Tranny Annie Wins South Carolina Senate Race

Many surprising results from the US election tonight, none of them good for Trump. Perhaps most relevant for our movement is Annie Andrews winning the South Carolina Senate race over Darline Graham, who was appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, closet case Lindsey Graham. The reason I think it is relevant for us is that Trump, with his "talent" for derisive nicknames, had dubbed Andrews "Tranny Annie." This overreach may have backfired. Trump had supported the politically inexperienced Darline Graham, at first thought to be a placeholder to finish out her brother's term, as the nominee over more plausible alternatives. Trans baiting was a consistent theme of Republican campaigning in this cycle, but appears to have been particularly ineffective in this race. Andrews, like nearly all Dems in this cycle, opposes both the participation of trans girls in girls sports and trans surgeries for minors. Whatever you may think about trans issues, the Dems have clearly concluded that supporting the trans movement on these two issues is a losing proposition and have moved decisively away from it. The Republicans could have just taken the win. Instead, they proved unable to let go of an issue that seemed to work for them in 2024. It didn't work for them in 2026, in this race or others. Why not? Probably because in 2026 they were seeking to use the trans issue against candidates who were simply not trans supportive on the two most controversial trans issues. It was overreach and lacked credibility (much like the tired claim that Dems are secret communists, also much used in this cycle and similarly ineffective). (Was Harris actually any more trans supportive two years ago than the Dem candidates in this cycle? Maybe, maybe not. In any case she did not effectively counter the "she's for them/they, he's for you" line of attack and paid a price.) Why is this relevant for us? Because attacks on pedophiles have expanded beyond plausibility in a way that closely parallels attacks on trans. Age gap sex where the younger partner is 25 or even 35, if the older partner is 10 or more years older, is now often called pedophilia. What has happened with the trans issue suggests, though it does not guarantee, that there may be a point beyond which this kind of expansion of the range of stigmatization will lead to a loss of credibility. This has nothing to do with whether you may think trans girls should be participating in girls sports or trans youth should be able to get trans surgery if they want it. The point is that when the opponents of your movement -- either the trans movement in the case of this election cycle, or our movement in a possible future crisis -- expand their attacks, they can reach a point at which the inherent implausibility of their claims exceeds the tolerance of the public and causes them to lose credibility. (This is a version of the same argument I made in the post linked below about sex policing in the UK. Overreach in the effort to stigmatize sexual or gender difference can prove counterproductive, causing backlash that creates opportunities for the stigmatized group to achieve at least marginally greater public acceptance.) hugzu ;-p (Boychat.org link) New UK legislation expands banned porn (Pharmakon post)