The 2024 Presidential election and the undeniable mandate given to Republicans by the American people perhaps have some on the left starting to rethink things a bit. The rethinking may depend on the cause; the pro-abortion crowd has ramped things up somewhat with their head-shaving and four-year-long sex strikes. But in this post-election period, there is one group that actually seems to be doing a little re-evaluation of their tactics. Will it bring more Americans over to their side? Maybe, but at least they are willing to admit that the current approach is not really working.
What Democrats fail to realize is the transgender issue was one of the big reasons moderate Democrats have walked away from the party.
— Eric Matheny 🎙️ (@ericmmatheny) November 20, 2024
Nobody hates anybody. Nobody cares how you choose to live. We care when it’s constantly shoved down our throats and makes women unsafe.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is the executive director of Advocates for Transgender Equality. He stated what many people are thinking.
“We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds. We cannot vilify them for not being on our side. No one wants to join that team. No one wants to feel stupid or condescended to."
What he says takes some courage in a movement where the rule seems to be an all-or-nothing strategy. Heng-Lehtinen highlighted the tactics used on social media: those who deem themselves the language police and remove terms like "male" and "female" when talking about things like pregnancy or abortion, declare that misgendering someone is akin to "violence," and insisting that everyone announce their pronouns. Immediately calling someone a "transphobe" isn't working either.
As speculation as to whether Democrats are taking a break for some self-reflection, Heng-Lehtinen may have a prime example of what he is talking about, and that example could also be an ally. Earlier this month, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) gave Democrats a dose of tough love when he spoke out on men playing in women's sports,
“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.”
What did Moulton get for his trouble? An immediate threat of a primary in 2026 and a group called "Neighbors Against Hate" protesting outside his office. Democrats, in general, got a rude awakening on election day when they were confronted with the fact that the issues most important to voters were not the same as theirs, with the economy coming out on top of the list and transgender rights down at the bottom. One of the most effective campaign ads for Republicans ended with the phrase, "Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you."
School board to pay $575K to teacher fired for not using transgender student's pronouns https://t.co/R5kk1xt2ZY
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) October 1, 2024
But rank-and-file LGBTQ activists are wary of letting their guard down in what they think is a more hostile environment. Gillian Branstetter is a communications strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and works on transgender issues. Here are the mindset and the assumptions that Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is up against. Branstetter states,
“What we’re facing is fundamental unfairness — and that is not coming from people who are interested in compromise and open debate. These are people who are threatened by trans people’s very existence. And, more importantly, they’re trying to scapegoat us.”
But isn't much of that "fundamental unfairness" coming from transgender activists themselves? Polls taken by places like the Public Research Institute show that fewer Americans than just two years ago support transgender rights. One reason being things like the pushing of gender transition treatment for minors. For most Americans, that is non-negotiable.
While Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen may mean well and want meaningful dialogue between the transgender community and those who disagree with them, it is biological males playing sports with biological females that will also be a non-negotiable issue. He believes that "the movement needs a more persuasive message." He continued, saying that decisions on transgender student-athletes should be left to school districts and athletic associations. Then he became part of the problem when he added, "...and not to the whims of Republican legislators." He added, “I don’t think we are best served by imposing a one-size-fits-all solution,” and said that transgender athlete bans are "sweeping and crude."
Transgender activists think the problem is that Americans just don't know about the lives of transgender people, and they just want "fairness, respect, and love." Most rational Americans want everyone to be treated that way. So why is it so many of them believe they are unfairly having beliefs they don't agree with shoved down their throats?
The divide on the left may be illustrated in these two statements. Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen had this to say,
“It is our job to break the misinformation down and to say compassionately, ‘It’s perfectly understandable that you have questions.' That’s not yelling at someone.”
Congressman Moulton summed up the problem this way: “Here we are calling Republicans weird, and we’re the party that makes people put pronouns in their email signature." The retooling may take some time.
This Nonsense is not selling to the US voter!
— Jamie Olsen (@j_olsen0606) November 26, 2024
Get your boys (with skirts) out of our granddaughters' locker rooms!
Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach https://t.co/X5uyfM0o99
