Dem
47
GOP
53
As long as we are on the subject of transphobia as a uniting principle for MAGA, it could not be clearer that the Trump administration is trying desperately to return to that well to try to save the midterm elections (or, at very least, to minimize the damage).
Trump himself is absolutely obsessed with trans Americans. Cole Sear saw dead people, and Trump sees trans people. Everywhere. All the time. And he cannot keep it to himself. His YMCA-loving social media platform is full of anti-trans commentary, much of it from the President. And he is constantly bringing the subject up in awkward and bizarre contexts. For example, he tried mightily to get the DoorDash Grandma to engage him on the evils of trans Americans, but she wouldn't take the bait.
To take a second example, Trump gave a speech to an audience at The Villages last week, one that was supposed to be about making things more affordable for seniors. Instead, something like half the speech was about the things Trump is doing to combat the trans menace. He said, with a straight face, that the U.S. was "dead" until he came along and put an end to genital mutilation. He declared that the Democrats are "crazy" when it comes to this issue. And he told an extended anecdote, a favorite of his, about how trans women powerlifters have an unfair advantage. We've actually heard the anecdote a few times, and still cannot figure out if it's a real story or a hypothetical. Probably the latter since, if it's real, we can find no trace of the alleged event.
To take a third example, Trump had an event yesterday highlighting the (currently very ironic) Presidential Physical Fitness Award. And after trying to get the kids in attendance to badmouth Barack Obama (who was president before most of them were born), and asking one of them if he thought he would win a fight with Trump, the President talked to a kid who aspires to be a powerlifter. That, of course, triggered yet another telling of the trans powerlifter anecdote. We will admit, we are not clever enough to understand why talking to kids about trans people is bad, but talking to them about trans weightlifters is good.
The point is that this is a recurrent theme. We see a story almost every day that involves Trump saying something along the lines of: "Oil prices will go down soon! And until then, what about those trans people?" And if there are any doubts, search the White House website and see how many anti-trans proclamations and actions the administration has promulgated.
The President has, of course, surrounded himself with sycophants who know full well what their marching orders are whenever the boss develops an obsession like this. And so, various underlings are looking under boards for anti-trans battles they can fight. Yesterday, for example, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that her department is launching an investigation of Smith College, because the all-women's school has begun admitting trans women.
The claim here is that Smith College is committing a Title IX violation. However the argument seems to be "all women's school"... "trans women are actually men"... [hand waving]... ILLEGAL. In the press release, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey decrees: "An all-women's college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males. Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law. The Trump Administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense." Even if you grant the "facts" that are asserted here, we're not seeing what law has been broken. Maybe we don't grasp the nuances and subtleties of Title IX. On the other hand, we certainly understand the nuances and subtleties of press-release writing. And when an obvious bit of information does not appear, like the answer to the question of "Why, exactly, is this illegal?" then that's usually instructive.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is currently led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who is a militant anti-civil rights activist, particularly when it comes to the civil rights of trans people. So, Dhillon could be motivated by a desire to impose her political will on people, or by a desire to please the boss in general, or possibly even by the hope that she'll get the nod to be the next AG. We don't know. In any event, last week, Dhillon launched a broad investigation of 36 different school districts in the hated blue state of Illinois, which is led by the hated Democratic governor JB Pritzker. The investigations are ostensibly looking into whether schools in these districts: (1) allow trans girls to play girls sports, (2) allow students to use restrooms for the gender other than the one on their birth certificate, (3) mention in class that trans people exist. This is not the first action of this sort from Dhillon. The previous ones were blocked by a federal judge, and this one probably will be as well.
Another Dhillon-led "initiative" is an effort to force hospitals to hand over all information they have related to trans kids who have been treated at the institution. Needless to say, hospitals are not inclined to accomodate these demands, starting with the fact that sharing such information is a HIPAA violation. Last week, Rhode Island Hospital became the latest healthcare institution to be targeted. Other attempts to get such information have been rebuffed by judges, so Dhillon & Co. are trying out a new approach. The plan is to exploit a loophole in the HIPAA law that says suits can be filed in the district where the hospital is located, or the district where the investigation is being conducted. Conveniently, this particular investigation is "being conducted" in the Northern District of Texas, where the federal court is mostly hard-right, and is home to such well-known "balls and strikes" judges as Reed O'Connor and Matthew Kacsmaryk.
Ultimately, it's not much of a stretch to say that transphobia got Trump his second term. There were several things that hurt Kamala Harris in 2024, but probably none more than "She's for they/them, He's for you." So, it's not surprising that Trump & Co. would return to that well again. But doesn't the whole narrative in this item, from Trump's out-of-place comments, to the "Hail Mary" court cases, smack of desperation? Seems to us like they are running out of fuel with which to keep the anti-trans fires burning. And at a time when Americans appear to be considerably more concerned about the fact that the country is running out of actual fuel. Our preliminary guess is that this angle will be nowhere near as effective as it was in 2024, in the same way that the gay marriage thing petered out pretty quickly after the presidential election of 2004. (Z)