I hate to be the one to piss in the punch bowl here, but the only reason that they did this is because it in fact didn’t require any spine at all.
Whether or not trans women play women’s sports is an issue that has no effect at all on the fortunes of corporations and billionaires, so none of the soft money the Democrats receive has been contingent on them ensuring that trans women were banned, so they were free to oppose it, and did. And that’s it.
They didn’t even push back against the reactionary talking points from the looks of it. The primary argument mentioned is “states’ rights.”
It’s the same thing they’ve been doing with immigration, conceding every single point, until they eventually are running on “bipartisan legislation to address the issues!” That consists of all the Republican talking points from eight years ago.
The article just quotes a single person. Basing off a single person’s quote is going to not be representative of how Dems have been talking about it in general. For instance, when a similar bill was in the house earlier, house minority leader Hakeem Jefferies spoke against it on very different grounds than “state rights”
The House Republican Child Predator Empowerment Act does not promote fairness and safety in sports.
It will unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women throughout America.
“What Republicans are doing today is inventing a problem to stir up a culture war and divide people against each other,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said in a floor speech.
[…]
Democrats and LGBTQ+ rights activists denounced the measure as bullying.
I hate to be the one to piss in the punch bowl here, but the only reason that they did this is because it in fact didn’t require any spine at all.
Whether or not trans women play women’s sports is an issue that has no effect at all on the fortunes of corporations and billionaires, so none of the soft money the Democrats receive has been contingent on them ensuring that trans women were banned, so they were free to oppose it, and did. And that’s it.
They didn’t even push back against the reactionary talking points from the looks of it. The primary argument mentioned is “states’ rights.”
It’s the same thing they’ve been doing with immigration, conceding every single point, until they eventually are running on “bipartisan legislation to address the issues!” That consists of all the Republican talking points from eight years ago.
The article just quotes a single person. Basing off a single person’s quote is going to not be representative of how Dems have been talking about it in general. For instance, when a similar bill was in the house earlier, house minority leader Hakeem Jefferies spoke against it on very different grounds than “state rights”
https://bsky.app/profile/hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social/post/3lfpl3s35v22s
Or other people on the senate bill today
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-athletes-congress-dfd81b15ebc09409f1bf6c8642f130f3