Donald Trump had recently finished a familiar riff about banning gender transition surgery for children when the former president, speaking to an audience of Evangelical voters, moved on to something new: a policy that would affect transgender adults.
“I will ban all taxpayer funding for sex or gender transitions at any age,” said Trump, receiving thunderous applause at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington last month. The Republican leader, who moments earlier had also pledged to reinstate a ban on transgender men and women serving in the military, paused for several seconds to soak in the crowd’s adulation.
It’s the kind of moment — and the type of policy — increasingly common on the GOP presidential campaign trail this year.
Elections aren’t going to save us. I will make sure to vote against anybody who has the slightest whiff of engaging in this anti-trans hysteria, but you could hardly describe this place as a democracy to begin with. The desires of the people have absolutely nothing to do with what gets enacted as public policy in this country.
We need to prepare as if the state will do NOTHING to protect us, and treat any counterexample as a pleasant surprise.
Red won the election in 2016: Abortions no longer a civil right nationwide.
Blue won my state in 2020 and 2022: Abortion a right again. (Staewide)
Elections do have impact. Republicans won the election in 2016, so we see their will writ large. Vote, vote, vote, or it will only ever get worse.