Thread by @ErinInTheMorn

1. It was never about sports.

Some have argued that Democrats should give up on trans people in sports.

As a leading transgender journalist covering the issue for years, I can say that this is a strategy doomed to fail.

Here's why.

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2. In the wake of Harris loss in the 2024 election, a debate has emerged over trans participation in sports... on whether or not Democrats should abandon "the sports issue."

This is deeply misguided. I explain why in my latest piece.

erininthemorning.com/p/opinion-the-…

3. If you had a time machine in 2019 and traveled to 2024, the shift over trans rights in the US would be shocking. In the 2019, trans people could openly access care in all states.

Now... bounties in bathrooms, adults cut off from medical care, and drivers licenses pulled.

4. How did we get here? I watched over years and reported as anti-LGBTQ+ campaigners used sports as a trojan horse to enact an agenda of eradication.

In state after state, sports bans were the first domino laying the groundwork for horrors inflicted by Republican legislatures.

5. The first anti-trans ad, entitled "track," was targeting Andy Beshear in 2019. Beshear won, but the strategy remained... over the next two years, a dozen states passed anti-trans sports bans, setting the stage for what was to come.

See that ad here:

6. Terry Schilling, who ran the ad, in CNN interview made his intent clear: “The women’s sports issue was really the beginning point in helping expose all this because what it did was, it got opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issue,”

7. The strategy worked. By the end of 2022, 18 Republican controlled states had passed sports bans. In many of these states, "moderates" supported the sports bans while rejecting trans care bans, telling advocates that sports bans were "it," and there would be no further attacks.

8. For a time, this seemed to hold. Gender affirming care bans failed in states like Texas, and even Republican governors vetoed the bills.

9. But by the end of 2023, it was clear: every state that passed a trans sports ban went on to enact some of the most draconian anti-trans laws in history, prohibiting drag, shutting down pride parades, bounties on trans people in bathrooms, denial of drivers license markers.

10. That’s because accepting transgender bans in sports means accepting a Republican framework explicitly designed to justify further eradication efforts.

If trans people are dangerous in a soccer field, why not a bathroom? Why even allow them to transition at all?

11. Conceding to anti-trans sports bans has not shielded Democratics from further attacks.

In Ohio, before the election was even over, they already moved beyond Sports when attacking Sherrod Brown, saying that he would "allow men in girls bathrooms"

12. Brown responded that he had never supported such thing. The same thing happened with Collin Allred. Their retreat did not save them in this election.

They did the very thing pundits argued would have helped them.

erininthemorning.com/p/tx-dem-colli…

13. Notably, these ads targeted the senators for their votes on the Equality Act, giving civil rights protections for gender or sexuality. This underscores that the objective of those advocating for sports bans is denying civil rights protections altogether.

14. In fact, in one of the states where Democrats capitulated the MOST on trans issues... New Hampshire, where 16 Democrats allowed a trans sports ban to pass... the Dem candidate for governor lost and Republicans gained in both the House and Senate.

https://x.com/erininthemorn/status/1743069903957922190?s=46

15. Meanwhile, in Montana, where Dems fought back the hardest... they gained 10 seats in the House, the largest gain in 30 years.

https://x.com/zoandbehold/status/1854992416517820581?s=46

16. Rep Seth Moulton, a Democrat, has made headlines for expressing fears his daughters might be "run over on a playing field" by a trans girl athlete, calling them males.

He argued today in a CNN interview that we need "reasonable discussions"

17. There are reasonable discussions to be had... what hormone therapy requirements should be for each sport, how to monitor them.

That's not what sports bans do. They are blunt instruments, targeting 9 year olds in soccer, and disc golf, fishing, billiards, and even chess.

18. These are not the discussions Moulton wants to have. He's right that we can "win on these issues" if we talk about them.

But that's not what he is advocating for.

He's advocating for permission to abandon his transgender constituents entirely.

19. The far right strategy knows this well. When I first mentioned the trans chess bans, Riley Gaines, the anti-trans swimmer who campaigned with many republicans, proudly proclaimed she worked to make it happen, showing it clearly wasn't about "advantages."

20. And just yesterday, Helen Joyce openly confirmed that sports bans are their way to get an end to all transgender legal recognition.

21. Many Democrats realize the folly of this. That's why Governor Andy Beshear in Kentucky, a R+30 state, called on Democrats to not throw LGBTQ+ people under the bus, that it wouldn't work, and to lead with your values.

22. When reps like Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi call for a "discussion," they should start by listening to the voices the constituents whose lives are on the line.

Sacrificing them, their families, their allies for political expediency is not a winning strategy, it's betrayal.

23. History has made it clear: there is no compromise with those who seek erasure. Concessions do not slow their agenda—they accelerate it. You cannot negotiate a middle ground with eradication, and pretending otherwise only fuels the fire.

24. Lastly, I am an award-winning transgender journalist and columnist covering LGBTQ+ issues every day. You can subscribe to support my journalism at .erininthemorning.com/subscribe