Mike Bloomberg said trans rights are about "some man wearing a dress" using a locker room with girls

[Autumn]

He said that things should be run like in prison: "drop your trousers, you go this way, you go that way."
By Alex Bollinger Friday, February 7, 2020

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/02/mike-bloomberg-said-trans-rights-man-wearing-dress-using-locker-room-girls/?fbclid=IwAR23gEv-BEVfCQnrIph-ME2wf-Eu8J3CVr5Ti-MlfNm1BesRAYzXu7JansQ

But now a video has surfaced of Bloomberg – a billionaire from New York City with a reputation for being patronizing and condescending to anyone who isn’t – responding to a question about Brexit by saying that people who live in the Midwest are too uneducated to understand transgender equality.

“I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the bathroom issue in the United States,” he said during a panel discussion at Oxford University, which is in the United Kingdom. Debates on transgender rights regularly appear in mainstream media in the U.K. and are perhaps more heated than in the U.S. “Anybody know what I’m talking about?”

“If you want to know if somebody is a good salesman, give them the job of going to the Midwest and picking a town and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter,” he said. “If you can sell that, you can sell anything.”

The idea of transgender women using bathrooms and other facilities with underage girls – with the implication that trans women will molest children – has been one of the most consistently used attacks on transgender rights by the religious right.

[DanTex]

1. Imagine the outrage if Bloomberg had endorsed Bernie!

[Quixote1818]

3. LOL! Exactly. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

21. Lol.

[HerbChestnut]

2. Waiting for the outrage.

[DanTex]

4. It won't come until he endorses Bernie. Then heads will explode.

[Autumn]

6. I think we might be waiting in vain.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. There is that upper crust 'patronizing and condescending' angle

That's a good way of putting it. It means no harm, just a bit uppity and tone deaf. Not sure if that will magnify as an issue.

[FreeState]

20. It's more than tone deaf

Trans people are real and stigma effects the community greatly - no matter the source of that stigma.

[thesquanderer]

7. But hey, that was way back in 2016. It was a different time.

[mr_lebowski]

8. Pretty insensitive way of framing the issue, esp. with the salesman analogy ...

However, the underlying point being made is sadly not far from reality.

And I'd add that this is just a continuation of the arguments against allowing gay people to teach our children that were popular among these same assholes in the 80's and 90's.

Back then it was you couldn't let gays and lesbians be PE coaches cause they'd "get their jollies off teh children in the locker room!!?!!"

Same bullshit argument ...

[squirecam]

13. People in the midwest

Are uneducated on these issues. That’s why Trump loves the uneducated.

[Cal Carpenter]

14. That's an unfair generalization

and I say this from experience in the midwest. I am not trans but I know many trans people. There are ignorant people and some do shitty things but lots of people are learning, and honest, open conversations are happening.

While Trumpian backlash is real, and dangerous, it is unfair to claim that the whole region is ignorant or not being educated on this topic.

[squirecam]

16. My family is from PA

And I have many friends spread throughout Ohio, Indiana and the midwest. I know them well.

Sorry, but the people there are more “conservative” (racist and sexist) then the west and north east. And more of them would rather go for slogans (trump) then educate themselves.

[sarisataka]

17. Psst,

Your preferred candidate is from the midwest.

[squirecam]

19. Yes she is

And she isn’t racist or sexist.

Doesn’t mean the red areas she wins consistently are not though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsyltucky

[UniteFightBack]

18. +1000

[Kaleva]

9. Article talks about Bloomberg wanting to pass the Equality Act and reinstate Obama's guidlines

"Federal law under the Obama administration required that the question of where to house transgender prisoners be considered on a case-by-case basis and that “serious consideration” be given to “a transgender inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety,” guidelines that were rolled back in the Trump administration.

According to Logo, Bloomberg promised last week to bring back those Obama era guidelines.

In a statement, Bloomberg’s campaign said he is serious about wanting to pass the Equality Act to ensure “transgender people have access to affirming healthcare and working to end the crisis of violence against transgender women.”

“Mike is running to defeat Donald Trump and reverse the many policies he has implemented that attack the rights of the transgender community,” the statement said."

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/02/mike-bloomberg-said-trans-rights-man-wearing-dress-using-locker-room-girls/

[BusyBeingBest]

10. Sounds bad in Dem primary, but won't hurt him in the general election.

[MLAA]

11. Unacceptable

[Nanjeanne]

12. Bloomberg has a long history of being on the wrong side of things. It will all come out if he

actually does interviews and debates and town halls rather than just buying ads.

Controversial police tactics
Crackdown on Occupy Wall Street
survellience of Muslim Americans
clashes with labor unions
comparing the Federation of Teachers to the NRA
huge spike in homelessness during his tenure
pension cuts
support of Simpson/Bowles cat food commission
Supported raising taxes on everyone - not just the rich - since he believes that's class warfare
Raising retirement age to 69

And just because we haven't heard this chant for a long time since Sanders released his taxes . . . "Where's your taxes Mike?"

[ismnotwasm]

15. UGH

That’s disgusting. Oh wait, then I actually read the article.

He then imagined a conversation between a hypothetical Oxford scholar and a moron from flyover country. “I mean, they just look at you and they say, ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ And you say, ‘Well, this person identifies his… or her gender as different than what’s on their birth certificate.’ And they say, ‘What do you mean? You’re either born this or you’re born that.'”

Bloomberg didn’t stick with the birth certificate as the standard of determining one’s gender. He proceeded to say it depends on what a prison guard sees when you “drop your trousers.”

“You know, I will say in our prison system in New York City we have to have the policy when you walk in, you know, drop your trousers, you go this way, you go that way. That’s it,” he said, adding that prison is “a practical case of when you have to make a decision,” implying that there is no way to tell what someone’s gender identity is other than examining genitalia.

Federal law under the Obama administration required that the question of where to house transgender prisoners be considered on a case-by-case basis and that “serious consideration” be given to “a transgender inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety,” guidelines that were rolled back in the Trump administration.

According to Logo, Bloomberg promised last week to bring back those Obama era guidelines.

In a statement, Bloomberg’s campaign said he is serious about wanting to pass the Equality Act to ensure “transgender people have access to affirming healthcare and working to end the crisis of violence against transgender women.

Edit to add, Bloomberg is almost my bottom pick if I were picking, and this is him doing tough guy double speak.