When Iowa Republicans were moving the trans sports ban through our state legislature in 2022, I could not find any evidence that any trans athlete in Iowa had ever won a championship, qualified for the state tournament, or even kept one cis girl off a varsity team in any sport.
I get what you’re trying to say—that until Alliance Defending Freedom et al started obsessing on trans girls in high school sports, this wasn’t a big deal GOP issue. But bullshit or not, they passed bans and harassed trans athletes. They made it real and amped up anti-trans bigotry as a result.
I expressly criticized "transphobes" trying to amplify this issue - in this case using a non-trans athlete. They made an issue where there wasn't one for gross reasons.
I understand. I think it’s just been a bit rough watching this stuff get regarded as non-issues, even by people who I know take the right’s rising anti-trans politics seriously. It risks sounding dismissive, but also: it’s not an accurate description of what anti-trans politics do.
In this case they didnt have a trans athlete to make a controversy out of. They made one up. I criticized that. It was a clear criticism of transphobes, which is inherently not dismissive of transphobia as an issue, and I really dont know what to say to anyone looking to argue with it.
Personally, I think some users on this specific platform have a tendency to make these overreaching efforts to attack people as anti trans that is really
unhelpful and distracting in terms of discussing the very real issue of anti trans hate.
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That and people don't seem to think bigots demonizing us is important.
Bigots however will always find someone to target for attention and clout. Until most cis people tell them no loudly they will keep doing it.
unhelpful and distracting in terms of discussing the very real issue of anti trans hate.