Three percent of U.S. high school students identify as transgender. Republicans won’t rest until they all die by suicide.
The latest swipe at trans kids is the Orwellian Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.
The legislation, led by Florida election-denying MAGA Greg Steube, would change the federal Title IX law to exclude protections for transgender people, and would revoke federal funding for schools that allow trans girls and women in sports teams that align with their gender identity.
This is the classic solution in search of a problem – NCAA President Charlie Baker, in testimony in a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, said there are “less than 10” trans athletes among the more than 500,000 competing in NCAA schools.
“Less than 10.” And yet, we have Republicans who don’t know Caitlin Clark from Caitlyn Jenner lining up to “protect” girls and women from “biological males” being allowed to compete against them in sports.
“The Left,” Sixth District (Va.) Congressman Ben Cline, R-Botetourt County, said on the House floor this week, “has embarked on a relentless campaign to rewrite Title IX, aiming to erase the critical distinctions between men and women, boys and girls.”
It’s “The Left,” says the guy on “The Right.”
“This misguided agenda,” Cline said, “poses a direct threat to the very spirit of Title IX, opening the doors for biological males to compete in women’s sports, thereby undermining the hard-won accomplishments of female athletes nationwide.”
Uh, huh.
Good news: “biological males” aren’t competing in women’s sports, as the Ben Clines of the political world are well-aware.
ICYMI: Ben Cline
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- Ben Cline was a vociferous Matt Gaetz supporter: Now, he’s gone radio silent
- Ben Cline defeated in bid to take control of Republican Study Committee
OK, I might be overselling what our actual Ben Cline knows and doesn’t know – Cline, though affable, is not that bright a guy – but the architects of the strategy to whip up the olds who have Fox News on a TV in every room of the house know what they’re doing.
“Instead of focusing on the issues that matter to the American people, House Republicans would rather capitalize on the concerning rise in transphobia and villainize a vulnerable, marginalized population,” said Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat who represents Virginia’s Fourth District in the U.S. House.
The so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act “poses a real and serious risk to girls as young as 4 years old by subjecting them to personal questions about their bodies,” said McClellan, D-Richmond.
“More disturbingly, the bill permits physical inspection of young girls’ genitals by adult strangers, without parents present. As a mother of an elementary student, I find that possibility appalling. No child or parent should have to worry that their privacy or even their very body can be violated at any time if they even consider participating in a sport,” McClellan said.
ICYMI
“Keeping sports safe and fair means letting children play without fear of being physically inspected by adults to verify their gender identity,” McClellan said. “Republicans should focus on putting people over politics, helping people, and solving the problems that are actually top of mind for the American people, not meddling in our children’s deeply personal and private matters in an effort to further stoke culture wars.”
But it’s stupid culture wars that get the olds, particularly the White olds, to vote for Republicans.
Which is why you saw the Trump campaign spend $19 million last fall on TV ads focused on trans issues, according to AdImpact, which reported that the ads – with the message: “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” – were aired during college football and NFL broadcasts more than 52,000 times in the final two weeks of the election season.
ICYMI: The politics of trans kids
- Virginia AG joins suit trying to block West Virginia girl from spot on track team
- Jarren Duran, All-Star Game MVP, suspended two games for anti-gay slur
- Miyares backs Hanover County ban on middle-school trans tennis player
- Republican AGs play trans kids in bathrooms for political points again
“Let me be clear, House Republicans will not idly stand by while the Radical Left diminishes over five decades of progress for women,” Cline said in his minute and two seconds on the House floor, which he had his staff post to Twitter, so that we could all see that he was doing something to protect women and girls.
He’s never met a reproductive right that he doesn’t think is worthy of undermining, but that’s another story for another day.
“The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is essential for ensuring that all young women who aspire to play sports have the opportunity to compete fairly, preserving fairness and protecting their achievements. We must safeguard the integrity of female athletics so that young women can succeed in sports for generations to come,” Cline said.
Interesting that Cline didn’t mention his twin daughters in his spiel; maybe they’re not into sports.
Freshman Democrat Eugene Vindman, D-Dale City, did cite his young daughter in explaining why he voted against the culture-wars legislation.
“As a father to my young daughter, I believe we need to ensure competitive sports for women and girls are protected. However, you can’t protect women’s sports by defunding them, which is what this bill does,” said Vindman, who was elected to the Seventh District seat in November.
“These decisions should be left to parents, coaches, teachers and families, not D.C. politicians,” Vindman said. “This bill could open the door to young girls experiencing intrusive questioning, or worse. I will not rubberstamp bad policy. Republicans should stop focusing on culture wars and start getting to work on lowering costs, investing in public education, and increasing access to affordable healthcare.”
Vindman hits the nail on the head there at the end.
Culture-war bills are your signal that Republicans don’t want to do anything substantive to lower costs, make our schools better, improve healthcare.
But the “less than 10” trans athletes in the NCAA, they can go to hell.
Video: Republicans play trans kids as a political game
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Chris Graham
