support for trans athletes did not cost the Democrats this election
It was never about sports. It’s still not about sports. Don’t let them fool you.
Hi, friends! I’m aware I haven’t written anything since the election and that is for a few reasons. The main one is that I haven’t really had anything to say and I’d rather say nothing than be another newsletter sending out an election take that no one really needs. I try to stay in my lane, you know? The other reasons include the fact that I got sick and am only now starting to feel human again, and we’ve had a friend visiting and being in community is one of my favorite places to be in times like this. Our friend is Canadian and flew in on Election Day so he’s really gotten the true American Experience (TM) this past week.
With all that said, I’ve had a few days to process and look around at the emerging narratives and there’s one narrative that is strongly in my lane that I think is worth addressing. Let’s get into it. I’ll send out a link roundup in the next couple of days.
But first! As always, I appreciate you all for being here! I am a full-time freelance sports writer. Paid subscriptions to this newsletter allow me to dedicate more time to this work. You can subscribe or upgrade here:
support for trans athletes did not cost the Democrats this election
After the absolute beatdown that the Democratic Party took on Tuesday, people have been quick to look for somewhere to place the blame. The blame has fallen, to varying degrees on: Joe Biden (yes); the Harris campaign’s attempts to embrace Republican defectors rather than the True Left (yes); the online radicalization of white men through podcasts (yes, and that
piece I linked to is worth your time); the online radicalization of white women through tradwife content (not getting enough attention imo, in the rush for (mostly cishet) white women to blame men and position themselves as “one of the good ones” by distancing themselves from their whiteness and therefore their roles as oppressors in our society); and trans people, namely Democratic support for trans athletes (no, absolutely not).It was almost immediately that Democratic operatives began throwing trans people under the bus. If only we hadn’t been so supportive of trans people, they argued, Donald Trump wouldn’t have won the election. Except that the Democrats weren’t so supportive of trans people; our names barely came out of Harris’s mouth at all. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign spent $215 million on anti-trans ads—ads that specifically aired during sporting events like the World Series, college football games, and NFL games.
As
noted on a recent CNN appearance, “There was a recent survey done by Data for Progress that found that 80% of Americans, including 85% of Republicans, think that politicians should spend less time on trans issues… Most people would rather talk about the economy and inflation than talk about where someone uses the bathroom or whether an under-12 girls soccer team includes a trans girl or not.”Other findings from that Data for Progress study included the fact that a majority of voters trusted Democrats to handle trans issues more than they trusted Republicans, and a majority of voters would rather elect someone who supports trans rights than someone who doesn’t.
So tell me why, the day after the election, multiple Democratic politicians went to the media and blamed Harris’s loss on… trans kids playing sports.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York moderate Democrat who won re-election Tuesday, told the New York Times the next day. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports. … Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be.”
That “but” is doing a lot of work there. Suozzi wasn’t the only Democrat with this take. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, went on a New York Times podcast last Wednesday and 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.” He doubled down on those comments Sunday, claiming that the backlash he’s receiving proves his point. Mass Equality, a non-profit advocacy organization for the LGBTQ+ community, put out a statement condemning his remarks and other members of the MA Democratic party have called for his resignation.
Even Nancy Pelosi blamed “cultural issues,” namely “guns, gays, and God” for the Democratic Party’s loss, citing trans issues specifically. This discussion has carried over to other mainstream media outlets, where it continues to go unchallenged. Maureen Dowd picked up the ball and ran with it in the New York Times this week, too.
Democrats lost this election for a lot of reasons, but supporting trans kids who want to play sports with their friends was not one of them. And nowhere in any of this discussion are we hearing from actual trans people on this issue. Everyone is talking about us, no one is talking to us. It’s appalling to watch the only political party in this country that has expressed even tepid support for the trans community immediately attempt to scapegoat the most vulnerable Americans to avoid having to look at their party’s own failures. We are less than 1% of the American population; even if we wanted to, we cannot carry the responsibility of an entire election on our shoulders.
The quickness with which some Democrats have been willing to turn their backs on trans people—or who have finally felt emboldened to say out loud what they really think about us, bolstered by a Republican victory built on the backs of trans Americans—should be concerning to everyone. As I have written before, trans people are always the canaries in the coal mine.
“It [blaming Democratic support for trans people] is an instinct based on fear that should be rejected loudly and firmly from all corners of the party,” Hayes Brown wrote at MSNBC. “From a human decency perspective, this moment, when trans people are most endangered, is not the time to throw them under the bus. It’s also wrong as political strategy in that the party would be trying to appeal to voters who would be no more inclined to lend the Democratic Party their support even if it abandons trans people.”
As we prepare for a hostile administration to entire the White House, with a President who is already vowing to “ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the U.S. government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth,” we need more people than ever to circle the wagons and declare their support for us. Otherwise, we will be the first group targeted because we are the most vulnerable and the least supported. California has announced a special session to protect trans people and I hope more states follow suit.
Democrats who want to make this about sports are missing the larger picture. Sports are just a stepping stone to everything else. First they passed the anti-trans sports legislation, then they passed the bans on gender-affirming care and the bathroom bills. When you make a group of people out to be a threat in one area (sports), it becomes easier to paint them as a threat in other areas (public life). This was always the goal of those anti-trans sports bills—to chip away at public support for trans people in general, in order to legislate us out of existence.
It was never about sports. It’s still not about sports. Don’t let them fool you.
Thank god you exist, decided to be a writer, and still decide to be a writer
Heard that Moulton quote on some news podcast and it was so chilling. TY for the great write-up.