Politicians continue campaign of dehumanizing trans people as affordability crisis crushes families

When you are pumping gas into your car at $4.50 per gallon and watching the metered price zoom into the stratosphere, I’m guessing the last thing on your mind, as the grand total clicks into place, is how midterm election candidates stack up on transgender issues.

Chances are you’re thinking about how much more you’re paying this week than last. I’ve got bad news for you. Energy experts and prediction markets are forecasting an even bigger jump in gas prices soon — maybe breaching the $5.00 threshold nationwide as Donald Trump’s war of choice with Iran drags on and on.

Diesel, which powers trucks, farm machinery, construction equipment and other parts of the economy responsible for producing and moving goods, hit a record national average of $6.51 per gallon Monday — the highest level ever recorded in the United States.

The prospect of paying higher fuel costs for longer — on households that can’t break even now with ballooning expenses — is what keeps folks up at night.

What doesn’t is whether literally a handful of transgender athletes (out of hundreds of thousands of athletes) can participate in women’s sports, or whether the government should decide what’s best for a transgender minor (not a doctor with parents and child), or whether the tiny fraction of transgender Americans in the U.S. should be subject to bathroom bans, etc.

None of those manufactured political crises has any connection to the real-life financial crises affecting millions of households in the country. But Republicans are still recycling their ugly anti-trans ads from the 2024 election in the final stretch of the 2026 midterm campaigns.

Forget about the disastrous war nobody wanted, or your wallet drained by crippling expenses. Instead, be afraid of a small, defenseless community the GOP has scapegoated as the “Other” and reject as extremist any candidate who dares acknowledge its humanity. 

Fear is powerful motivator and the party used it effectively two years ago in a deluge of hateful attacks on transgender people to motivate voters to the polls on hostility and dread.

The same strategy is being replicated to hammer Democratic candidates in the lead up to the Nov. 3 election.

A ton of Republican aligned money has been poured into smarmy TV ads to remind voters how scared they should be about transgender issues and how radical Democrats are about transgender rights.

It is a desperate attempt to divert the electorate’s attention from the dismal state of the union under a government controlled by Republicans.

But the old playbook, to dehumanize a marginalized group of human beings, may not work as well this time. T

rans bashing and wild claims about Democrats supporting sex-change surgeries for children seems irrelevant to the struggle at hand of millions of Americans.

Why would transgender policy be top of list for voters who are seething every time they fill up their tank, who are maxing out credit cards, cutting back on groceries, forgoing healthcare that could bankrupt them? 

When you’re anxious about another rent hike, or monthly bills that overwhelm take-home pay, or medical premiums going through the roof, or $5.00 gas because of a never-ending war, do you care about trans issues that affect less than 1% of the populace and have no  bearing on your life?

Most folks are focused on their paychecks vanishing in a blink.

But instead of recognizing their pain, those running the American ship of state into the ground dismiss it.

They brush off the compounding hardships of the people who elected them as “temporary” or no big deal.

Trump said the financial distress of Americans did not concern him. His Republican rubber-stamps in Congress insist their Dear Leader has made America great — in an alternate universe — and argue voters should give them “another chance” to keep making it so great.

But the reality-based world is suffering. The country is mired in a Middle East war actively spreading to new fronts. The costly military entanglement, with no exit strategy, continues to wreak severe economic havoc at home and globally.

Yet Republicans have settled on the anti-trans card as their ace in the hole distraction to win the midterms. 

To blunt the insidious attacks, several Democratic candidates in tight races have recalibrated their approach to transgender issues and pointedly distanced themselves from their party’s unflinching support for the transgender community.

There is a definite shift on this divisive culture war by battleground Democrats in key races. They’ve moved to moderate or conservative anti-trans messaging to appeal to swing voters.

Some, like Ohio’s Democratic nominee for governor Amy Acton, have come out in support of policies — aligned with a clear majority or Americans — that would bar transgender female athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

Others, like Ohio’s 9th District congresswoman, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, actually co-opted right wing propaganda: “I voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools” and “boys should not play in girls’ sports.” 

While many in the Democratic base are dismayed by their party’s candidates embracing anti-trans rhetoric to win difficult seats, some rank-and-file Democrats view the tack to center-right on trans issues as politically smart. 

But what about the transgender community exploited by Republicans and betrayed by Democrats to make voters forget about the cost-of-living?

What about the lasting harm to people cruelly portrayed as something to be feared and/or erased?

“Transgender constituents are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” wrote one transgender activist, “and left wondering what the point of their vote is if both candidates view them as disposable and subhuman.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.