There was a time when Republican elected officials and candidates avoided talking about transgender issues. They didn’t want to seem extreme and intolerant. Why bother with a tense cultural issue when there were so many other things to discuss? Turning to “medics” or “experts” seemed like the easy way out.
But now Republicans have definitely found their voice.
Across the political landscape, GOP Senate candidates are hitting out at their Democratic opponents for their trans-radicalism and sending them running, while the Trump campaign is attacking Kamala Harris on this issue in perhaps the most visible ad of this election cycle. The chickens have come home to roost and apparently they are all cisgender.
For a long time, Democrats have subscribed to the ever-evolving trans-orthodoxy established by the cultural left. By existing in a bubble, they assumed that doubters would be isolated or embarrassed to cooperate, and they didn’t realize how much they had lost touch.
It is one thing to say that people should be tolerant of consenting adults’ choices; it is one thing to say that minors must have access to so-called “gender-affirming” life-changing therapies. It is one thing to say that everyone should live and let live; it’s one thing to say that biological males must participate in women’s sports, no matter how blatantly unfair it is to girls and women.
Democrats had to pay attention to lots of flashing red lights. A Washington Post poll last year found that 57 percent of people say gender is determined at birth. About two-thirds of people said that biological males should not compete in girls’ or women’s sports. 68 percent opposed giving children ages 10-14 access to puberty blockers, and 58 percent opposed giving teens ages 15-17 access to hormone therapies.
Only now, after being punished in this case, are Democrats coming out and saying that they have, in fact, been advocating for the gender binary all along. Fending off a challenge from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took aim at the congressman for his opposition to a bill called the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act. In a sign that the attack was working, Allred responded in his own announcement: “I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports or any of the other ridiculous things Ted Cruz talks about.”
This led to Allred being condemned from the left. According to LGBT publication The Advocate, “the new ad uses far-right language regarding gender identity” and the offensive words are believed to be “boys” and “girls.”
Similar ads appear wherever there is a competitive Senate race, and many of them come from Mitch McConnell’s campaign foundation, the Senate Leadership Fund. In Ohio, incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown also responded in an ad, saying the idea of supporting men competing against women in sports is a “complete lie.” The spot indicates that Ohio has already banned such hacks.
But last year, in an interview with the attorney in question, Brown sharply condemned such laws. “I think all this shows that there is still so much hate in this country,” he said, “and therefore hate in politics. The politicians who introduce and support these prohibitive bills should be ashamed of themselves, and I hope their voters see through these terrible efforts.” Brown wants us to believe that he has had a sudden – and certainly immediately revocable if he survives – conversion.
For his part, Donald Trump is airing an ad during football games highlighting how, in 2019, Harris stated that she supported a government-funded transition operation for prisoners and detained illegal immigrants. As the ad notes, it’s hard to believe that someone seriously running for office would support something like this.
Now, in the final weeks of an extremely hard-fought election campaign, Harris and her fellow Democrats are being held accountable for their ideological excesses. They may cry, but they brought it on themselves.
Rich Lowry is in X @RichLowry.