Some good news - Utah Rep governor

[stickygirl]

https://i.imgur.com/Lg2cLfq.jpg?1

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a mainstream conservative Republican, on Tuesday vetoed a bill meant to stop transgender kids from participating in school sports.

 

[coati]

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a mainstream conservative Republican, on Tuesday vetoed a bill meant to stop transgender kids from participating in school sports.

Even though his veto was indeed overridden by the Utah legislature, he made the right decision.

 

[coati]

I saw a trans activist on Public Television (PBS News Hour) yesterday evening. She knows that the current wave of political grandstanding against the rights of trans people will not last forever. Her assertiveness and optimism is uplifting.

 

[njlauren]

Basically it is the GOP, that once was a party believe it or not that claimed to believe in individual freedom and libertarianism (that today seems to be only true with them for corporations being allowed to do what they want ), throwing everything they can against the wall and see what sticks. They know the social issues are a big deal with their not so kind base (religious bigots, racists, etc), so they are doing things like claiming schools are teaching "Critical Race Theory", which is a joke (Critical race theory is used in grad schools, and it is about as mind numbingly obtuse as most such things are). The GOP is basically saying you should do what was done all along, pretend that race doesn't exist, doesn't matter, society is color blind (all the while, ironically, arguing that whites are being victimized..if society is color blind, how could that happen?). It is the whipping up the bogeymen, when BLM riots and protests were happening, here in my pretty solidly blue county, the GQP running for house of representatives ran a campaign that literally said "They are coming for you, they are coming to our towns," referring to BLM. What was it? Not even hidden racism, the area is typical of suburban NJ,the people and towns she was appealing to are pretty much totally white.

Hate and fear sell, and keep in mind the GOP wants to take the country back to the mythical 1950's. Added to it is their unholy alliance with churches that want to try and put LGBT people back into the closet, specifically evangelicals and the Catholic Church leadership in the US.

The GQP is even talking about taking same sex marriage back to the supreme court and getting it thrown out. It is all them hyping up even further the cultural wars because it really is all they have, the GOP stopped having ideas outside making sure the rich and corporations achieve even higher level of greed.


It is aimed at their base, and it is also aimed at suburban white men (who tend to vote GOP bc they think they will get a tax cut...) and then also at the more, I am sorry to say, gullible among the suburban soccer moms, it is the latter they really are trying to sway, putting out images of how trans kids will 'overwhelm' their little girls, or not let them get an athletic scholarship to college (and yes, folks, have seen that one). The reality of course is that is idiotic, among other things, there just aren't that many people who are trans, kids or not.

It is going to be turbulent, that is for sure, but there is hope. One reality is that the people most firing up this fury are the white, blue collar , rural types, and they are literally a dying breed. Younger people don't care, very few of them care (yeah, I have seen the little kids saying things like "no boys in the bathroom", want to hear where they got that from? The younger generations simply don't care, they have grown up where things like being trans or gay or whatever aren't big deals, and they can't change that. Yes, in the 'red states' this is a big deal these days, but if you look at the demographics of some of those places, it isn't so obvious this can last. Texas is on the edge, Florida is, and with more educated young people moving there from places where being trans or lGBT is not a big deal, it likely won't last. I already hear people in the redneck portions of Texas and Florida talking about all the yuppies coming in, but it is true. What DeSantis and Abbott don't understand is all those companies moving there are bringing in new people from elsewhere, they aren't moving to Texas to hire native Texans or Floridians or whatever.



I think there is one interesting thing in commentary to this. The Episcopal Church paid for a survey of people about attitudes towards religion and churches, and it showed something that shocked them, that because of the religious right and the Catholic Church leaders, that among younger people, under 40, that the attitudes towards religion as a whole were way down, and they didn't differentiate it. The chief words were things like hypocrisy and hate, of currying political power and supporting a slime like Trump and claiming he is 'Christian". The EC is very liberal, and they said basically that they had screwed up, that while internally supportive of LGBT people and the like, they had sat back , sitting on their hands, and let the religious right make a mockery of religion and make it poisonous in the minds of young people. It says a lot about younger generations, and while the GOP has been getting a lot of blood out of their campaign of hate, eventually it is a diminishing base. Of course there are young haters, always will be, but they represent a small fraction of the younger population.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It is aimed at their base, and it is also aimed at suburban white men (who tend to vote GOP bc they think they will get a tax cut...) and then also at the more, I am sorry to say, gullible among the suburban soccer moms, it is the latter they really are trying to sway, putting out images of how trans kids will 'overwhelm' their little girls, or not let them get an athletic scholarship to college (and yes, folks, have seen that one). The reality of course is that is idiotic, among other things, there just aren't that many people who are trans, kids or not.

Can't find it right now, but I saw some fascinating data comparing the true demographics of America to what Americans believe they are. If I recall, the average American believes the population is about 50% black, 30% Muslim, and 20% transgender - all vastly greater than the real numbers.

 

[njlauren]

Oh, yeah, I am sure that they view the world like that. Nothing like hearing some guy whose daughter is an athlete, saying that boys will transition to play with girls to steal scholarships, it is amazing how stupid it all is. None of them realize what a step transitioning is, how hard it is, they don't realize what it means at all, they think it is like pulling on a different pair of underpants and a bra or something There are questions about transgender athletes and fairness that need to be worked out, but the whole thing is a fantasy. Worse, that like being gay these idiots think you 'make' someone transgender.

But the reality is hate sells, it works.