Transphobia Addiction
Virginia Democrats narrowly take both chambers. Did Republican's transphobia seal their fate?
Election Day has come and gone in Virginia. For many of us that means no more political ads, mailboxes full of flyers and knocks on the door. The results are in, and Democrats edged out Republicans to take control of both Chambers in the legislative branch with a 21-19 lead in the Senate and a 51-49 lead in the House of Delegates.
The leading issue going into the election was abortion. While Youngkin and Virginia Republicans were focused on restricting access to abortion after 15 weeks into a pregnancy... something they didn't want to call a ban.
“The takeaway should be that when abortion rights are in the ballot reproductive freedom wins. We saw time after time that republicans try to deceive voters but voters were not fooled.” Said Virginia Planned Parenthood’s Executive Director Jamie Lockhart.
Nearing the end of the night Virginia Democrats were able to claim both chambers of the legislative bodies. House Leader Don Scott took the stage to announce victory. Michael Feggans won the 51st seat in the House for Democrats. Feggans defeated incumbent Delegate Karen Greenhalgh who earlier this year carried an unsuccessful bill that would have banned trans students from competing in school sports.
“Voters care about kitchen table issues, using trans folks as wedge issue is hopefully going to continue to be less and less effective.” Says Bo Belotti of Dirty South Trans Radicals. “I look forward to seeing what Michael Feggans will contribute to the commonwealth. He reached out me and other trans activists early in the race to confirm his support of trans rights.”
The margins of victory were extremely thin for the Democrats. Attacking the rights of transgender students in the Commonwealth of Virginia might have been the law straw need for the last seat picked up.
Two high profiles bills targeting transgender students that passed out of the House of Delegates this year where Greenhalgh’s bill and Delegate Dave LaRock’s bill that would have required schools to out transgender students to their parents. Both bills died in Senate committees. LaRock failed to secure a victory in his primary race to win a seat in the Senate. His Republican opponent did easily win a seat in the Senate on Tuesday.
One Delegate that did win her race in the Senate was Danica Roem. The Senator-elect will be the first openly transgender Senator in Virginia. She voiced strong opposition to both bills from LaRock and Greenhalgh. She was able to stump LaRock on the House floor about his own bill and demonstrate that Greenhalgh’s bill would require public universities forfeit sports games to private colleges.
Conservative attacks on transgender rights have lost traction that once existed in 2021 when the Daily Wire and similar publications falsely attributed sexual assaults at Loudoun County public schools to transgender students.
In smaller elections, it was really bad for the right-wing ideologues as many of the relative higher profile candidates lost. Kirk Twigg from Spotsylvania County who was featured in an AP story about a toxic environment on the school board lost his seat. Transphobe fearmonger Darren Post from Gloucester who spent over $100,000 in campaigning lost nearly 2 to 1, Megan Bryce the daughter of late Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia lost in Albemarle. The 3 candidates affiliated with Moms for Liberty that were mentioned in a Rolling Stone article were losers on Tuesday.