Republicans have repeatedly demonized transgender people as part of their latest culture war, in a bid to garner votes and further the religious right’s agenda. However, recently, the efforts have been backfiring.
Fellow GOP members have started thwarting legislation that would discriminate against the trans community.
A Utah bill, sponsored by Republican legislators in both chambers, would have banned the display of Pride flags along with any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Even though Republicans dominate the state House of Representatives, the bill went down in flames in a 39-32 vote. Four legislators abstained.
Earlier this month, Gov. Spencer Cox (R) took the unusual step of condemning and censuring a state school board member via a resolution passed by the Republican-dominated legislature. The Board of Education also voted to strip the board member of her official powers and asked for her resignation.
Meanwhile in Iowa, a proposed change to the state’s civil rights law was so drastic and loathsome that even Republicans refused to entertain the idea. The bill would have stripped transgender people from the state’s civil rights law.
A crowd of hundreds erupted into cheers when the members of a subcommittee who had heard an hour of testimony against the bill announced that they would not advance it any further. The committee was composed of two Republicans and a single Democrat. Their vote was unanimous.
In the northeast, Moms for Liberty, a notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ group that pushed its way into the political sphere, has collapsed spectacularly after the husband of one of the group’s founders was accused of raping a woman with whom they had an ongoing sexual relationship.
Candidates that the group endorsed went down in defeat during last year’s elections.
And in Arizona, Republicans were left hanging after a single member broke with the party and voted with Democrats against a proposed anti-transgender ballot measure.
