Joe, Mika, and their ilk are endangering the lives of transgender human beings

I’ve written before about transgender people being human beings — they are not an issue. And I hope the panel on Morning Joe and so many others are reading this. What seems like every day since the election, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and others have essentially blamed innocent transgender individuals — again, not issues — for the Democrats’ loss last week.

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First, when youlook at the issues voters most cared about, they were inflation, jobs, immigration, abortion, national security, climate, etc. I have a question for all the pundits and politicians slamming the trans community: Where do you see transgender human beings on this list of concerns?

If you voted for Donald Trump and against Kamala Harris because you had something against the trans community, you were beyond an outlier. You were not even a blip on the radar. So why are people like Joe and Mika callously targeting the trans community for Harris’s loss? And why are they doing it so brazenly?

Instead of discussing the real reasons why Harris lost to Trump, they trash innocent human beings. The most vulnerable in society. Do you realize the tremendous weight of responsibility you are putting on the backs of human beings who did nothing wrong — nothing — except try to be their most authentic selves? That’s it.

And yet you demonize them, providing a permission structure for others to do the same thing. Have you thought nothing about their families and friends — human beings too — who have to watch their trans loved one get crushed with the burden of taking the blame. It’s ruining lives each time you utter, coldly and without thought, the word "transgender" in the same breath as why Democrats lost.

When people discuss issues, there are two sides and heated debate. Patronizing pundits like Joe and Mika and others need to remember that transgender people are human beings. They have families, feelings, lives, hopes, and dreams. They should never be bandied about like an issue. There is only one side to consider for trans human beings, and that’s their lives.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi, along with others, have come forward saying something to the effect that the party needs to stop defending trans girls playing on girls' teams, using the transphobic dog whistle of “biological boys” and other trans tropes. But the Democrats never did talk about trans people. In fact, they never even came to their defense.

When Trump-sponsored ads were running during college and NFL football games that blamed the Biden-Harris administration for gender-affirming care for federal inmates, not one Democratic group came forward to call the ad out as a lie. The Trump administration provided this care as well.

I spoke to Lincoln Project cofounder Rick Wilson after the organization, made up of former Republicans, stepped forward and produced an ad that disputed Trump’s accusation. He told me that Trump’s anti-trans ads could be working and that the organization was waiting for Democrats to respond, and since they didn’t, Wilson and his colleagues stepped in.

So Joe and Mika and others' arguments that the Democrats lost because they were defending the trans community doesn’t hold. The Democrats sat on their hands. Blaming the trans community is as much of a lie as the disgusting Trump ads themselves.

These “blamecasters” have no idea the damage they are doing to trans youth and trans adults who hear what they are saying, that they are the reason Harris lost and who now fear for their lives more than ever — even if they don’t play sports.

Want proof? The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, reported a 700 percent increase in calls around the election. And every time Joe and Mika mention the words “transgender” or “trans,” they are throwing daggers at the hearts of living, breathing souls. They are just falling into the GOP trap.

And because the GOP and the Trump campaign went vigorously after the transgender community during this past election — and used the community as a divisive wedge (issue) in an attempt to provoke anger, fear, contempt, and repulsion — trans people are hurting badly right now. They are now living in perhaps more fear than they have ever have in their lives, scared out of their minds about the approaching and dooming Trump administration.

My God, these folks are suffering enough — from having their medical care taken away to being banned from using the correct bathroom. And for all those who are callously talking about them as if they should be “excluded” from ensuing Democratic campaigns, please stop and think about how much pain you are causing people just trying to live their lives.

The Democratic Party has always, well, for the most part, defended marginalized communities. And that’s because the party has always looked out for those who have been most oppressed by society. Democrats have always — again, for the most part and in recent memory — taken great care in the way they have spoken about those who are marginalized. Some call it “woke,” others call it compassion and being considerate.

I used to think Fox News pundits were the talking heads most degrading toward the trans community. I never thought that Morning Joe and others on MSNBC would give them a run for their money.

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