Are Trans Rights the New Gun Rights for Democrats?

From the Don't Shoot the Cis Messenger files:

I wish I could say I'm surprised that many queers aren't happy with Barney Frank's hospice interview urging Democrats to rethink the party's approach to trans rights. 

But if we ever want to control the House again -- or any level of federal power -- naysayers need to remember when Dems strategically backed away from running aggressively on another issue where we were on the right side of history -- GUN CONTROL -- and apply that to what's going on now. 

Yes, sensible progressives are correct where trans people are concerned. But just as we learned in the 1994 midterms when we were 100 percent correct about gun control -- we didn't take back control until Nancy Pelosi in 2008! -- trans rights are a thorny issue with the voting public at large and will continue to be one with the right twisting the topic into knots, lying to people by claiming that 8-year-olds are having gender-affirming surgery and weaponizing the issue against us. 

Instead, we need to WIN power and then enact laws and policies that protect trans people. Elections are won by the tiniest of margins these days, so don't think for one second this isn't a factor. 

While in the recent past most Americans were in favor of civil rights for trans people -- job and housing protections, the right to use the bathroom -- the right has capitalized on this trans women in sports issue, which lets them rile up the base, scare centrists and sow divisions among liberals all at once. 

While it affects very few people in practice, it's a lightning rod -- somewhere Lee Atwater is ejaculating without touching himself knowing that gay icon Martina Navratilova is a pariah among many of her peers -- and the issue is killing us at the ballot box because reckless activists don't want to accept that most Americans think it's a loser, including two out of three Gen Zers, and it has nothing to do with "transphobia." 

This is what Frank actually said about the subject:

"[Trans women competing in women's sports] is the most controversial, the most difficult. It affects the fewest number of people ... [yet] people who believe that’s important should advocate for it. But they should not make it a litmus test and say well if you’re not for that you’re not a supporter of the rights of transgender people. There are places where people are supportive, and we want to encourage that."

Hear! Hear!

Barney Frank and Bill Maher are deeply flawed people, but even broken clocks are right twice a day: Frank is correct that this litmus-test way of doing business is not tenable -- and Maher hit the nail on the head when he said that if we keep it up, "good luck with President Vance."

I've always thought Democrats were the smart party, so when are we going to start using our brains to win elections?

"That's their party platform."

SMH