The April 16 issue of The New York Times included an article that would chill even the most cynical of leftists. Called “How a Campaign Against Transgender Rights Mobilized Conservatives,” it is about how Republican operatives, public relations hacks, and careerist message makers came to settle upon the demonization of transgender people as their culture war battle du jour.
Stymied by the waning opposition to gay marriage that exists even among Republicans, they ferreted about trying to figure out the next community to demonize. Eventually, they decided to target transgender people, regardless of the violence that has already been inflicted upon them.
It was a rocky start for the right, with “bathroom bills” in North Carolina roundly defeated and mocked in 2016. This stoking of anti-trans animus proved more difficult than they had thought it would be. Then they finally found their “in,” and this is where they confirm what has been transparently clear for the last several years: it would be girls' sports.
The hate machine—dark money, billionaire Nazi fetishists, think tanks, news networks—of the far right found a foothold by focusing on transgender girls in sports and the “unfair advantages,” and even “threat,” that they posed to cisgender girls. In many states, there are no transgender girls on sports teams, or at least none that rightwing lawmakers can name. But that didn’t stop dozens of states from enacting bans, pressuring hesitant but craven rightwing governors to sign these bans while using their political pulpit to whip up a fury. They were joined in this effort by organizations formed by self-proclaimed “liberal feminists” willing to link arms with the far right for a frenzied common goal, whose very slogan is a negation of the existence of trans women: “keeping men out of women’s sports.” They abided by this alliance even when states like Kansas opened the door for “sex tests” to inspect the genitals of girls to ensure they were not trans.
The hate machine—dark money, billionaire Nazi fetishists, think tanks, news networks—of the far right found a foothold by focusing on transgender girls in sports and the “unfair advantages,” and even “threat,” that they posed to cisgender girls.
Well, congrats to all the sports folks who fight to keep trans kids from playing sports. You’ve unleashed a hatred you can no longer control. The anti-trans sports laws, as the operatives crowed, played into issues of “parental control,” which has been weaponized legislatively against gender-affirming care for minors and increasingly adults as well. It is the same framework that was used against books by authors like Toni Morrison or Anne Frank appearing in public libraries because they made white parents uncomfortable. Lectures have been canceled. Books have been banned. Library systems may be closed. And it started with that narrow entry point: attacking trans kids in sports. (The focused fusillade against critical race theory stems from a different space—reaction to the massive multiracial protests in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by police—but have become utterly intertwined in the agenda of the same legislators.)
What is particularly frustrating about this is that when this firestorm against trans athletes was first stoked, there were people sounding the alarm that this would be used as a fascist foothold by the resurgent right. In making this case, they weren’t just reading the present. They were drawing upon history as well. People like American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chase Strangio, transgender triathlete Chris Mosier, writer Parker Molloy, ESPN scribe Katie Barnes, and many others, called upon politicians and human rights organizations to fight these athletic bans. But the help didn’t come—not in the boardrooms nor the White House, where President Joe Biden is now pushing additional restrictions on trans access to sports. The message is clear: Trans people will not have vociferous defenders within the Democratic Party. Far from it. The Dems lack of desire for this fight will of course only embolden the far right.
I hope this Times article serves as a warning. As the assaults continue on trans athletes in sports, we need to stand with some of the most vulnerable members of our society not to buy moral grounds, but also on the basis of the ruthless self-interest. If we allow the attacks to go unanswered, we could be next.
But there is also another issue that must be dealt with: the fact that it’s The New York Times publishing this, while eliding their own responsibility in the mainstreaming of anti-trans rhetoric and glowing portrayals of some of the fascists at the gate. People should read the letter signed by hundreds of journalists that was sent to the Times about the harm caused by their deeply slanted coverage of trans people and issues. The letter’s authors were met with a blithe response, without even a perfunctory commitment by the Times to consider the issues raised. There are many whom this article should compel to look in the mirror. The New York Times should count itself among them.