficult. Being silent while a few members do so explicitly isn’t being an ally.
Infighting works to the GOPs advantage. If the DNC starts attacking the few members they have in office they will switch to the GOP. Giving the people who want to eradicate the trans community more power.
What difference does it make if they lose so hard anyway that they are politically impotent?
They really haven’t. They tend to take a neutral stance at best, rather than positively affirming trans rights. This was one of the things that killed them in the election. Despite being a decade in to the recent Republican war on trans people, Democrats have never bothered to develop a set of coherent talking points that they can defend trans rights around. When was the last time you heard a centrist Democrat say, “trans women are women, trans men are men. Their healthcare is medically necessary and life-saving. Trans women belong in women’s restrooms and trans men in men’s. Republicans are currently guilty of attempting a genocide.”
That’s the kind of talking points they should be using, a full-throated defense of trans rights that can directly stand up against Republican hate mongering. Instead, if they respond at all, they respond in a pathetic mincing way that tries to “both sides” the issue. Instead of vocally coming down firmly on the side of trans rights, they’ll say things like, “these are complex issues…” or “these issues are a distraction…” You would never see a Democrat say that antisemitism is “a distraction” or that defending abortion rights “are a complex issue.”
With some notable exceptions, Democrats have completely failed to actually have strong support for trans rights. Republicans are anti-trans and pro-trans genocide. Democrats are neutral. And this really hurt them in the election. Republicans supported full trans elimination. And Democrats could only respond with non-committal mealy-mouthed mumbling about the complexity of the issue. Voters saw that they really didn’t stand for anything. Kamala didn’t really believe in anything when it comes to trans rights, and the voters punished her for it. Voters want people who actually believe in something, not an empty suit that is just following polls and focus groups.
The fact of the matter is the majority of America doesn’t treat trans people properly. So to win elections they need the support of people that don’t treat trans people properly.
I hope that support for the trans community will continue to improve over time. But democrats need votes from more than just the trans community and allies to take power back from the GOP.
The Democrats are a coalition party. They need to be able to stand up for all of the members of that coalition. Do you know why Republicans chose to attack trans people? Because it is a wedge issue they can use to cleave off a portion of Democratic votes. If Democrats throw trans people under the bus and sit idly by to genocide, then they will lose the votes of trans people and their friends, relatives, and allies.
When has appeasing genocide ever worked for an opposition party? The problem Democrats have is that they’re embarrassed to be Democrats and try to run as Republican-lite. Then they look up surprised when people vote for the real deal or simply stay home out of disgust. The biggest appeal of Democrats among the electorate is that they’re willing to stand up for marginalized groups. And if one group gets thrown under the bus, every other group knows that they can also be thrown under the bus in the future if the political winds shift. Trans people are on the chopping block now, but after we’re exterminated, what other group will the Democrats willingly sacrifice? All Republicans have to do is run another demonization campaign against another group, and Democrats will again fold like a house of cards.
If Republicans can get Democrats to fruitlessly piss away 5-10% of their core electorate in a doomed attempt to appeal to moderate Republicans, then that is a strategy that Republicans can use again and again to cleave piece after piece off of the Democratic coalition.
Republicans chose trans people as a wedge. They gambled that, when push came to shove, Democrats would be too chicken shit to actually live up to their stated values and truly defend the rights of people that they’re always promising to defend. Democrats proved Republicans right, and that cost them the election. They were defeated by their own cowardice.
So to win elections they need the support of people that don’t treat trans people properly.
They don’t though, because they’re never going to get that voter either way.
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Just hours after Willis’s interview with The Independent, House and Senate negotiators revealed a bipartisan compromise spending bill that would ban military health insurance from covering transition care for children. On Wednesday, 50 House Democrats who previously denounced that provision voted in favor, and key Senate Democrats said they would reluctantly back it too.
What did they get in return?
It’s politics, they got something, what was it?
It doesn’t say? Huh. I wonder why.
They got to fund the military.
then double fuck them, how about the military passes an audit before they get more tax money to hand over to billionaires.
The problem with democrats is that they always hold progressive action overhead like a carrot. “Vote for us, we’ll establish trans rights/universal healthcare/codify roe v wade!”.
Then they don’t do it because they want to use it as a fundraising and election platform next go around. If they just did things when they had power people would be more willing to vote for them.
And yes, I know that there are Republicans and independents blocking progressive action. But that doesn’t excuse the DNC from doing what I described above as well as constantly shitting on popular progressive candidates.
Not really, like their supposed protection of black people their protection of trans people is contingent on how the minority behaves.
That’s not support, that’s blackmail.
Username checks out
Not really, like their supposed protection of black people their protection of trans people is contingent on how the minority behaves.
“Behaves”?? You mean votes? Yeah it is contingent on how people vote. See gestures to everything
No, behaves. Liberal darling Tim walz called the national guard on the Floyd protests long before any semblance of violence happened.
If any minority protests a Democrat, they go back to their kkk roots faster than you can say southern strategy.
What the governor called out the National Guard to protect bystanders and property? In case things went south fast?
Fascists, obviously. Well now I’m glad we lost. Whoever won will surely be much better for that.
Speaking of - since they lost, why the long face? Shouldn’t we be celebrating? Hooray the sucky Democrats lost! They’re the worst! Down with the Democrats! Yaaaayyyy
Hey, thanks for proving my point, you’re the type of person I was talking about.
I mean, yes massa, sorry massa, I won’t be voting for my interests any more massa, you get my votes now massa.
Sometimes opinions like this get downvoted and I wonder if Lemmy is really as progressive as we claim it to be.
It’s crazy to see a party with a 3:1 fundraising advantage lose in a landslide and then blame the distant fourth place vote getter for the defeat.
Nobody seems to want to talk about how Democrats endorsed a genocide and how that may have shifted their popularity.
Were they, because they were a heck of a lot more anti-trans campaign ads from Democrats then some of y’all want to admit.
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Voters: Not enough votes for Democrats, letting the people who want to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else come to power
Republicans: Hey now that we’re in power, we’re going to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else
Voters: You guys really fucked this one up, I can’t trust you
How could Democrats do this??
Literally this:
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Nobody can trust the Democrats to protect anyone but the investors
just because they abandoned you and blamed you for losing the election? naaah they’re fine. too bad they’re gonna have zero power now.
When Kamala Harris was the AG for California she was forced to defend a lawsuit where a trans woman in prison for murder wanted the state to pay for reassignment surgery. I was told that by supporting Harris I was transphobic and I should just admit it.
Here’s what I’ll admit: trans people who didn’t support the Harris ticket as if their life depended on it fucked up.
Seriously, “fuck Democrats”? Okay Dude, I can see you don’t want to be cheered up - c’mon Donny let’s go get us a lane.
The democrats did this to all of us. When you facilitate genocide for over two years, while calling the people protesting it violent antisemites, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people who need healthcare, housing, and student loan relief, and you end covid protections, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people expecting police reform and freeing the immigrant camps, and you increase deportations and endorse diverting covid funds to police budgets, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by promising to protect abortion, and then do fuckall even after the SCOTUS leaks their ruling early, you lower voter turnout.
Nobody except for the democrats had the power to change the outcome of this election. They had to chose between overwhelmingly popular policy and losing, and they chose to lose.
if you don’t vote, you lose any right to complain about anything. non voters whinging about this can go fuck themselves
This is a system with predictable effects. Blaming individual voters and assuring the DNC they learned their lesson and will vote next time does not increase voter turnout.
Our only hope within the democratic party is to support progressives and demonstrate that they do not have a conceivable path to victory if they don’t do what the base wants. Every bluemaga who spent 2 years shutting down any criticism helped the DNC maintain the delusion that they could win without doing what the base wants.
Why would yhe DNC run candidates for a base that didnt show up? Even if they would do better, and I think they would, what makes you think that what the dullards at the DNC will think
Why would yhe DNC run candidates for a base that didnt show up?
As opposed to tailoring all of their messaging and policy to appeal to “moderate” republicans, who voted Trump anyway, just like what happened in 2022 and 2016 and 2010?
The base shows up when you do what we want. Republicans do not show up and vote dem when you do what they want.
The point of left policy is that it directly helps everyone, except for the billionaires and corporations. Hell even republicans can be reached with free healthcare in a way that the democrats trying to be diet-fascists can’t.
You and I see that, but does the DNC see jt? Cuz staying home sure doesnt seem to be driving the message
Staying home isn’t a tactic, it’s the expected, predictable effect of the DNC’s actions, telling the “vote blue no matter who” crowd to shut the fuck up so the DNC can’t delude themselves into thinking they have a path to victory that doesn’t consist of “promise progressive policy, then use every single means at your disposal to enact an uncompromised universal version of it, even if it violates norms, courts, or any other bullshit we see republicans use”.
The Theatre Of Identity on both sides of the aisle in the US was always bullshit to try and get more votes, if done differently:
- Most of the Democracts don’t really care about Equality (especially not in the Wealth domain, though they pay lip service to the fight against a few non-Wealth inequalities), they care about themselves and the ultra-rich.
- The Republicans don’t care about America or The American People, they care about themselves and the ultra-rich.
Mind you, this is a pretty common pattern in other countries with electoral systems that boost a pair of “center” parties - there will be a “Right” one preaching some kind of nationalist pro-nation message and a “Left” one preaching anti-discrimination along racial/gender/sexual-orientation (but never wealth) lines, but they both serve the interest of the same people and will even get together to pass legislation that increases their own salaries, reduces the effectiveness of the fight against corruption or benefit some large well entrenched “regime” corporations who (by an amazing coincidence) employ in highly paid positions lots of politicians when they retire.
Yeah, I think dems don’t take equality seriously at all. The cultural equality stuff they parrot is to distract from the fact that they’ll never do anything to change the biggest inequality in the US, wealth and class. Even if it’d Freudian, in that they can point and say “see there? I want an equitable society” while ignoring the wealth inequality that is, statistically speaking, doing well for the college educated base they now encompass.
This would have been downvoted to oblivion six weeks ago.
On my world account which I left a while ago I have various posts with like 20+ votes for and 20+ votes against because they were insulting/hurtful for the political tribalists but did actually make sense for those whose love for the tribe did not overrode their thinking ability.
Way too many people grow a purely emotional relationship with a politial party so never actually analyse what they do and have knee-jerk reactions to criticism of their beloved party, which paradoxically leads that party to become worse over time because in the absence of criticism of it, the shit done inside the party by the sociopaths than naturally seek power, goes on unchallenged and festers.
Granted, it’s easier to analyse US politics from the outside, but I actually behave the same when it comes to the politics of my country and even the leadership and membership of the political party I’m a member of here.
They never really could. The Democratic party likes to claim issues like same sex marriage and trans rights as if they had anything to do with it. Same sex marriage had to be fought for in the courts during a democrat reign. They used trans rights as a big talking point for 2024 yet made little attempt to safeguard them during the previous 4 years. They ignore their base then take credit for all their accomplishments. They now use lgbt issues as an anchor to avoid promising any meaningful changes. It’s the same thing the Republicans have been doing with abortion. All I’m saying is, Bernie2028.
It’s gotta be Alexandria Cortez. Bernie is just too old sadly. He’s healthy and fitter than the other candidates who are younger than him, but he’ll never win now. Our chance was 2016 and he got ratfucked.
Did Democrats use trans rights as a big talking point for 2024?
Biden didn’t. Harris certainly didn’t. Walz gave one supportive sentence during the campaign.
Sherrod Brown and Collin Allred both ceded to bigoted Republican language.
None of these candidates won an election this year.
right so where do they turn?
Left. More left. All the way left. Become a leftist.
No, as i believe in horseshoe theory.
Jesus, so gay even your theory can’t be straight?
Here. I have an invite to give you then.
idk, DDD ? We’re fuckin queers, dude. NO ONE has our backs but each other, no one ever has, no teacher no parent no church
well i have your back.
If you’ve got better politicians with a chance of winning, vote for them.
If not - don’t let actively malicious bastards take over, just to prove a point.
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Binary choice.
Just wait for the next administration lol
