In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
We largely couldn’t in the first place, but thanks for the heads up. There was a hope, sure. But little trust due to little action.
It’s a matter of degree. I felt a heck of a lot more protected than I had previously. Action? Not as much as there should have been but hardly zero.
hardly zero.
Yeah, like I said: little. It felt like they were content to do enough to get credit and then kick the can down the road until they were forced to do more. Now we enter an era that will likely strip back what progress has been made. In four years we’ll be pushed back forty.
Nobody can trust the Democrats to protect anyone but the investors
Itt: liberals still fever-dreaming that Democrats (as a corporate party, not the voters) are on the side of marginalized communities.
Democrats have forgotten their history. They like to say that trans rights are a “distraction.” They forget that not only were trans people some of the first victims of the Holocaust, but that liberal papers like the NYTimes similarly dismissed Nazi antisemitism as a “distraction” as well. They predicted that, just like Trump and trans people, Hitler was just using Jews as a scapegoat to get elected. They thought that despite widespread antisemitism in Germany, it was just a campaign distraction. They thought there simply weren’t enough Jews in Germany to make real oppression something worthwhile for the Nazis to pursue.
In pre-Nazi Germany, Jews represented about 1% of the population. That is the same portion of the population that trans people represent in the US today.
Democrats were pretty cool about protecting trans people. But thanks to non-voters and $hill Stein voters (along with tens of millions of “low information” Trumpledorks), Trump has all three branches of government at his disposal.
Considering Democrats are now complaining that their protection of trans people cost them the election, I wouldn’t say they were all that cool to begin with. They use trans people as a political tool and then toss them aside the second it becomes inconvenient for them to support trans rights. Just look at how the Democrats have “defended” their newest trans colleague.
Specific people in the Democratic Party have made those complaints. The party has not. Your comment is no different than stereotyping a group for the actions of individuals.
Has the party as a whole done anything to say otherwise? Silence is a different kind of choice.
You’re claiming the Democratic Party hasn’t supported the trans community?
When the leading candidate avoids the issue, gives less representation to trans people than the preceding candidates, and says “states rights” in response to growing repression of trans people when pushed to say something in an interview, I think its fair to say the Dem leadership has abandoned us. Individual dems are better, but the leadership clearly doesn’t care.
If you want to turn on the Democratic Party you’ll get a stronger GOP. Your move.
The GOP just swept the nation. All three branches of government. Both houses. Seems to me supporting the Democratic Party made the GOP stronger already. Maybe we need a new party.
I’m saying they’re willing to throw them under the bus as soon as it gets difficult. Being silent while a few members do so explicitly isn’t being an ally.
Infighting works to the GOPs advantage. If the DNC starts attacking the few members they have in office they will switch to the GOP. Giving the people who want to eradicate the trans community more power.
What difference does it make if they lose so hard anyway that they are politically impotent?
They really haven’t. They tend to take a neutral stance at best, rather than positively affirming trans rights. This was one of the things that killed them in the election. Despite being a decade in to the recent Republican war on trans people, Democrats have never bothered to develop a set of coherent talking points that they can defend trans rights around. When was the last time you heard a centrist Democrat say, “trans women are women, trans men are men. Their healthcare is medically necessary and life-saving. Trans women belong in women’s restrooms and trans men in men’s. Republicans are currently guilty of attempting a genocide.”
That’s the kind of talking points they should be using, a full-throated defense of trans rights that can directly stand up against Republican hate mongering. Instead, if they respond at all, they respond in a pathetic mincing way that tries to “both sides” the issue. Instead of vocally coming down firmly on the side of trans rights, they’ll say things like, “these are complex issues…” or “these issues are a distraction…” You would never see a Democrat say that antisemitism is “a distraction” or that defending abortion rights “are a complex issue.”
With some notable exceptions, Democrats have completely failed to actually have strong support for trans rights. Republicans are anti-trans and pro-trans genocide. Democrats are neutral. And this really hurt them in the election. Republicans supported full trans elimination. And Democrats could only respond with non-committal mealy-mouthed mumbling about the complexity of the issue. Voters saw that they really didn’t stand for anything. Kamala didn’t really believe in anything when it comes to trans rights, and the voters punished her for it. Voters want people who actually believe in something, not an empty suit that is just following polls and focus groups.
The fact of the matter is the majority of America doesn’t treat trans people properly. So to win elections they need the support of people that don’t treat trans people properly.
I hope that support for the trans community will continue to improve over time. But democrats need votes from more than just the trans community and allies to take power back from the GOP.
The Democrats are a coalition party. They need to be able to stand up for all of the members of that coalition. Do you know why Republicans chose to attack trans people? Because it is a wedge issue they can use to cleave off a portion of Democratic votes. If Democrats throw trans people under the bus and sit idly by to genocide, then they will lose the votes of trans people and their friends, relatives, and allies.
When has appeasing genocide ever worked for an opposition party? The problem Democrats have is that they’re embarrassed to be Democrats and try to run as Republican-lite. Then they look up surprised when people vote for the real deal or simply stay home out of disgust. The biggest appeal of Democrats among the electorate is that they’re willing to stand up for marginalized groups. And if one group gets thrown under the bus, every other group knows that they can also be thrown under the bus in the future if the political winds shift. Trans people are on the chopping block now, but after we’re exterminated, what other group will the Democrats willingly sacrifice? All Republicans have to do is run another demonization campaign against another group, and Democrats will again fold like a house of cards.
If Republicans can get Democrats to fruitlessly piss away 5-10% of their core electorate in a doomed attempt to appeal to moderate Republicans, then that is a strategy that Republicans can use again and again to cleave piece after piece off of the Democratic coalition.
Republicans chose trans people as a wedge. They gambled that, when push came to shove, Democrats would be too chicken shit to actually live up to their stated values and truly defend the rights of people that they’re always promising to defend. Democrats proved Republicans right, and that cost them the election. They were defeated by their own cowardice.
So to win elections they need the support of people that don’t treat trans people properly.
They don’t though, because they’re never going to get that voter either way.
I guarantee you she does not want her colleagues white knighting for her or otherwise drawing attention to it. The entire way she has handled this has been “I’m not letting this be a distraction, I’m here to represent Delaware.“ That’s her decision and I’m glad her colleagues respect that instead of making it about them and how great they are for defending her.
Just hours after Willis’s interview with The Independent, House and Senate negotiators revealed a bipartisan compromise spending bill that would ban military health insurance from covering transition care for children. On Wednesday, 50 House Democrats who previously denounced that provision voted in favor, and key Senate Democrats said they would reluctantly back it too.
What did they get in return?
It’s politics, they got something, what was it?
It doesn’t say? Huh. I wonder why.
They got to fund the military.
then double fuck them, how about the military passes an audit before they get more tax money to hand over to billionaires.
The problem with democrats is that they always hold progressive action overhead like a carrot. “Vote for us, we’ll establish trans rights/universal healthcare/codify roe v wade!”.
Then they don’t do it because they want to use it as a fundraising and election platform next go around. If they just did things when they had power people would be more willing to vote for them.
And yes, I know that there are Republicans and independents blocking progressive action. But that doesn’t excuse the DNC from doing what I described above as well as constantly shitting on popular progressive candidates.
Not really, like their supposed protection of black people their protection of trans people is contingent on how the minority behaves.
That’s not support, that’s blackmail.
Username checks out
Not really, like their supposed protection of black people their protection of trans people is contingent on how the minority behaves.
“Behaves”?? You mean votes? Yeah it is contingent on how people vote. See gestures to everything
No, behaves. Liberal darling Tim walz called the national guard on the Floyd protests long before any semblance of violence happened.
If any minority protests a Democrat, they go back to their kkk roots faster than you can say southern strategy.
What the governor called out the National Guard to protect bystanders and property? In case things went south fast?
Fascists, obviously. Well now I’m glad we lost. Whoever won will surely be much better for that.
Speaking of - since they lost, why the long face? Shouldn’t we be celebrating? Hooray the sucky Democrats lost! They’re the worst! Down with the Democrats! Yaaaayyyy
Hey, thanks for proving my point, you’re the type of person I was talking about.
I mean, yes massa, sorry massa, I won’t be voting for my interests any more massa, you get my votes now massa.
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Were they, because they were a heck of a lot more anti-trans campaign ads from Democrats then some of y’all want to admit.
When Kamala Harris was the AG for California she was forced to defend a lawsuit where a trans woman in prison for murder wanted the state to pay for reassignment surgery. I was told that by supporting Harris I was transphobic and I should just admit it.
Here’s what I’ll admit: trans people who didn’t support the Harris ticket as if their life depended on it fucked up.
Seriously, “fuck Democrats”? Okay Dude, I can see you don’t want to be cheered up - c’mon Donny let’s go get us a lane.
The democrats did this to all of us. When you facilitate genocide for over two years, while calling the people protesting it violent antisemites, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people who need healthcare, housing, and student loan relief, and you end covid protections, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by people expecting police reform and freeing the immigrant camps, and you increase deportations and endorse diverting covid funds to police budgets, you lower voter turnout.
When you get elected by promising to protect abortion, and then do fuckall even after the SCOTUS leaks their ruling early, you lower voter turnout.
Nobody except for the democrats had the power to change the outcome of this election. They had to chose between overwhelmingly popular policy and losing, and they chose to lose.
Voters: Not enough votes for Democrats, letting the people who want to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else come to power
Republicans: Hey now that we’re in power, we’re going to convert trans people and make hormone therapy illegal and God knows what else
Voters: You guys really fucked this one up, I can’t trust you
How could Democrats do this??
Literally this:
They never really could. The Democratic party likes to claim issues like same sex marriage and trans rights as if they had anything to do with it. Same sex marriage had to be fought for in the courts during a democrat reign. They used trans rights as a big talking point for 2024 yet made little attempt to safeguard them during the previous 4 years. They ignore their base then take credit for all their accomplishments. They now use lgbt issues as an anchor to avoid promising any meaningful changes. It’s the same thing the Republicans have been doing with abortion. All I’m saying is, Bernie2028.
Bernie is finally too old. Nobody is coming to save you.
It’s gotta be Alexandria Cortez. Bernie is just too old sadly. He’s healthy and fitter than the other candidates who are younger than him, but he’ll never win now. Our chance was 2016 and he got ratfucked.
Binary choice.
Just wait for the next administration lol
