LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back

At the moment the Republican party in the US is trying to turn back the clock, using transphobia to force everyone to adhere to their antiquated ideas about gender roles and social structures. But LGBTQ+ people are not going back.

The fact is that a majority of Americans are not anti-trans per se. They may not understand trans people very well, but the majority do respect trans people’s right to live the life they want.

The Republican campaign against trans people in the final weeks of the election was not based on the understanding that a majority of cis people hate trans people. They do not, and the Republicans understand that.

Who represents “the common people”?

This was rather a tactic used to portray the Democrats as a people who are more concerned about the interests of small, marginalized, groups than “the common people” or “the average American” or “the silent majority”.

So by presenting the Democrats as the party of transgender people, the Republicans managed to make at least some believe that the Republicans were the party of the common people. As Trump put it: “Kamala is for they/them. I am for you.”

This is plain nonsense, but given the lack of political knowledge among many Americans, this kind of rhetoric may shift a sufficient number of voters .

Do all Republicans hate trans people?

So does this mean that Republicans do not really want to erase trans people from the face of the Earth? That this is all a game, and that trans people have become convenient scape goats only?

Given that even Trump defended trans women’s rights to use women’s bathrooms not that long ago, and that Nancy Mace until recently presented herself as pro-LGBTQ, it is fair to say that for some Republican politicians this is mostly a cruel opportunistic game used to gain more power.

But a most of the people behind Project 2025 and American right wing Evangelicalism express pure transphobia. They really see the existence of trans people as a threat to their preferred social order.

They need to turn “biological sex” into the only gender marker, because their understanding of the relationship between men and women requires a God given or Nature given divide.

This divide is to be used to force people into different social roles with different types of power. If “a man can become a woman” that absolute divide falls apart.

This is why they have produced an endless number of anti-trans laws, all aimed at forcing trans people underground. If cis people cannot see trans people, they do not exist, and if they do not exist, they do not pose a threat to the social order.

Closed vs. open minds

It seems that history is an endless fight between the fearful ones, who cling to “tradition” and an imaginary past in order to handle the uncertainties of life, and open minded people, who respect diversity and the right of others to decide their own destiny.

We saw this in the campaigns to end slavery, in the women’s’ struggle for social equality, in the civil rights movement’s attacks on racism, and in the gay liberation movement’s fight against bigotry.

Every time the extreme traditionalists have done their outmost to keep other people down. They have had their victories, for sure, but in thriving democracies they have always lost in the end.

The haters will lose this time too. LGBTQ+ Americans are not going back.

Jack Molay

Photo: Getty

See also: Trump and the transphobes won in the US. But there are still ways trans people can win.

This post is a response to Julia Serano’s call for action.

Originally published at https://trans-express.lgbt on December 3, 2024.