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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolitico: GOP seizes on women's sports as unlikely wedge issue
GOP seizes on women's sports as unlikely wedge issueRepublicans from former President Donald Trump on down are couching their opposition to expanding transgender rights as a defense of girls' and women's sports.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/05/gop-transgender-rights-women-sports-473746
Republicans are laying claim to an unlikely mantle: the party of womens sports.
This issue will help [the] GOP win midterms, said Stephen Miller, the former Trump White House aide who helped write his CPAC speech.
Eager to find a winning culture war issue, former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders are increasingly touting themselves as champions of women in sports by pushing back against President Joe Biden's efforts to expand transgender rights.
The effort which critics call transphobic and likely to backfire extends from the roughly 20 Republican-controlled states where legislators are advancing bills to keep transgender women from participating in interscholastic sports, to Trump himself, who told attendees this past weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida that it was so important to protect womens sports.
jcgoldie
(11,934 posts)Thanks democrats for ruining the potatohead olympics!
marmar
(77,942 posts)..... they've clearly decided culture wars (and voter suppression) are their 2022 goals.
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)how it is walked for sure. It is way down on my list as a decision with who I vote for. But it certainly matters.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)Others claim trans-inclusive sports policies are an infringement on womens rights or a violation of Title IX, the 1972 federal law that paved the way for womens equality in sports and education.
This is the wedge issue that will bring suburban women back to the polls and increase their support for Republicans, and Republicans would be foolish not to lean into it, said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, a socially conservative group that has been privately urging Republicans to take on the subject since last year.
more from the OP
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)"transgender women to undergo 12 months of treatment to suppress testosterone" Education on the subject is important. But to dismiss women and girls concerns aren't going to work either.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)but the GOP sure does love their scare tactics don't they.
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)very real conversation about this issue so that we can all sit back and be comfortable with this. Allowing not only protection for our Trans girls but our cis girls.
I am saying because we see Republicans using it as a tool to attack women, and ultimately trans, they do not give a flipping fuck about women and girls. It does not mean that a lot of cis women are not going to be concerned with this issue, while protecting Trans rights. Their concern should not be readily dismissed.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)anything that Republicans have concerns about. I'm very comfortable with any Trans woman or man. If you aren't... that's your problem.
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)post, .. You sure do direct a conversation where works for you. So hostile and an attack, so swiftly. I am so done with the lack of good faith when it comes to an interaction. I deleted a dudes post on my FB yesterday about having the audacity to wag the finger at me about books and Dr Suess, and the book burnin' Dems. I posted today how I wasn't gonna play that and would be a delete, I had the power. It was an awesome fun post. But ya.... Whatever. To even argue the Democratic party is not all about educating, books, reading, thru resources programs and money. Just not having any of it.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)You appear to be arguing in favor of the GOPs plan to be the champions of women in sports by pushing back against Biden's efforts to expand transgender rights. Either you read the article in the OP or not. The article discusses the GOP plan to convince women they are being saved from transgender women participating in interscholastic sports, you know, like swimming, to get them to vote for them. Either you read the article or not.
7. I am saying to see it just as a Republican's tool is a mistake. I am saying that we need to have a
very real conversation about this issue so that we can all sit back and be comfortable with this. Allowing not only protection for our Trans girls but our cis girls.
I am saying because we see Republicans using it as a tool to attack women, and ultimately trans, they do not give a flipping fuck about women and girls. It does not mean that a lot of cis women are not going to be concerned with this issue, while protecting Trans rights. Their concern should not be readily dismissed.
GOP concerns about Trans girls are one of two things, phony or uniformed bullshit. I, and other liberals need no discussion with the GOP, it's all been done. Sorry you missed it.
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)that particular post to provide you an example of what I am not going to participate in. At this point, the conversation is all yours.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)and that to see what the Republicans are doing, which is actually a scare tactic to get conservative women to vote for them, as a Republican's tool is a mistake. What on earth should we see it as?
WhiskeyGrinder
(23,618 posts)What is "this" issue and be comfortable with what?
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(23,618 posts)LizBeth
(10,621 posts)on a swimming scholarship? That was addressed and with conversation people can be informed. Something feels odd about these conversations so, I am stepping away here. But two posters have certainly made conversation challenging to say the least, lol. Saying I said things I didn't then not reading what I did say. Seems like lots of work here.
Have a good one. I think Dems have this.
WhiskeyGrinder
(23,618 posts)Which was pretty vague, so I'm trying to figure out what, exactly, your concern is, that's all.
LizBeth
(10,621 posts)Facts and education matter. Keeping it clinical in conversation
"transgender women to undergo 12 months of treatment to suppress testosterone" Education on the subject is important. But to dismiss women and girls concerns aren't going to work either.
WhiskeyGrinder
(23,618 posts)👏What 👏 are 👏 the 👏 concerns?
ETA: Trans women and trans girls are women and girls. Do you mean their concerns?
Autumn
(45,942 posts)repeatedly. And of course the bathroom concern. Gotta protect those Republican women and their little athletes ya know.
And of course that appeals to the swimming and track meet Moms and participants.
WhiskeyGrinder
(23,618 posts)who are otherwise on "my side" might have to say about it, though.
sir pball
(4,927 posts)If I Recall Correctly, transfems are fine as long as their T levels are the same as cisfems.
Seems about as fair as it can be to me.
Also, that any state, say TN, with a more restrictive law would probably be banned from NCAA competition - and if there's one thing racist redneck shitsticks hate more than "boys playing girls sports", it's being kicked out of the SEC. The Vols not being a league team is literally unthinkable to them.
Initech
(101,485 posts)And some of their conversations about it are downright disturbing. I blame Fox / Infowars for spreading this bullshit.
progressoid
(50,602 posts)This and gay couples adopting kids.
Unsurprisingly, he's an evangelical and trumper.
Initech
(101,485 posts)Is on the Futurama episode "Bend Her".
progressoid
(50,602 posts)In a related theme, I just saw some RW idiot using this scene from Life of Brian as an argument in support of their transphobia.
/facepalm/
Initech
(101,485 posts)And also derived from movies - and they claim to hate Hollywood liberals. But yeah I was watching that episode the other day and was like "holy shit! This is every Fox argument I've ever heard!".
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)Buried by the "writer".
Autumn
(45,942 posts)BradAllison
(1,879 posts)Yet if you go to the website, she featured in the topline picture like the conquering hero while gushing over her irrelevant bill.
Hopefully we never hear of her again.
Autumn
(45,942 posts)elevator
(415 posts)It is not being transphobic to create a level playing field for girl's/women's sports. This issue arose in the sixties when E.German and Russian women were using steroids and hormone injections to unfairly compete in international competition. Testing standards were enacted. Something similar may be needed in this case. I've been called anti-trans for a post like this on another board. If we take that attitude, the rethugs will win.
radius777
(3,768 posts)more than some realize. PoC tend to be more conservative on gender/orientation issues to begin with, and some women feel their hard fought rights for womens' sports are being infringed upon.
The Repubs deal in division, and are trying to pick off some of our base, like they did with white conservative Dems in a previous era. We did worse with Latinos this time which IMO is not just due to lack of outreach on our part - but due to them moving rightward on some of these issues.
Elessar Zappa
(15,369 posts)So they have a say when it comes to this issue. Theres no excuse for bigotry. If some women arent comfortable calling trans women a part of their community, thats on them.
eShirl
(18,724 posts)elevator
(415 posts)This is an issue of eligibility for an athletic competition. Men who use steroids are exclude from competition. It is exactly the same issue.
AZProgressive
(29,346 posts)Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign has received some scathing reviews from Latino political experts.
Biden's primary campaign had a distant, if not "tense," relationship with Latino voters as he not only neglected to reach out to them but never quite rectified "his connection to the Obama administration's aggressive deportation policy," Politico reports. Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee "in spite of, not because of" his Latino outreach, Politico writes, but more than 20 Latino political operatives say his luck may not hold in the general election.
Around 32 million Latinos are expected to be eligible to vote in the U.S. this fall, making them the largest nonwhite voting bloc in the country. Their votes are especially valuable to Biden in potentially flippable states such as Arizona and Texas. But the Biden team doesn't seem to be acknowledging this fact. "I do not think that the Biden campaign thinks that Latinos are part of their path to victory," Jess Morales Rocketto, the former digital organizing director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, told Politico.
(Snip)
"Right now I can't tell what their strategy is with the Latino community. I just don't see it," an anonymous Latino lawmaker told Politico. "They have a lot of people out there willing to help, but they're not engaging" those potential recruits. Read more about Biden's fraught Latino outreach at Politico.
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-campaign-doesnt-consider-latinos-143056489.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABh2uZM2DLV1fcJuS_Z0jOrRqNTbWk8IlOXH8YwAbpyyp_9eBhiHc9chngORFXAbZq1_dVFghfjDNofwvKw70pfd1j3gNo4563oGP7BB1ghgogqnzJVLWab6uqHsTpCIY7AqFm1t3RKhP1XeQlJWJ26KlVirXqP8jE8fNbXc2B1N
On November 3rd, Donald Trump carried Florida by nearly four hundred thousand votes, more than twice the margin that he received in 2016. Four years after Clinton won Miami-Dade by thirty percentage points, Biden performed dismallybeating Trump by only seven per cent. Democrats lost two House seats, along with key races at the county and state levels. To the shock of many Democrats, Trump improved his standing in Miami-Dade in majority Latino, Black, and white precincts alike. Exit polls showed that he won roughly fifty-five per cent of the Cuban-American vote, thirty per cent of the Puerto Rican vote, and forty-eight per cent among myriad other Latino diasporas. Wills was shattered by the results but not surprised. For months, he had been pleading for help. Wills and his fiancée, Daniela Ferrera, a campaign volunteer, have blamed the campaigns state leadership for contributing to Bidens disastrous performance in Florida.
Wills and Ferrera, who are both Cuban-Americans, had supported the Republican Party until Trump became the Partys nominee, in 2015. Ferrera, who is twenty-two, fled Cuba with her family seventeen years ago. I know what an authoritarian looks like, she said, noting also that she was repulsed by Trumps bigotry toward Latinos. Wills, who is thirty-eight, shared Ferreras opposition to Trumps divisiveness and was keen to help Democrats make inroads with the states young Cuban voters, who were seen as being more liberal than their parents. A Florida political operative, he believed that the former Vice-President could turn Florida blue. But, after three months working on Bidens campaign, he grew disenchanted with the state leaderships field operation and its apparent disregard for the Latino electorate. It was clear that the resources for the Hispanic team were an afterthought, Wills told me. They spat on us, trampled on us, and ran over us.
A spokesperson for Bidens state campaign said that it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a wide-ranging effort across the state to convince Latinos to back Biden. Just in the last weeks, we announced a separate six-figure get-out-the-vote investment for Hispanic outreach, which included direct voter contact, paid media for smaller, micro-targeted outlets, and other outreach and events for the Hispanic program, the spokesperson said. This funding always emphasized voter-contact efforts.
But e-mails and documents obtained by The New Yorker show that the campaigns state leadership did not respond to dozens of requests and warnings raised over the final three months of the race by members of its Latino-outreach team. In interviews, three members of the team said that they were never allocated a fixed budget, were not provided access to a Spanish-language auto-dialer until late September, and did not receive bilingual campaign literature in Miami-Dade until three days before the election.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/campaign-chronicles/as-trump-gained-latino-support-in-florida-bidens-campaign-ignored-warnings
It is frustrating knowing the Biden campaign did a poor job of reaching out but after the election they realize they didn't do as well so they come up with narratives. Also Trump was campaigning during his entire term especially in Florida.
Biden still did well with 65% of the Latino/hispanic vote and they carried him in this state. There are conservatives in all identities but that doesn't mean we should do what they want.
Trump claimed the Democrats are anti-woman during his CPAC speech so they are certainly going to run on these wedge issues even though there aren't that many trans athletes.
maxsolomon
(34,876 posts)HOW MANY TRANS ATHLETES ARE THERE ANYWAY?
Stop taking the bait.
elevator
(415 posts)If a liberal person cannot differentiate between a valid issue about fairness in an athletic competition and true limitation of trans rights, then they have taken the bait. Male athletes who use steroids are barred from competition, so there are standards that should be observed.
maxsolomon
(34,876 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 12, 2021, 02:47 PM - Edit history (1)
It's a hypothetical, theoretical issue; it will impact virtually no one. Yet that's what Fox spends its time ginning up outrage among elderly shut ins, along with Woke Mobs and Deficits and Gun Rights and Fascist Antifascists.
There are vastly more important issues in America and they know it. They just don't want their viewers/GOP voters to think about those.
I'm not sure who the "liberal person who cannot differentiate" is, but I can assure you, I understand the issue.
elevator
(415 posts)the bathroom debate. This is about fair competition in an athletic event. Of course there are more important issues. You can say that about dozens, or hundreds of other issues. It is also not true it will impact virtually no one, which also is a bogus argument. How many have to be impacted for it to be worth your consideration? If we can't admit this is legitimate and has nothing to do with depriving a trans person of a right, but it is depriving an athlete their right to a fair competition. Comprende?
Just because some on the right are using it as a cultural issue doesn't mean we have to ignore the fact that it needs to be addressed. It is not hypothetical as it has already happened and will again in the future.
maxsolomon
(34,876 posts)I don't even disagree with you on whether it's fair. I just don't think it's important, at least not important enough to focus Liberal outrage on, or argue about with bad faith Conservative propagandists over.
To wit: This issue will help [the] GOP win midterms, said Stephen Miller, the former Trump White House aide who helped write his CPAC speech.
I no longer think sports are important, and I follow them. I think they're entertainment. I understand that others think they're vitally important.
elevator
(415 posts)That is the point...don't get outraged about the issue. Dems need to agree to examine the issue and determine how to resolve it. It should be dealt with by the organizations responsible for insuring equitable competitions.