New York Times: GOP Using ‘Lies…To Stoke Fear and Hatred’ Over Trans Kids

The New York Times is again trying to pose the mainstream consensus on children and transgender issues — and popular legislation like the Florida law that liberals falsely call “Don’t Say Gay” — as dangerous and even suggesting it may encourage transgender youth to commit suicide.

Rick Rojas reported on legislation signed by the Republican governor of Alabama in Saturday’s paper:

Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed legislation on Friday that prevents medical professionals from providing care that aids transgender young people in transitioning, adopting some of the country’s most restrictive measures and threatening doctors and nurses with up to 10 years in prison.

As an example of old habits, TimesWe tried to portray Republicans as not responding to left-wing gender overreach, but as Republicans who are cynically seeking to build a wedge in politics.

The legislation is part of a flurry of bills introduced across the country as conservative lawmakers have focused their attention on transgender people and other L.G.B.T.Q. These issues include limiting gender-affirming healthcare, as doctors define it. Moreover, it is against the law to ban transgender students participating in school-sponsored sports.

It is important to note that transgender students are still allowed to play in school sport under the terms of their gender at birth.

Rojas was outraged, but it was a strangely lengthy time before he could get to the heart of Alabama’s ban.

While other states may have taken similar steps to restrict medical care for transgender teens, Alabama’s law makes it a crime to give hormones or to perform gender affirming surgery.….

Rojas played the emotion-ridden “suicide” card.

Advocates and activists said that these laws could be dangerous for transgender youth, as they would prevent them from receiving critical care or limiting their freedom to identify themselves. The advocates also stated that these laws encourage harmful rhetoric which could further marginalize people who are at higher risk for suicide.….

Longtime’s Friday Edition Times journalist David Leonhardt’s “The Morning” newsletter suggested Republican legislation of a similar sort was based on hate and also a cynical attempt to launch another culture war via “wedge” issue.

They asked, “How did L.G.B.T. rights again become the subject of a culture war?”

Some of these issues of gender identity are also unavoidably vexing, involving conflicts between one person’s rights and another’s. For example, should transgender girls always be allowed play girls’ sports — even if male puberty gave them physical strength that provides a competitive advantage? (Some feminists and female athletes say no, and some transgender women are torn.) How soon should schools teach students about gender identity? Are schools required to notify parents if their child changes his or her gender identity?

One suspects most parents would say “never” and “yes” to those last supposedly tough questions.

Republicans view a way to portray Democrats out of touch on several questions. “The right is using trans identity among kids as the wedge,” says our colleague Emily Bazelon, who writes about legal issues.

Bazelon pointed out that the political strategy relies partially on lies, which seem to be intended to incite hatred and fear. In Florida, for example, some Republicans have falsely suggested that schools’ lessons about sexuality are really an attempt to “groom” students.

Bazelon is hardly an objective source for anything, given the liberal law professor and confirmed Kavanaugh opponent managed to earn a byline for a ridiculous “ice” scoop during the paper’s shameful coverage of Brett Kavanaugh, during his Supreme Court hearings.

 

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