Why Trans Rights Confuses Even Non-MAGA Parents

"Living through our children," or, uh, sports.

If you believe the various after-action articles about the 2024 Presidential election, it seems like the single Trump ad that bumped the most “on the fence” voters — and I cannot imagine who was on the fence by the time that election happened — was one where he said Kamala supported trans prisoners, and the tag line was that Kamala is for “they/them” and Trump is for “you.” Nice. Apparently that moved the needle for some people, which was another example of trans rights, which maybe impacts tens of thousands of people per year at most directly, helping to decide an election for 330 million people.

My mom is 81 and hates Trump with a passion, but she even would ask me on the phone, “What is happening in the schools? Are they operating on kids?” (Please recall I said she’s 81.) I have a neighbor who spent years being sometimes to the left of AOC on some issues, and then she got pregnant after a few years of trying, and before she even announced she was pregnant to the world, she was telling us: “Well, I don’t think I can vote Democratic anymore because they are supporting changing the gender of kids.”

People have struggled with this topic for years on any number of fronts, including politically “Why is this seemingly the issue that stokes everyone?” Most people do not have a transgender child, by sheer numbers. And if you don’t, does the issue really impact your air space that much? It theoretically shouldn’t. It should be an issue between that kid, their parents, and their doctor. (No, the school should not be involved, at least in my opinion.)

But clearly this issue does touch people, so there’s been some effort to figure out “why.”