I mean in general gender-neutral bathrooms are a lot better due to non-binary people existing (and also are just more private and better in general), but its not super feasable to be able to just replace every public bathroom in the US with them at once. It also doesn’t necessarily address the issue of people not believing trans people are actually their gender (and sex too, the whole “gender is fluid, sex is unchangeable” thing is not really true and is a big part of the issue imo. It’s really the reason that “sex segregation” for sports or women’s spaces feels like something some liberals not educated on trans issues are tricked into believing is reasonable). That last part is a bit of a tangent (sorry lol), but gender neutral restrooms do feel like they’re partially an attempt to dodge actually addressing societal transphobia at large (at least for this one specific topic).
Edit: Oh also forgot to mention, the Arizona bathroom ban is only 1 part of the measure, the main focus is on sports segregation, as are 2 of the other 3 measures (with the 4th being a gender affirming surgery ban for minors in Colorado which also did a sports one). That’s also worth mentioning since for these measures specifically bathrooms were really just a bonus bit of segregation tacked onto measures mostly dealing with sports.
I understand that MtF athletes are exceedingly rare and certainly not an issue worth platforming an entire campaign on (right or left). I identify as a progressive and want to focus on wealth redistribution, green energy, healthcare, and election reform. Can we just say that MtF athletes should complete with cis males or other trans athletes and be done with it? Otherwise we are going to be very divided as a country about something that only affects 1 percent of the population.
Sports are a wedge issue used to open the door to further eroding trans rights is the issue, it’s not something you can compromise on. The reason sports are even something people even have a problem with is due to the fact that most cis people don’t see sex as mutable or trans people as changing their sex, which is the argument behind sports bans, bathroom bans, and other “single sex” spaces like women’s shelters or hospital wards. Any of those spaces banning trans people provably leads to more assaults/rapes, or otherwise materially harms trans people. And even if it somehow didn’t do that, from a moral standpoint it is still discrimination.
A minority being a minority of the population isn’t a reason to ignore those issues, and doing so just opens the door to more discrimination and repression of other groups as well.
All those other issues you listed are also important, but being willing to throw trans people under the bus doesn’t help you accomplish them, all it does it hurt trans people. El-sayed, Mamdani, and a bunch of the progressives that have won recently have done so without needing to abandon trans people, and are better off because of it. If you’re willing to sacrifice a minority’s rights to get elected, all it does is show that you don’t have actual principles and makes me believe you’d abandon other causes you otherwise claim to champion the moment it becomes politically inconvenient. And that goes for any minority, not just trans people.
Also, its worth noting that trans women are women, and that includes physically for stuff like sports. Almost every study done on the topic shows that a trans woman athlete has no statistical advantage over a cis woman one.
I mean in general gender-neutral bathrooms are a lot better due to non-binary people existing (and also are just more private and better in general), but its not super feasable to be able to just replace every public bathroom in the US with them at once. It also doesn’t necessarily address the issue of people not believing trans people are actually their gender (and sex too, the whole “gender is fluid, sex is unchangeable” thing is not really true and is a big part of the issue imo. It’s really the reason that “sex segregation” for sports or women’s spaces feels like something some liberals not educated on trans issues are tricked into believing is reasonable). That last part is a bit of a tangent (sorry lol), but gender neutral restrooms do feel like they’re partially an attempt to dodge actually addressing societal transphobia at large (at least for this one specific topic).
Edit: Oh also forgot to mention, the Arizona bathroom ban is only 1 part of the measure, the main focus is on sports segregation, as are 2 of the other 3 measures (with the 4th being a gender affirming surgery ban for minors in Colorado which also did a sports one). That’s also worth mentioning since for these measures specifically bathrooms were really just a bonus bit of segregation tacked onto measures mostly dealing with sports.
I understand that MtF athletes are exceedingly rare and certainly not an issue worth platforming an entire campaign on (right or left). I identify as a progressive and want to focus on wealth redistribution, green energy, healthcare, and election reform. Can we just say that MtF athletes should complete with cis males or other trans athletes and be done with it? Otherwise we are going to be very divided as a country about something that only affects 1 percent of the population.
Sports are a wedge issue used to open the door to further eroding trans rights is the issue, it’s not something you can compromise on. The reason sports are even something people even have a problem with is due to the fact that most cis people don’t see sex as mutable or trans people as changing their sex, which is the argument behind sports bans, bathroom bans, and other “single sex” spaces like women’s shelters or hospital wards. Any of those spaces banning trans people provably leads to more assaults/rapes, or otherwise materially harms trans people. And even if it somehow didn’t do that, from a moral standpoint it is still discrimination.
A minority being a minority of the population isn’t a reason to ignore those issues, and doing so just opens the door to more discrimination and repression of other groups as well.
All those other issues you listed are also important, but being willing to throw trans people under the bus doesn’t help you accomplish them, all it does it hurt trans people. El-sayed, Mamdani, and a bunch of the progressives that have won recently have done so without needing to abandon trans people, and are better off because of it. If you’re willing to sacrifice a minority’s rights to get elected, all it does is show that you don’t have actual principles and makes me believe you’d abandon other causes you otherwise claim to champion the moment it becomes politically inconvenient. And that goes for any minority, not just trans people.
Also, its worth noting that trans women are women, and that includes physically for stuff like sports. Almost every study done on the topic shows that a trans woman athlete has no statistical advantage over a cis woman one.