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“Democrats are wrestling with the role the party’s broad support for transgender rights played in its failure to capture the presidency and either chamber of Congress, with sharp views being exchanged in a party reeling from its losses. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a five-term congressman who previously has voted with most other Democrats to safeguard transgender rights, touched off a firestorm of criticism when he railed against Democratic support for transgender athletes in women’s sports in an interview with The New York Times…
“‘Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,’ Moulton said. ‘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.’ Massachusetts Democrats widely panned Moulton’s remarks.” The Hill
The left is divided.
“The evidence to suggest that trans rights were a decisive factor in the election is slim. Exit polls following the election have shown that the state of the economy, an overall desire for change at all costs, and party drift in certain demographics to the right were the main reasons propelling Trump to an electoral victory, not social issues…
“Even a plurality of those who believe abortion should be legal in most cases —a cause celebre for the Democratic coalition—voted for Trump. What’s more, voters in Delaware elected the first openly trans congressperson in history, Democrat Sarah McBride… This kind of punching down serves nobody except the reactionary forces trying to erase trans people from the landscape altogether.”
Sydney Bauer, The Nation
Others argue, “The tragedy of this subject is that compromise positions are available that would please most voters, and would stop a wider backlash against gender nonconformity that manifests as punitive laws in red states. America is a more open-minded country than its toughest critics believe—the latest research shows that about as many people believe that society has not gone far enough in accepting trans people as think that it has gone too far…
“Most Americans agree that transgender people should not face discrimination in housing and employment… But most voters [also] think that biological sex is real, and that it matters in law and policy. Instructing them to believe otherwise, and not to ask any questions, is a doomed strategy.”
Helen Lewis, The Atlantic
“[The Biden administration’s proposed change to Title IX] would prohibit outright bans on transgender athletes, but would permit schools to restrict transgender students from participating if they could demonstrate that inclusion would harm ‘educational objectives’ like fair competition and the prevention of injury…
“[This] reflected research that suggests sex differences emerge over time, so the standard for inclusion in high school should not necessarily be the same as that in younger grades… [This policy] would likely resonate more with average Americans than the hardline stances typically associated with Republicans… Yet the Biden administration’s reluctance to clearly communicate their middle-ground position left a vacuum that Republicans were happy to fill…
“Democrats may be well-intentioned in seeking to avoid heated and sensitive issues, but their strategy of silence can fuel the perception that the party cannot craft politically viable solutions, and more importantly, contribute to the myth that there’s a major ongoing crisis in school sports. ‘There aren’t trans athletes everywhere beating women… There are a lot of 6-year-olds and 10-year-olds who just want to play soccer with their friends.’”
Rachel M. Cohen, Vox
The right argues that Democrats have moved too far left on transgender issues.
The right argues that Democrats have moved too far left on transgender issues.
“Polling by Harris’s leading super PAC found that Trump’s ‘Kamala is for they/them’ ad swung ‘the race 2.7 percentage points in Mr. Trump’s favor after viewers watched it.’ This alone could have won Trump the popular vote, and possibly some swing states… In the wake of Democratic defeats, party representatives and liberal pundits could no longer pretend that bending the knee to their coalition’s radicals came without cost…
“But the reality is that embracing rights claims, in lieu of sober policy analysis, has become a deeply embedded feature of contemporary liberalism… [This] is precisely why Democrats will struggle to walk back their support for radical transgender policies. Democrats spent years lecturing the public that boys’ participation in girls’ sports and mastectomies for teen girls who identify as boys are non-negotiable ‘civil rights.’ If they change course now, they will either have to admit they were wrong before or become rights-violators by their own definition.”
Leor Sapir, City Journal
“Moulton’s statement is not about the rights of transgender people in general or respect for their personal choices. He is speaking specifically about who should be eligible to play in women’s and girls’ sports…
“In sports, the basic issue is fairness and sometimes safety. Trans women have marked physical advantages over other women. You don’t need to deny their choice of gender to say that. You simply need to recognize the obvious physical differences and the advantage they convey…
“Those systematic differences are why we have separate sports for the two sexes. If you think trans women should compete against fellow women, what is the rationale for any separate sports for women? There is none… Superb as Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark are, they couldn’t begin to compete with LeBron James. In fact, women’s basketball uses a smaller ball because the players have smaller hands… It is not transphobic to impose [these] restrictions.”
Charles Lipson, Spectator World
“In an exchange on CNN that’s gotten attention, the Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton said a lot of families don’t think that boys should play girls’ sports, eliciting an outraged reaction from progressive panelist Jay Michelson. Interrupting, Michelson said heatedly that he wasn’t going to listen to such ‘transphobia’ and maintained with great vehemence that it is ‘a slur’ to describe ‘trans girls’ as ‘boys.’…
“The left’s attitude on this issue is not, ‘You may disagree, but I believe trans girls are indeed girls,’ but rather, ‘They are girls, and you have absolutely no moral right to say or think otherwise.’ It adds a spirit of hectoring intolerance to the underlying absurdity of the position on the merits — making it all even more off-putting.”
Rich Lowry, New York Post
