News from hotly contested school districts and state election results poured in with one unifying theme: candidates opposing transgender rights and running on a Moms For Liberty platform lost big.
The news has captured my attention big time this morning. Your reporting is the most detailed and informative that I have read. It does my mental health good to have such a resounding win! THANK YOU!
Thank you for covering this. I don't understand why this isn't being covered by so called progressive media. Democracy Now has one feature today on the elections where they focus on abortion wins. The guest mentions trans wins last night two times, but the mentions are incidental and there is not analysis on how political attacks against abortion and trans people are connected. Incidentally, Democracy Now has had 'abortion' as a banner topic for several months, but no banner topic related to trans issues. Seems like 'abortion and trans rights' would make a lot of sense as a banner topic. I think they dropped the ball on covering trans issues a while ago.
I’m a resident of the aforementioned Albemarle County in Virginia. It may be worth mentioning here that Meg Scalia Bryce tried to play things very cool here while campaigning for a position on our County School Board.
Bryce repeatedly declared that school board positions are “not partisan”- which, sadly, used to be somewhat true but hasn’t been so for some years. She postured as an Independent, despite her campaign signs staked beside local GOP candidates, so much so
that our local Democratic Party had to message that Bryce is big-C Conservative. (Albemarle County also had a Board of Supervisors candidate running as an “Independent” whose signage was also only ever found in Red yards🧐).
Bryce claimed that she and her husband “would” take her kids out of their private religious school and into the public school system once the schools simply improved their academic scores—apparently with her help.
She played down her attendance at ultra-conservative conferences, and repeatedly claimed she was being unduly judged (pun intended) for being the daughter of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a renown Conservative.
I mention all this because I do think the GOP understood the importance of these “down-ticket” elected offices before Democrats did, and their use as on-ramps for getting conservative GOP members into the political sphere. I think Democrats are now fully aware, and, sadly for our communities and the further ideological division this stokes, it is important to continue emphasizing voting Democrat all the way down the ballots. Youngkin’s stupid ploy of calling his 15-week abortion ban a “compromise” (when nothing specific is on the table), and this ruse of trying to blend in with the shrubbery when clearly with the radical right, is not working so well anymore. I think we need to stay vigilant for these performative acts. In the meantime, whoop, whoop!
I’m in Virginia and feeling such a sense of relief today. Thank you to everyone who voted, who advocate, who do the hard work on the ground. Feeling grateful for every win today.
I really feel like the spirit of the country is on the side of equal rights, continuing on the path set in the 1960s, but at times it has been slow. Hey, I'm a person who is not afraid to admit that I came around on the issue of gay marriage about the same time as Obama. I've been more of a big-labor liberal my whole life, and the truth is that the issue was not big for me. I realize now that I was never really against it - I just didn't know the facts. The other thing is that I viewed LGBT+ people as abnormal, even considering my own lesbian and gay cousins. For me, science was the answer, as it is for other big issues.
I had an epiphany somewhere in my life experience and education. The same civil rights I learned about, the 1960s, all of it... was applicable to LGBT rights, period, end of story. I also worked with LGBT youth in the classroom. This is nothing more or less than natural variation in our population, pretty much the same as race. There is no why or how other than our genes, no choice to be made. Those who choose to exploit this are dangerous, because they know better, which is different from the people who choose to be ignorant and allow themselves to be exploited. It's just a matter of getting normal folks to understand this, and we see exactly that happening with abortion rights.
Thank you for sharing all of this great news. What will the poor Republicans do now? They might have to come up with real solutions to real issues!!!! What a concept! I encourage everyone to share these results with friends who vacillate about voting. I hope people will see that politics is personal and our vote does count in critical ways. I encourage direct sharing with allies such as: those talking about voting for Kennedy. I state clearly that one of the conspiracy theories he believes is that something in the water is turning boys into girls. He is wary to support therapies for transgender minors, saying in July 2023 that he was distressed by some of the practices and that "puberty blocker drugs need to be looked into." My wife and son are transgender, so I tell them that voting for Kennedy is life threatening to my family for two reasons. His ideas are destructive and voting for him takes votes away from Biden to increase the chance of Trump winning.
The election results were great news, especially the news out of Virginia. I wish the progressive press would talk more about the positive results for trans rights. Abortion is important too, but sometimes that’s all they focus on.
My elation over the results yesterday is tempered by the fact that three years ago, gender affirming care was legal everywhere, now it’s illegal for minors in nearly half the states, and effectively illegal for adults in at least one state. Yesterday’s results unfortunately don’t reverse that mayhem. If the GOP wins congress and the Presidency a year from now, massively bad federal anti-trans legislation is probably going to be advanced with lightning speed. That is why we can’t spent too much time celebrating. Our work is cut out for us.
wonderful news, thank you as always for your work! 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵
The news has captured my attention big time this morning. Your reporting is the most detailed and informative that I have read. It does my mental health good to have such a resounding win! THANK YOU!
Thank you for covering this. I don't understand why this isn't being covered by so called progressive media. Democracy Now has one feature today on the elections where they focus on abortion wins. The guest mentions trans wins last night two times, but the mentions are incidental and there is not analysis on how political attacks against abortion and trans people are connected. Incidentally, Democracy Now has had 'abortion' as a banner topic for several months, but no banner topic related to trans issues. Seems like 'abortion and trans rights' would make a lot of sense as a banner topic. I think they dropped the ball on covering trans issues a while ago.
I’m a resident of the aforementioned Albemarle County in Virginia. It may be worth mentioning here that Meg Scalia Bryce tried to play things very cool here while campaigning for a position on our County School Board.
Bryce repeatedly declared that school board positions are “not partisan”- which, sadly, used to be somewhat true but hasn’t been so for some years. She postured as an Independent, despite her campaign signs staked beside local GOP candidates, so much so
that our local Democratic Party had to message that Bryce is big-C Conservative. (Albemarle County also had a Board of Supervisors candidate running as an “Independent” whose signage was also only ever found in Red yards🧐).
Bryce claimed that she and her husband “would” take her kids out of their private religious school and into the public school system once the schools simply improved their academic scores—apparently with her help.
She played down her attendance at ultra-conservative conferences, and repeatedly claimed she was being unduly judged (pun intended) for being the daughter of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a renown Conservative.
I mention all this because I do think the GOP understood the importance of these “down-ticket” elected offices before Democrats did, and their use as on-ramps for getting conservative GOP members into the political sphere. I think Democrats are now fully aware, and, sadly for our communities and the further ideological division this stokes, it is important to continue emphasizing voting Democrat all the way down the ballots. Youngkin’s stupid ploy of calling his 15-week abortion ban a “compromise” (when nothing specific is on the table), and this ruse of trying to blend in with the shrubbery when clearly with the radical right, is not working so well anymore. I think we need to stay vigilant for these performative acts. In the meantime, whoop, whoop!
Now we need to translate this to the federal elections!
I’m in Virginia and feeling such a sense of relief today. Thank you to everyone who voted, who advocate, who do the hard work on the ground. Feeling grateful for every win today.
Erin, I hope you are taking a nap today. Love you.
I really feel like the spirit of the country is on the side of equal rights, continuing on the path set in the 1960s, but at times it has been slow. Hey, I'm a person who is not afraid to admit that I came around on the issue of gay marriage about the same time as Obama. I've been more of a big-labor liberal my whole life, and the truth is that the issue was not big for me. I realize now that I was never really against it - I just didn't know the facts. The other thing is that I viewed LGBT+ people as abnormal, even considering my own lesbian and gay cousins. For me, science was the answer, as it is for other big issues.
I had an epiphany somewhere in my life experience and education. The same civil rights I learned about, the 1960s, all of it... was applicable to LGBT rights, period, end of story. I also worked with LGBT youth in the classroom. This is nothing more or less than natural variation in our population, pretty much the same as race. There is no why or how other than our genes, no choice to be made. Those who choose to exploit this are dangerous, because they know better, which is different from the people who choose to be ignorant and allow themselves to be exploited. It's just a matter of getting normal folks to understand this, and we see exactly that happening with abortion rights.
Seeing this really is hopeful and uplifting. It's the sort of thing that a younger me would feel safer seeing.
Mom's for Liberty should give up the ghost and go focus on actual issues. (I won't hold my breath.)
Thank you for sharing all of this great news. What will the poor Republicans do now? They might have to come up with real solutions to real issues!!!! What a concept! I encourage everyone to share these results with friends who vacillate about voting. I hope people will see that politics is personal and our vote does count in critical ways. I encourage direct sharing with allies such as: those talking about voting for Kennedy. I state clearly that one of the conspiracy theories he believes is that something in the water is turning boys into girls. He is wary to support therapies for transgender minors, saying in July 2023 that he was distressed by some of the practices and that "puberty blocker drugs need to be looked into." My wife and son are transgender, so I tell them that voting for Kennedy is life threatening to my family for two reasons. His ideas are destructive and voting for him takes votes away from Biden to increase the chance of Trump winning.
An incredible night for freedom, rights, and the trans community. I’m very proud of my state of Virginia blocking the governor and his agenda.
I hope to see more of this continue into the 2024 elections.
Thank you Erin for your fearless and relentless reporting!
Amazing news, thanks for writing about it. Also Gender Queer is a great book and everyone should read it
The election results were great news, especially the news out of Virginia. I wish the progressive press would talk more about the positive results for trans rights. Abortion is important too, but sometimes that’s all they focus on.
My elation over the results yesterday is tempered by the fact that three years ago, gender affirming care was legal everywhere, now it’s illegal for minors in nearly half the states, and effectively illegal for adults in at least one state. Yesterday’s results unfortunately don’t reverse that mayhem. If the GOP wins congress and the Presidency a year from now, massively bad federal anti-trans legislation is probably going to be advanced with lightning speed. That is why we can’t spent too much time celebrating. Our work is cut out for us.
Thank you for another great update on what’s happening! This is all VERY encouraging!
This is great news!!
Yay! Finally some good news! Thank you so much, Erin, for all of your exhaustive research and reporting!