Numerous Democratic midterm candidates have previously made anti-trans statements or voted for anti-trans legislation. Trans journalist Erin Reed published a list yesterday of these candidates and advised her followers not to vote for them, lest their victories convince the Democratic Party “that throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy,” Reed wrote.
Vote for them in generals and not primaries. They’re each still better than giving your district/seat/whatever to MAGA, right? That’s the worst case scenario for everyone involved, including (especially?) the trans community.
Same strat as always. Vote for progressives in primaries and whoever is dem in the gen election. Anti-trans are more likely to stab dems in the back.
I kind of feel like you need to support them enough to win (as they are technically “the lesser of two evils”) and then threaten them with being voted out if they don’t stop being pieces of shit. Maybe that’s naive, but I am happy to hear a better plan.
You don’t need threats. Open communication works better as it’s not antagonistic. The unspoken threat of being voted out of office is always present anyway.
I hope Dems win, but I won’t be surprised if they lose. Democrats who move rightward in an effort to gain more voters seem to think they can do so without consequence. It should not be surprising that when a political candidate tells a group of voters, “I don’t need y’alls vote” that group responds accordingly.
People can pontificate about what the voter base should do in these circumstances, weighing costs and benefits, but at the end of the day, the decision to lose voters is made by the running politician. This group of Democrats believes that they will gain more anti-trans voters than they pro-trans voters they will lose. It seems very similar to the Democratic strategy in 2016 of, “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs…” to get Hillary Clinton elected.
Rather than focus on the appropriate ways the voter base should respond, people should be focused on why these Democrats are running a strategy proven to fail.
Trans woman here. Them wanting more research on trans people in sports doesn’t scare me.
The fascist pedophile rapist war criminals scare me.
That is all.
Them pandering to right wing anti-trans propaganda scares me. We already have so many issues with liberals being fake performative allies willing to turn on a dime.
Concede this ground and the battlefield of public discourse will be pushed further.
What if we’re wrong?
What if height, wing-span, and upper body leverage advantages can occur from male puberty and don’t simply “go away” with hormone treatment?
The truth matters.
You do understand that people come in a variety of sizes? Looking at female athletes their bodies dominate my little frame.
The fact you’re being such a fucking pick-me on this issue makes me livid.
It honestly seems like you’re just being a pick-me for the left to be honest.
There’s a reason medical transitions are a thing. Are you really going to sit here and say puberty and physical sex changes nothing?
Are you trying to change your body, or change the minds of the entire world?
What exactly do you expect?
One would love to put you in a reeducation camp and obliterate your entire existence. The other might say you can’t play soccer. Do with that what you will.
The issue is that electing transphobes normalizes transphobia. The Democratic party is always courting votes from “moderates” and conservatives, but no one is chasing trans voters. This is basically a perfect set up for the ratchet effect: Dems stop letting trans girls play sports, Repubs celebrate their victory and move the goal posts again, and now Dems are proposing some new “middle ground” restraint on trans people.
None of my local candidates were on Erin’s analysis, so I don’t have a horse in that particular race. But I do think it’s reasonable to refuse to vote for anyone who is willing to strip you of your rights because of your gender. I don’t think it’s fair to blame a marginalized group for why they’re being marginalized, when the other option is to advocate for them.
Looking at a trans person and saying “vote against your interests because if you don’t vote it might be worse for you quicker” is not fair or right. No one should be feeling smug when they do that, despite how much it seems to happen on Lemmy. The better, more useful, thing to do is to see if you are in any of the districts on Erin’s list, and, if so, advocate for your trans allies. Call your rep and say, “Hey, I want to vote for you, but your stance on trans people doesn’t align with my values.” Pressure them to not implement transphobic policies. You can still plan to vote for them anyway, but they don’t need to know that. Use the threat. Convince them that trans allies need to be courted, too, and Dems are not just the accepted and default candidate because “Republicans bad.”
One would love to put you in a
reeducationextermination camp and obliterate your entire existence.FTFY
You can play soccer, but maybe not on the women’s team.
You know what? Let’s go. If all you have to offer is a slightly kinder abuser, march me to the Republican death camps, at least I know they just want me dead and don’t want to fundraise off of my continued suffering and browbeat me into supporting them as my only option.
Oh for fucks sake. At least there can be progress with democrats. Gay marriage, don’t ask don’t tell -> gays and trans folks allowed to openly serve in the military. Push in the right direction and you can get there. Or you can throw it all away and let the fascists take over because a half dozen democrats aren’t sure you should be playing on the girls volleyball team.
So that’s just it, progress can’t be made if the Democrats concede to anti-trans talking points. What’s worse is it will give way to anti-trans bills that would have been a party line vote to seeing bipartisan support.
In general, I’m just very tired of being told to grin and bear the less bad choice, the imperfect ally and the slow erosion of my rights because it could always be worse or because it’s not politically viable or because these things take time. I’m tired of my needs being the inconvenient disposable ones. I’m tired of these conversations that seem to have just turned into simple tone conversations where people don’t read the words and emotions and just make snap judgements and dump a bunch of rhetoric.
I wish we could have something new
The time to vote against these candidates is the next primary. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of… the lesser of two evils. To mix metaphors.
That’s my first thought, Erin should have done this investigation before primaries, publishing it now is potentially actively harming dems chances.
Never heard of this person til after the primaries and their articles have been everywhere. Either a paid agitator or just a moron if you ask me.
Erin has been arround for years, I don’t completely agree with her current take under the circumstances, but she’s not an agitator, and has a lot of good coverage.
They are Fettermans. Vote for them and then vote them out. Any Dem who is anti trans is a fucking lunatic.
Ah, yes. Let us always find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I’m glad I don’t have to make that call because my state isn’t one of them. That said, the existential threat of a permanent fascist takeover of the country takes precedence for me. I have lots of ways I can and do support trans folk outside of the ballot box if I had a shitty representative. I could even call them and make clear I will support a primary challenge to them on my next opportunity if they don’t change.
If this place becomes an authoritarian fascist shithole, there’s little to be done other than hide them in our basements.
I suppose it all depends on how much faith folks have that that can’t happen here — I don’t have that faith.
remember the time the principled and scientific guys defeated genocide joe by staying home, and chuck schumer went “ah I see now the error of my ways I will never support a genocide again or back centrist candidates”
glad to see a highly successful operation like the campaign to stop genocide joe repeat itself
and chuck schumer went “ah I see now the error of my ways I will never support a genocide again or back centrist candidates”
Nailed it.
This kind of scenario - basically, “and everyone clapped” - is exactly how so many so-called leftists imagine things playing out. It’s mildly embarrassing when someone does this during their first foray into adulthood and first election. Heck, everyone was a teenager once. But it’s so cringe when I see supposed adults still carrying on like this.
Remember how that led to people like Mamdani winning?
Almost like taking a principled stance can pay off where as the vote blue no matter who crowd way of the past 50 years has only lead to fascism taking over.
People like Mamdani won because people voted for them in primaries, and then voted in the general. Protest non-voters didn’t lead to shit, except Republican victories.
Remember how that led to people like Mamdani winning?
No
This is disingenuous and wrong, the idiots who cast protest votes or stayed home in 2024 had no role in electing Mamdani. Shame on you for trying to take credit for his win.
step 1 fuck up, step 2 ???, step 3 take credit for the efforts of serious people
you mean mamdani the guy who happily works with hochul and other centrists thus pissing off genocidejoespam crew?
Okay well when they lose then the GOP are planning to put you in a camp, Erin.
Vote blue. Bodily autonomy is still the platform.
If they dont vote, they can hardly be called ‘voters’. Call em the cowardly sitouts they are.
