Gavin Newsom knows the popular image of him is of a smooth talker with slicked-back hair, the wealthy liberal who co-owns a vineyard.
He knows, regarding the presidential ambitions he’s hardly hiding, that the biggest question he would face out of the gate is whether he could sell Americans on wanting California to represent their future rather than seeing it as the place where the wackiest liberal dreams go to run wild.
The redistricting fight that Newsom and the state legislature are launching Monday could, he and his inner circle believe, give him all the rebuttals he needs.
If he wants to appeal to fascists it’s gonna end the same way it has before. He’s gonna lose because why would fascists vote for the fascist-lite when a full fledged fascist is right there. All he does in the end is make it more acceptable to strip my people of rights.
Maybe something on the level or worse than the pandemic happens and he can get in on that. But he still did major harm to my people, harm that cannot be undone fully for decades if not longer.
Either way he is playing with a dangerous ideology that will get trans people killed. Maybe not state sponsored but remember what happened with Nex Benedict, when this toxic hateful ideology becomes normalized it encourages violence.
I agree that this type of rhetoric is bad for the long term health and safety of trans people. I believe the move was done to boost Newsom’s own presidential chances in red and purple areas by creating a scapegoat of trans people.
I feel bad for my friends that are trans because the culture in America, mostly outside of younger generations, has many bigoted attitudes towards trans individuals. I think hearing Bill Maher talk about his bigoted views on people transitioning shocked me at how slow/little the older generations have moved on being accepting of trans people. Maher being a left-of-center boomer too didn’t give me much confidence that there are not swaths of people with even worse takes.
Unfortunately I believe you are right that it will take decades for things to truly get better for trans people since many of these older generations seem gridlocked in their views. I feel educating younger generations is what is most important in the push back against bigotry, since people are not born bigots but become that way.