by Lanae Erickson has spent four years researching the politics of transgender rights. She is the senior vice president of the center-left think organization Third Way. However, she had no need to use the term “genital check” in front of a Democratic legislator until this past December.
“Now, I’ve done it numerous times with numerous lawmakers,” she remarked. Their faces pucker up when she does, she continued.
Ms. Erickson was talking with Democratic politicians at the time with the goal of thwarting a Republican bill that would have outright prohibited transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Many in and around Democratic politics had come to perceive the issue as a kind of paralysis, and she believed that awkward conversations were a vital first step in overcoming it.
Many Democratic leaders had decided to say as little as possible about the issue because they were caught in a growing divide between the opinions of the party’s liberal supporters and advocacy groups and those of the larger American populace. According to surveys conducted by Ms. Erickson and other public opinion analysts, this gave Republicans the opportunity to shape voters’ opinions of Democratic policy views. In 2024, Republicans spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertisements criticizing Democrats on transgender rights.
According to Ms. Erickson, they believed that Democrats believed there should be no regulations in November. From the right, there is a parody of the stance. And that’s what they hear if you’re too afraid to express your views.
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