Transgender advocates have pushed back against activists who resort to “irrational” tactics, with some admitting that their critics “cannot be vilified.” That's because support among Americans for the biggest transgender issue has plummeted.
Transgender rights emerged deadliest in Gallup poll The survey asked 2,024 voters to rank 22 issues they considered in their voting decisions, and 36% of survey respondents rated them as “not important.”
drill down Vote on specific issues Transgender bathroom policies, trans athletes competing in women's sports, and laws allowing gender-questioning youth to undergo gender reassignment treatment have all shown waning support from many Americans. There is.
some LGBTQ activists recently told the New York Times They attribute the alarming decline in support to the movement's zeal for emphasizing shame and forced compliance while discouraging critical debate.
“We have to be okay with someone changing their mind,” Rodrigo Hen-Lehtinen, executive director of Transgender Equality Advocates, told the outlet.
“You can't denigrate them just because they're not on our side. Nobody wants to be on that team.”
Advocates have used tactics such as stripping away the distinction between “male” and “female” from the topic of abortion and childbirth, frenzy over the use of pronouns, and likening even the unintentional misidentification of transgender people to acts of violence. They argue that it did not help expand the alliance. .
“No one wants to feel stupid or disrespected,” Hen-Lehtinen acknowledged.
Reconsidering how the issue is advocated is also part of the Democratic Party's ideological reflection following its decisive defeat in this year's elections.
The Trump campaign has leveraged Vice President Kamala Harris' past support for taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery on prisoners to make her push for LGBTQ issues one of the most effective campaign advertising slogans of the election. Changed. I'm here for you. ”
Even a small group of Democratic lawmakers are starting to test the waters by pushing back against the trans lobby.
“We're calling the Republican Party weird here, and we're the party that makes people put pronouns in their email signatures,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.).
His office faced an outcry from trans activists for suggesting that transgender athletes competing against biological women could have an advantage or potentially injure other competitors. But this is still happening.
Tufts University's dean of science claimed that Moulton's internship with his office would be terminated because of his concerns, but Boston University quickly clarified that this was not the case.
Mara Keisling, founder of the National Center for Transgender Equality, criticized activists who put so much energy into arguing for losing issues.
Among them are those who oppose the intrusion of biological males into women's spaces and pretend that all opposition to transgender women in sport is invalid and rooted in discrimination. She told The Times that this included demonizing JK Rowling, the author of “Potter.''
The issue of sports, in particular, is an example of how Americans have distanced themselves from empathizing with trans activists, Keisling said.
“We looked irrational,” she told the media. “We should be talking about a 7-year-old girl who just wants to play soccer with her friends.”
