The Transphobic Mask Is Off

For many years now, conservatives, along with an influential group of centrists and liberals, have presented a certain narrative regarding trans people in this country: They are Concerned. They’re worried, they say, about trans women in bathrooms—what if a male predator leverages trans rights systems to pretend to be a woman and ambushes victims in the bathroom? They’re worried, they say, about people getting transition care too easily—what if gender clinics and endocrinologists start bum-rushing children into transition surgery? Above all, they say, they are outraged about trans women in sports—what if a man pretends to be a woman so he can win first place easily?

This narrative is and always has been a lie. What these people actually have is a seething, obsessive hatred of trans people. They want them either back in the closet or dead.

We know that because rather than address any of the alleged “concerns” mentioned above, they are moving straight to a total prohibition of any trans care for children. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) drew up a bill making pediatric transition care of any kind a federal felony to provide, punishable by up to a decade in prison, and it passed Wednesday night. Notably, it would not have passed without three turncoat House Democrats: Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Donald Davis of North Carolina.