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.
They don’t have the abortion debate anymore, the gay debate is a bit too mainstream to end well, the gun control debate is always there but not particularly in focus, and they don’t have the states (yet) to repeal the 13th.
So what to rile their base up with? Transphobia and calling their enemies pedophiles, the latter of which is kinda par for the course, but the former is a relatively new patch on the ol’ hate quilt.
Transphobia was always on the list, but they didn’t need to start beating that drum because they had abortion as their boogeyman of choice. Once that got taken off the table, Transphobia just became the most convenient thing to make as the new boogeyman.
And once they’re done with that, it’ll be a new marginalized group. I haven’t heard any members of the GOP pick on kids with cancer lately, but I’m sure they have their sights set on eradicating this bunch of freeloaders looking to leech off our healthcare system too, or something.
Starting to think the right just loves to be mad at something. Yelling and controlling is what they’re after, not actual change
They just want an excuse to be pissed off at the world.