An 'obsessive' hatred of transgender kids fits into MAGA Republicans’ ‘victimhood’ narrative: conservative

Ever since the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr. and his Moral Majority hijacked the Republican Party in the early 1980s, the Christian Right movement has thrived on grievance. Gays and feminists were frequent targets of far-right White Christian evangelicals in the past, and these days, they are obsessed with transgender Americans — an obsession that, according to conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, fits right in with their “victimhood” narrative.

“Republicans are obsessed with transgender children,” Rubin explains in a February 24 column. “They have spent a ludicrous amount of energy passing legislation to restrict what bathrooms trans kids can use and on which gender’s sports teams they can play. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) even went after transgender people, devoting one of the 11 points in his GOP agenda to the issue, and justifying his attack by invoking the Bible — that ‘Men and women are biologically different’ and ‘there are two genders.’”

Although the 59-year-old Rubin has voted Republican in many presidential elections, she has never been a far-right culture warrior. And Rubin, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016’s presidential election and for now-President Joe Biden four years later, is a blistering critic of former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.

“It’s not Democrats who have elevated transgender issues to a national obsession,” Rubin writes. “Republicans are the ones who did that by whipping their base into a fury on the issue and convincing them that ‘elites’ are trying to destroy their way of life, as they have with immigration, prayer in school, abortion, critical race theory and many other issues. The quote from scripture in Scott’s plan confirms that Republicans would proudly impose their religious views on the rest of Americans.”

From Scott to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rubin writes, MAGA culture warriors are using anti-transgender bigotry to rally their base.

“The MAGA party has perfected the art of claiming victimhood,” Rubin observes. “Its base pines for a White Christian country, even if a majority of the public no longer embraces its worldview. It has become a party of bullies willing to endanger children. Decent, humane Americans should reject this monstrous brand of politics.”