The End Of Trans Obsession In The Government

More than two months removed from the election, one thing is clear: the main reason Donald Trump was sworn in on Monday and not Kamala Harris is because Democrats continue to be wildly out of touch with Americans. And there's no better example of that than the transgender issue.

When historians look back on the 2024 campaign, the "Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you" ad will almost certainly go down as the most consequential political commercial of the modern age. In 30 seconds, the country witnessed the clearest contrast between the two candidates in recent memory -- a contrast, pollsters believe, that made the ultimate difference in the outcome.

Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project (APP), tested this theory shortly after November in a national survey of 1,500 voters, and what he found is exactly what strategists suspected: Democrats stubbornly overplayed their hand on trans activism. When asked about the vice president's messaging:

"52% of voters who were made aware of Harris's support for sex changes for minors were more likely to vote for Trump.

50% of voters who were made aware of Harris's support for taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners were more likely to vote for Trump.

47% of voters who were made aware of Harris's support for allowing men to compete in women's sports were more likely to vote for Trump.

45% of voters who were exposed to the Trump campaign's "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you" message were more likely to vote for Trump."

"There should be no question now that Democrats' gender insanity is a massive political vulnerability for them that Republicans should continue to exploit," Schilling declared in a statement. As the GOP prepares to control Washington, he continued, "We urge them not to forget the main lesson from the election and to keep the pressure on Democrats for as long as they continue to defend their extreme agenda."

In a more in-depth conversation about the results on Friday's "Washington Watch" with guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice, Schilling pointed out that this "was not just a small microcosm of an issue." "This was a largely impactful issue. And depending on the swing state that President Trump won ... it shifted the electorate between 1.7% and 2.6%. 

To put that in perspective, this election was decided by just 2.2% of the vote in Pennsylvania. These were very tight margins. But [on] this issue," he emphasized, voters "felt like Kamala Harris was much more concerned about cultural issues like transgenderism than people like them ... was the largest issue in the election. And President Trump should get a lot of credit for putting this front and center and having this question be answered by the American people. It's really what led him to victory."

What's most surprising, Schilling pointed out, isn't that the debate was important to Americans -- but which Americans. White Christians, he explained, were already on board. "This issue resonated with non-white, working-class voters, and a lot of suburban women. These are the key demographics that the Republican Party has [needed] to win over for decades. ... And what we found ... was that these issues of cultural insanity from the Democrats were enough to bring enough voters from these core demographics that Republicans have been struggling with for decades. It was enough to bring those voters over to vote for Donald Trump."

And Trump is prepared to reward them for it, announcing before Monday's inauguration that he would be taking direct aim at the last administration's LGBT extremism. One of the first executive orders the White House shared with The Free Press is a sweeping salvo called, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." 

By defining the terms "men" and "women" across every government agency by their "biological realities," the 47th president is dramatically rolling back Biden's preferred pronoun racket, radical policies on men in women's prisons, self-determination on passports and official forms, and free speech censorship in schools and other "federally-funded workplaces."

As a senior official explained to The Free Press, "This really was a defining issue of the campaign. The president is going to be fulfilling the promises he made on the trail." The executive order puts it more bluntly: "Radical gender ideology has devastated biological truth and women's safety and opportunity."

"Women deserve protections, they deserve dignity, they deserve fairness, they deserve safety," a pair of policy advisors reiterated. "And so, this is going to help establish that in federal policy and in federal laws." Pressed about whether this would trigger a wave of lawsuits, the duo seemed unconcerned. The incoming administration is "ready for litigation," predicting that the president, in tandem with his new attorney general, would be "100% successful" in those challenges.

What's more, Trump's team underscored that this order would be "the first of many" on biological gender. Schilling applauded the effort, warning the other side, "These are a very powerful subset of issues. And the Democrats would be wise to start toning down their rhetoric and their policy goals around them."

So far, not so good for Biden's party. In the first test of the new Congress, all but two Democrats voted against a bill that would protect girls' sports in the House, a disappointing measure of how much they learned on November 5. "They're doubling down on everything so far," Hice noted. "They are so entrenched in this radical left-wing movement within the Democratic Party. It's hard for them to get away from it."

The major takeaway, Hice continued, is just how right conservatives were to make this debate a centerpiece of their campaign. "We were told, 'Stay away from cultural issues, stay away from it. People don't want that.' And yet it was just the opposite. And I think this ought to give encouragement for everyone to continue standing for these things."

The best thing Republicans can do, Schilling agreed, is to replicate Trump's bold commitment to make these same values and make them "central to their campaigns." The culture war isn't a political loser, he insisted. "The American electorate is complicated and complex. You have 320 million people in this country. We all care about different things. Different things motivate us in terms of our votes. 

Some voters only vote on whether or not a politician is going to protect the unborn. On the other hand, some people only vote if a politician is going to allow more babies to be killed. This country is diverse. It's different," he acknowledged. But the rejection of transgenderism is "exceptionally strong, because it appeals to voters that we really need in order to win elections. ... [I]t brings so many voters to the table for us."

More important, however, is the impact. As Congressman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) proclaimed when the EO was official, "Today's executive order is the first step in restoring common sense and sanity in this country." This president, he underscored, "is protecting women from discrimination and securing the progress women have made over the decades. 

Instead of trying to erase sex, the administration is recognizing it, celebrating it. Doing so will give women and girls opportunities to thrive and excel" -- which is the very thing most voters wanted.

Originally published at The Washington Stand