Pennsylvania: Five Democratic Senators Defect for Anti-Trans Sports Ban

Almost as if having a two party system full of centrists and fascists (but we repeat ourselves) is a bad idea.

They should be subjected to similar discriminatory laws which they pass. See how they like being singled out over nothing.

Several of the Democrats who voted for the bill sit at the helm of party leadership. Tartaglione is Pennsylvania’s minority party whip and Miller is the minority policy committee chairman. This kind of break of party leaders from the rank-and-file is historically atypical—but increasingly occurring where trans rights are involved. Similar splits have transpired in Michigan and New Hampshire. And California Governor Gavin Newsom platformed anti-trans extremist Charlie Kirk on his podcast, This is Gavin Newsom.

Pundits have also speculated about the extent to which trans rights issues may play in swinging votes, but the SB 9 hearings may speak to something deeper than optics and polling. The defectors were generally in “safe” districts. Tartaglione ran unopposed in the last election. Sen. Boscola and Sen. Flynn both won by about 20 points in their respective districts. Sen. Miller won by about 13 points. Only Sen. Malone won by a narrow margin.

SB 9 was introduced by State Senator Judy Ward, a Republican who, in December, announced that she would seek to eradicate gender-affirming health care for trans minors in Pennsylvania. These bills have yet to materialize, but anti-trans activists and politicians nationwide have used the manufactured “crisis” of trans athletes as a red herring disguised as “fairness” to get some Democrats to cede ground.

“Within the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, there’s a growing tension between those who understand what’s at stake for trans people and those who are trying to avoid political backlash,” they told Erin in the Morning. “The problem is that centering political convenience over people’s lives never ends well.”

But Boscola’s proposal glosses over the further-reaching and more consequential aspects of these kinds of bills. As anti-trans actors have openly espoused, excluding trans athletes is not the goal; it is a means to an end, a proverbial foot in the door leading to the erasure of trans people from all areas of public life. These kinds of exclusionary sports bans open up the floodgates to invasive, arbitrary sex testing; fuel public speculation and ridicule over young people’s bodies; and rely on false data about the prevalence of trans athletes.