The Very Simple Reason Republicans Are Bashing Trans Teens

This is a priority thing apparently among the Republican-controlled state legislatures, because the Florida Legislature are passing these Hate bills instead of working on things like fixing our state's unemployment benefits system, or upgrading our schools or paying our teachers better. Via Saundra Weathers, Troy Kinsey, and Justin Soto at Bay News 9 website:

The Florida House on Wednesday approved a GOP-proposed ban on transgender female athletes joining female athletic teams in high school and college sports by a 77-40 vote.

The companion bill in the state Senate still has to pass before legislation makes it to Governor Ron DeSantis' desk for his signature. The vote in the House followed party lines.

Florida is one of more than 30 other states with bills aiming to force transgender athletes to play on teams for their sex assigned at birth.

In House Bill 1475, lawmakers are proposing a ban on athletes born male, from competing in female sports, but it allows anyone born female to compete in any sport...

You'll notice the bill only affects those born male who shift to female. Nothing about females who shift to male. You'll also notice the unsubtle amount of homophobia in the whole charade the Republicans are pushing. Back to the story:

Supporters of the LGBTQ community say the bill is just discriminatory. Tampa Bay Rowdies player Zach Steinberger is a member of the LGBTQ organization Athlete Ally. While he says as a straight man he can’t identify personally with those trans athletes, he plans to continue to fight for their rights. 

“No matter what you identify as, no matter what or how you’re born it’s something that should be a safe and free environment," he said. "And to try and take that away from somebody is, that’s dismantling to me. That is so un-American..."

The article also highlights how the collegiate NCAA organization is protesting these laws and threatening to cancel any state-level championship games (like the regional basketball tourneys) to express their disgust and hurt the states' prestige and loss of revenue. Other sports are talking about similar boycotts and cancellations.

But the Republicans are not cowed on their agenda, for a very simple reason:

The cruelty is the point. It doesn't matter to them if this hurts 10,000 transgender teens or just one, as long as they can express that cruelty they will indulge in it with the upmost glee.

Much in the same way that the Far Right hates various groups of people for who they are - Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Women (not just feminists, they barely conceal their contempt for their fellow conservative women), Gays - the Far Right hates Trans people out of a twisted level of fear. The Evangelical religious base that dominates much of the Far Right are terrified that Trans people will "teach our male children anal sex" or other forms of sexual debauchery, echoing the fears that the Far Right that Black men lust after White Women, or that the Gays/Lesbians will impose their "lifestyle choices" on Heteros to destroy our population.

None of that fear based on fact, and yet still it drives the Far Right to hate everyone "not us" in these extreme ways.

There was no crisis involving our teen and college athletics programs. There's no evidence that Trans people - or men claiming to be Trans - are attacking women in locker rooms or bathrooms. This is all hysteria, built on fear by Hetero men (and it's mostly guys) that they're gonna get anal-raped.

This is all bullshit. All these laws are going to do is humiliate Transgender people - especially youths, who are under enough social pressure as is - or worse expose those Trans teens to acts of violence promoted by that Far Right fear and hate.

Christ said to Love One Another like brothers and sisters, yet these Evangelicals and demagogues and wingnut politicians would rather hate us all instead.

God help us.