Hobbs, Gallego, and Third Way Aim to Strike Middle Ground on Transgender Policy

In the final weeks of the 2024 Election, many Democratic operatives including former President Bill Clinton warned the Harris/Walz Campaign that a Trump/Vance aligned Campaign Ad, airing during Football broadcasts on Sundays, targeting the former Vice Presidents support for transgender individuals (based in part on a policy carried out during Trump’s first term) and groups at the expense of everyone else, could have an adverse impact on the tickets voter turnout efforts.

In an election that Harris lost by about a million and a half votes across the country, her Super Pac, Future Forward in post election polling, found that 2.7 million votes shifted away from the former Vice President as a result of that ad.

Polling from Blueprint showed this issue as the third most negative impression of the Harris/Walz Campaign behind inflation and immigration.

That voters did not see, based on his track record, Trump’s lies on all these issues and more, is a sad indictment on them and the lack of accurate information they had before they voted.

Other polls found the negative effect on the Harris/Walz Campaign was negligible but in an election where the Blue Wall States fell to Trump by small amounts, every vote counts.

However, like George W. Bush and Karl Rove made a politically calculated stink about same sex marriages to shift votes away from John Kerry in 2004, Donald Trump and his MAGA White Male Nationalist Evangelical braintrust of charlatans did the same thing to Kamala Harris by making innocent people in the transgender community, including children, the other or boogeymen to be ruthlessly stigmatized.

Politically, some Democrats, like Bill Clinton with his Sister Souljah moment in 1992 and Barack Obama with his embrace of civil unions in 2008, are looking for middle ground to peel off reasonable people who may have, in their minds, legitimate concerns about the transgender community and come up with a centrist policy position to steer them and the country towards with the final goal of displacing the issue, like what happened on the issue of same sex marriage, in the long term.

In a recent article for Politico, Third Way’s Co-Founder and President, Jonathan Cowan has offered a centrist approach to how to address Transgender policy.

Citing polls from Pew that show most Americans do not favor transgender women participating in girls sports (66 percent) or transgender minors receiving gender affirming care (56 percent)while also supporting “protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces (56 percent,)” Cowan’s middle approach calls for:

• “Democrats should express their frustration and disgust with the ways extremists on both sides have weaponized the issue. Doing so will immediately signal to swing voters that they are trying to resolve, not exploit, the culture wars.”
• “…For Democrats to regain the support of centrist voters who deliver electoral victories, they must meet Americans where they are today, not where advocates might wish them to be, or where society may be headed in the future.”
• “Without explicit parental consent, no one (under the age of 18) should ever receive gender-affirming care, whether that’s medication or any other medical intervention beyond mental health support.”
• “Transgender girls and women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports at the level of high school or above in ways that compromise safety or fairness. But these should not be decisions for politicians; instead, rules governing those activities should be made by sports associations and local school districts.”
• “Transgender adults should be accepted and included. They should be free to lead the lives they choose and have the same rights and opportunities, including to health care and employment, enjoyed by all Americans.”

Cowan noted in his sources that the public today generally support common sense policies including:

• Prosecuting criminals for hate crimes they commit against members of the transgender community.
• No employment discrimination against transgender individuals or groups.
• Requiring gender neutral bathrooms in all newly constructed public buildings.
• Banning conversion therapy for minors.
• Not banning books about the transgender community.
• Barring children under 18 from attending drag shows if they do not have parental consent.

Frankly, one can see the position on restricting minors from gender affirming care or attending drag shows without parental consent.

If children under 18 years old are not allowed to vote, drink, go to a strip club, and in some cases drive with an unrestricted license, it is not really rocket science to put restrictions on minors access to gender affirming care or attending drag shows without a parent or guardians consent.

Two of Arizonas leading Democrats, to the consternation of members of the LGBTQ Community, appear to have taken this middle of the road approach to transgender minors.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a champion for LGBTQ rights who has vetoed several Anti Trans discriminatory measures pushed forward by MAGA White Nationalist Republicans, signed a bill (HB2112)that would bar all children from accessing pornographic material.

In a word, duh.

However, critics of the Governors decision in the LGBTQ community, warned that, despite supporting Hobbs vetoes of bigoted bills against their group and measures that keep children away from pornography, this legislation was a “Trojan Horse” designed to implement MAGA Project 2025 Anti LGBTQ Goals because the new law could conceivably prohibit access to valid LGBTQ educational material.

Arizonas Junior Senator Ruben Gallego, who has Executive Branch ambitions, has, in a change of an earlier position, also come out calling for some transgender girl/woman athletes to choose alternative activities saying in an interview with The Dispatch:

“As a parent of a daughter, I think it’s legitimate that parents are worried about the safety of their daughters, and I think it’s legitimate for us to be worried also about fair competition…There are some sports that some of these trans children should not be playing…Hey, listen, we love you. We want you to be part of our community, but this is just the one place you can’t play, and let’s find other activities for you to be involved.”

Gallego also said that the decision on what sports transgender girls/women should be allowed to participate should be made at the local/community level.

LGBTQ Advocates that helped carry Senator Gallego to victory in 2024 like Jeanne Woodbury, commented to AZ Family that:

“Seeing him take that win on the back of a lot of efforts of progressive organizers and immediately turn around and start throwing trans kids under the bus is a real stab in the back I think for the people who got him elected…Real strength that voters want to see is people who stick to their values. If you say one thing to get elected and you say another thing after you get elected, that shows you’re not trustworthy.”

Commenting on Senator Gallego’s position, Third Way Communications Director Kate deGruyter, commented to Blog of Arizona:

“Senator Gallego is among those in the party who understands that Democrats must respect the values and views of Americans and create space for them in our coalition on both economic and cultural issues. He’s shown real leadership in calling out the extremes on our side and demonstrating we can hold true to our principles and engage with voters who have a variety of perspectives not this conversation, but also on immigration, building wealth, and preserving the American dream.”

Responding to the Cowan piece and Senator Gallego’s position transformation on transgender athletes, Arizona Democratic House Leader Oscar De Los Santos commented to Blog for Arizona:

“Right-wing billionaires are dividing us against one another and scapegoating the LGBTQ community to distract us from the fact that they’re robbing us blind, cutting Medicaid, and attacking Social Security. 

We shouldn’t fall for their tricks. Trans people aren’t the reason housing prices are through the roof: corporate greed and political corruption are. All of us—no matter our race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion—are in the fight against corporate greed together. 

Dangerous rhetoric that scapegoats trans people leads to real violence—including hate crimes and murders. We should reject dangerous narratives that put people’s lives and safety at risk.”

Leader De Los Santos is right. The Reactionary Extremist White Male Nationalist Evangelical back to the bigoted Gilded Age members of MAGA, like the Nazis in the 1920’s and 30’s, are using minority groups like members of the LGBTQ Community and immigrants, as scapegoats and diversions to cover up their failures in economic and social justice policies.

Jonathan Cowan is also right.

Democrats need the center to win elections, especially in the battleground states, and make policy that will protect and lift everyone.

Democrats can not make policy if they do not win.

Like Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008, furthering LGBTQ rights in the long run will be accomplished by formulating center-left pragmatic progressive policies that appeals to what people already support in large numbers to help better inform voters, win elections, build legislation based on that support, and fully codify those rights into law.