What Should Democrats Do About Trans Rights?
Conservatives are waging an anti-trans war. Americans' support for trans rights is on the decline. But the story is more complicated than it seems.
Trans rights are in crisis. The Trump administration and the GOP more broadly have launched full-scale attacks on trans people, going far beyond the issues that genuinely divide Americans — trans women in sports, gender confirmation surgeries for minors — and going after the rights of trans people to simply live lives of normalcy and dignity. This administration has pushed trans people out of the military. It has tarred trans people as mentally ill and as criminals; it also denies that trans people even exist. Kansas Republicans passed a law that is currently stripping valid driver’s licenses from trans people.
Conservative cruelty has a way of backfiring, and I suspect (and hope) that these actions soon will. But in the meantime, many trans issues are losing public support, especially those elevated by the anti-trans movement precisely because they are divisive. Polling by the Argument found that a significant majority of Americans opposes gender surgeries for minors, even when a doctor says such surgeries are necessary, and supports laws requiring youth athletes to compete with their birth sex; a small but still significant majority also opposes puberty blockers for minors.
A slim majority now even support “bathroom bills” that would require trans people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth sex, not their gender identity and how they live and present; only a third oppose such bills. Put into place, that would have this guy walking into the women’s bathroom, and this woman into the men’s. In reality, it means that trans people will be risking assault every time they go to pee — or they just won’t be able to pee in public restrooms at all. This is a huge shift from just a few years ago, when bathroom bills merited such enormous public outrage that they earned NCAA boycotts before being walked back.
Clearly, the trans rights movement is facing an intense backlash. But there is a path forward for supporters of trans rights.
