Despite uncharacteristic calls from GOP nominee former President Donald Trump to promote a message of “unity,” several speakers on the first night of the Republican National Convention took a different route, peddling hateful rhetoric toward transgender people.
Rep. John James (R-Michigan) parroted disingenuous talking points often cited in right-wing attacks on transgender rights: the need to “protect” girls.
“Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males,” James said.
Notably, data shows that transgender kids are more likely to be harassed and bullied than their cisgender peers, and there’s no credible evidence to support James’s insinuation that trans kids using restrooms or changing rooms that correspond with their gender pose a danger to others.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson pushed similar talking points and complained about the supposed “sexualization and indoctrination of our children,” promoting the false premise that more youth are expressing that they are LGBTQ due to “social contagion.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), a far right lawmaker who frequently makes bigoted statements, boldly (and wrongly) stated on the convention stage that “there are only two genders.” She also belittled Transgender Day of Visibility for falling on the same date as Easter Sunday this year, a phenomenon that happened because Easter is based on a lunar calendar.
“They promised normalcy, and gave us Transgender Visibility Day [sic] on Easter Sunday,” she whined.
Critics took note of Republicans’ continued attacks on LGBTQ Americans, specifically transgender people, during the first night of the convention, noting that the statements echoed the party’s hate-filled platform.
“[Ron Johnson] delivering anti-trans remarks in primetime tonight during the RNC is consistent w/a Christian Nationalist party that is virulently anti-trans,” said transgender activist Imara Jones, who also criticized cable news networks for failing to factcheck the GOP’s anti-trans rhetoric.
And far from promoting “unity,” Republicans on Monday night “anchored the party in its culture conflicts — anti-trans and anti-immigrant positions, racial denialism and the intertwining of the political and the religious,” wrote New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow.
Speaking to Truthout before the convention began this week, Abigail Swetz, executive director for Fair Wisconsin, an organization dedicated to protecting and expanding LGBTQ rights, blasted the Republican Party for its bigoted agenda.
“The anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric being spewed by candidates and elected officials is dangerous, and the policies they are proposing are a direct threat to our bodily autonomy, and to the health and future of our democracy,” Swetz said. “The language of hate has an emotional cost, and the vitriol these politicians are peddling in has consequences on the emotional health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people.”
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