Today, voters across the country cast their ballots in the first major elections since Trump took office. Facing Trump’s historically low approval ratings, many Republicans, especially Virginia gubernatorial candidate and incumbent Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, pivoted heavily towards anti-trans messaging in an attempt to win over voters.
But this time, the transphobia Republicans and a few centrist Democrats have claimed won Trump the 2024 election didn’t work. If anything, it may have actually cost them: in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won the largest margin for a Democratic governor in the state since 1961, and in New Jersey, the Republican nominee for governor, Jack Ciattarelli—who also ran in 2021—fared 10 points worse than he did 4 years ago.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The last time Virginia and New Jersey voted for governor, Republicans hadn’t decided to go all-in on anti-trans messaging, which only began to rise because GOP strategists believed it to be a good wedge issue. In fact, before Biden’s victory in 2020, only three states had any active anti-trans laws: Idaho had passed the first trans sports ban along with a ban on birth certificate gender marker changes earlier that year, North Carolina’s infamous HB 2 was partially effective but fully repealed about a month after the election, and Tennessee’s ban on trans birth certificate changes dates back to 1977.
However, after the election, things changed quickly: in 2021, Arkansas became the first state to pass a gender-affirming care ban, Montana and Oklahoma began banning birth certificate changes, and Arkansas and West Virginia passed sports bills. Sensing an opportunity, Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin began leaning in on transphobia by framing it as a “parental rights” issue in schools, rhetoric echoed by Ciattarelli in New Jersey.
But crucially, that anti-trans messaging wasn’t alone. In both cases, it was framed as part of a larger culture war along with critical race theory, book bans, and abortion. And although it may have helped them then, the American political landscape has changed significantly since then: critical race theory fizzled out, widespread book bans largely failed to materialise, and Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Of that initial culture war playbook, only trans people remain, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that this issue cannot bear the load of hate that was originally shared between the four of those.
My guess is that, in recent years, “narrative” has taken on more of a negative connotation. To some, your comment may have been interpreted as criticism of the article, specifically its truthfulness. Thus, downvotes.
I dunno.
I’ve honestly never heard “narrative” in this supposed context before. Seems like a deliberate choice of word to me.
Could be. The fact that they’ve deleted their comments certainly doesn’t lower suspicions.
deleted by creator
“Thanks for the write-up!” would get your point across with no ambiguity there. Of course, there are many ways that you could phrase it, like “Thanks for the detailed post!” or “Thank you for the information!”
You just happened to pick one that could be interpreted negatively, and didn’t include any other context to clarify your intention (even just adding an exclamation point would have helped).