“Months after California Gov. Gavin Newsom told a conservative podcast it’s ‘deeply unfair’ for transgender athletes to compete in women and girls’ sports, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage at the Democratic Party’s annual state convention in Newsom’s home state to let his party know he thinks the opposite.”
“‘I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected,’ the 2024 vice presidential nominee said Saturday. ‘That child deserves our support. Don’t worry about the pollsters calling it distractions, because we need to be the party of human dignity.’”
“Walz is doubling down on trans rights — and criticizing members of his party who are retreating — at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and back home in Minnesota.”
“Newsom, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has been one of the few Democrats to veer from his party on the issue, while Walz could be trying to appeal to the more progressive side of the party on this issue as he continues to mull his future, University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said.”
“Walz is expected to run for a third term as governor of Minnesota and has not ruled out a bid for president in 2028.”
“‘Transgender participation in sports presents an issue for Democrats. You can see that with Gavin Newsom trying to move Democrats from a position that’s not popular with the general public,’ Jacobs said.”
“In 2015, the MSHSL’s board of directors voted to open girls’ sports to transgender student-athletes. The decision took effect for the 2015-16 school year and made Minnesota the 33rd state to adopt a formal transgender student policy.”
“The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) has been under investigation by the federal government as a result of Trump’s executive order and could risk losing federal funding.”
Walz is the first governor in my lifetime that I have ever been happy with. I selfishly want him to stay in MN.
This will win him elections.
Trans athletes, immigration, economics - every time Democrats move to “the center” it fails, because it’s more of the same abuse and bullshit. Conserving a failing society for the sake of political bribery.
Move left or get left behind.
But action for the sake of action is fascist and having a conscience is woke, so…
Will it? Most polls I see actually have a large majority of Americans opposing allowing people who are trans to participate in their sports. Now, those are national polls, and maybe in a blue state, it could help him, but I worry it will hurt him.
Now, what I hope happens is kind of what Obama’s support for gay marriage (following Biden, remember) did - actually convinces people to shift their opinions on the topic. So maybe Minnesotan state and local leaders, and potentially nearby states, begin to support trans folks more on this, and the people of those states follow. But that’s a hope, not a prediction.
Walz seems to correctly understand that most of the everyday people who oppose allowing trans athletes to compete are having a gut reaction and aren’t against trans people. They simply “know” that boys are generally stronger than girls, so even if they believe trans women are women, they still believe that they’d have an unfair advantage competing with cis women.
This means they can be moved away from that erroneous position. Most of these people have no idea that there are already protocols for this to make sure there’s no unfair advantage. They don’t know that after what was it? 2 years on HRT that something like 99% of any advantage a trans woman may have had from going through a male puberty is gone. Most of these people have never even heard of a trans woman competing in women’s sports. There are what? Something like under a hundred in the entire US?
The first most people probably heard about the entire concept was hearing that Lia Thomas “beat” a cis woman. But not that they were actually tied for fucking fifth place. I know most people that were outraged about it that I’ve told that were shocked. Straight up went from “this is so unfair, they shouldn’t have let her compete,” to “they’re this mad that she got FIFTH?”
There are gonna be more elections?
We’ve already had a few special election Congressional races since January. And nobody seems shy about stumping for governor in Virginia or New Jersey, with contests in Nov of 2025.
Elections are held by the states, not the federal government.
Which is why New Hampshire and Iowa are even vaguely relevant on a national scale politically.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is doomposting, or just trying to get you to stop voting entirely.
I wouldn’t worry about them canceling elections altogether until after Trump gets a third term. That’s when you know things will be fucked almost beyond repair.
As a Canadian I don’t believe my vote will do anything, but I still do it. Partly to reduce people complaining, but also that if my vote does have an effect it’s very likely I cannot measure it.
Just for show
Or it would if rhere were gpnna be more of those.
at first I read “Walz backs transgender” as “Walks back transgender” and had a moment
