Thread by @RavBogard

I do not believe that Missouri Republicans are done with their vile, cynical targeting of trans kids for their own political gain after this legislative session. I'm convinced it's going to get worse. A lot worse. A shortish thread on why🧵 #ProtectTransKids

So the first thing to say is that this isn't just in Missouri. The demonization of trans kids is a national movement being pushed by shady conservative thinktanks that have realized that hurting my child & my family is good politics for them (More on this later) 2/

I'm a parent of a trans kid, and I've been down to Jeff City to testify/lobby/beg my government 12x this year alone. In years past there were basically 3 parties in the Missouri Capitol: the Dems, & the supermajority GOP divided into "Republicans" and the "Conservative Caucus" 3/

The Conservative Caucus are the true believers, the overt White Christian Nationalists, eg Sen Mike Moon who is the sponsor of these horrible bills targeting my family... And a supporter of child marriage of 12yo girls to grown men because "parents rights!" 4/

The "Republicans" in Missouri, on the other hand, are traditional 'business' GOPers mostly from the suburbs of STL and KC, eg the current GOP speaker Dean Plocher. It's why we beat these bills in years past: lots of GOPers don't like them! But this year everything changed. 5/

There's no more "Conservative Caucus" in Missouri, because the inmates now run the asylum. After 20y of GOP supermajority in Missouri, no GOPers are interested in governance, but only in consolidating power. 40% of House districts are so gerrymandered that no Dem even ran. 6/

This year, all of a sudden, mainstream Republicans in the Capitol couldn't even look us in the eye when we would come down to beg them to stop hurting our kids and our families. They would look away, or close their doors and wait for us to leave when they saw us coming. 7/

I really believe that most of the Republican electeds genuinely don't like these bills targeting trans kids. They've just realized that torturing my kid and my family is winning politics for them. Their base loves it, and the press covers the story as "the debate over trans kids"

But the moment when I realized that the devouring fire of this GOP manufactured (insert word that rhymes with fascism here) bigotry would consume us all was in a meeting with the Speaker of the House Dean Plocher, a business oriented GOPer. /9

I worked for months to get a meeting with the Speaker and a big business-group. Confirmed it a week before, and then the day before. I drove down for this meeting. And he stood us up. Refused to look me in the eye.... 10/

And when the business lobbyist told him the trans athletics ban would cost the State $40m/y, he disdainfully walked away and snarked, "well, I guess you'll have to find that money somewhere else." He said this to a business leader, his traditional donor base. 11/