Welcome to the final weekly Digging INTO Politics of 2024: we’ll be away next week for a rest, but we’ll see you again in the new year. While some of us are stretching and getting ready for a winter vacation, anti-trans politicians are still managing to keep the headlines busy. But maybe the end of year fatigue is even getting to them, as some more positive news was able to squeeze in this year as well, so stick around to the end for some smiles.
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As with last week, the main piece of news this week has been the continued movement of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as it moves closer to being signed. In the meantime, transphobes have managed to find a way to be hateful in the wake of a school shooting, and a Florida man is trying to ban Pride flags.
The NDAA was passed by the senate
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The National Defense Authorization Act is an annual bill that regularly passes with bipartisan support. In the United States, voting against military funding is sadly a good way to get painted as “un-American.” This year, the Republicans decided it was a good way to make the lives of trans people harder, and that’s before Trump is inaugurated for a second time and reinstates his trans military ban. The NDAA this year includes a ban on military dependents receiving gender-affirming care under TRICARE. Politicians long ago decided that they knew better what trans people needed than medical providers who have actually studied matters, and that they would take away parents’ ability to provide appropriate care for their children. Now that ban is specifically targeting families of those prepared to lay down their lives for their country.
A group of 20 Democratic Senators led by Tammy Baldwin pushed for a vote to remove the ban on gender-affirming care from the NDAA. However, reports suggest that Schumer, concerned the vote might not pass, pushed the group to withdraw their amendment. The NDAA passed the senate with 37 Democrats voting in favor of it. Marking the first anti-LGBTQ+ provision at the federal level in years, the NDAA will now head to Biden’s desk and he is expected to sign it.
Andy Beshear latest dem to cave on trans issues
The 2024 campaign season saw Trump and the Republicans talk about trans people more than any Democrat ever had. The big success they had from this was getting to a point where some Democrats made the mistake of trying to respond to the outlandish lies. Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, was targeted in his 2022 campaign for vetoing anti-trans bills and standing up for trans rights. Now, Beshear has become the latest Democrat to capitulate to Republicans by backstepping on trans issues, this week saying that he doesn’t support gender-affirming care of inmates. It is a legal requirement to provide such healthcare for inmates, and Beshear’s comment that they shouldn’t be “receiving better coverage and health care than a law-abiding citizen” says more about the problems with United States healthcare than it does about whether certain people should get life-saving gender-affirming care.
Transphobes made a school shooting worst
This week, Madison, Wisconsin was the site of a school shooting that left three people dead. In response, transphobes started once again pushing baseless rumors that the shooter was trans. There has been absolutely no evidence for the claim and the Madison police chief has had to ask people to stop pushing the false assertions. This has become a new trend in the wake of school shootings, presumably because Republicans are eager to politicize the events to demonize trans people rather than risk talking about gun control and actually trying to do anything about these repeated shootings.
Florida Man tries to ban pride flags in public buildings
Florida State Senator Randy Fine has filed a bill to ban Pride flags and other “political flags” from government buildings. Defining the Pride flag as political or divisive isn’t new and has been used to try and move away from accepting the LGBTQ+ community before. Fine should know, given that he has a long history of trying to damage the queer community, sponsoring Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, trying to criminalize drag, and stating that it wouldn’t be a problem with him to erase the entire LGBTQ+ community.
Disney has taken another step in the wrong direction
Disney and Pixar have been making extremely slow but positive progress in their willingness to actually portray LGBTQ+ characters over the last decade. However, that progress might be called into question as they have reportedly cut a transgender storyline from Pixar’s upcoming Win or Lose. The show focuses on a co-ed middle school sports team and reportedly had a character who was revealed to be trans through a storyline mentioning their dysphoria. With trans participation in sports having become a highly politicized issue in the last few years, releasing a show with that storyline would be taking a strong political stand. However, choosing to remove it makes its own political statement.
Montana continues its good news steak
Two weeks ago, the Montana legislature failed to pass a bill that would have banned trans people from using the correct bathrooms. The bill was brought forward shortly after Mike Johnson instigated such a ban on Capitol Hill. Then, last week, the Montana Supreme Court became the first in the nation to uphold access to gender affirming care. Now a state court in Montana has continued the pro-trans streak by blocking the enforcement of policies that would prevent trans people in the state from changing their gender markers on the documents.
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Some heartwarming news
At the end of last week, two powerhouses in trans advocacy tied the knot. Zooey Zephyr was reelected in November to her seat in the Montana House of Representatives. Her first legislative session back in 2023 was marred by Republicans barring her from the floor after she chastised them for the violence they were committing by banning gender affirming care for trans youths.
By her side through all of that, was Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning, whose independent journalism consistently captures the state of the nation. The beautiful ceremony is a wonderful reminder that despite all of the hate, we’re all human and should get to write our own stories.♦
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