Drawn before I left for last week’s convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in San Francisco, this cartoon should have, by all rights, been utterly out of date by today.
But never fear: the state legislature in Wisconsin has just joined the clamor of red state Republicans attacking transgender youth, filing bills to criminalize gender-affirming medical care, deciding for kids what pronouns they must use, and, of course, prohibiting transgender girls from participating in sports.
Rep. Barbara Dittrich [R-Oconomowoc], who authored AB 377, the anti-trans school sports bill which, by her own count, would apply to six kids throughout the state, explained in a hearing Wednesday that the issue is much bigger than that, because “63,000 females … participating in female sports don’t want to see a naked male with their penis hanging out in their locker room.”
While Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha), an author of the bill against medical care, disingenuously promised, “To any transgender individual who may be listening today…I want to say you matter and you contribute to the state of Wisconsin,” it was plain to see that these Republicans are telling everyone else "listening today" that transgender youth are a bunch of Chesters the Molesters, and so are their trusted medical professionals.
Three Democrats who have transgender family members, Rep. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), and Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), testified against the bills; and Governor Tony Evers has promised to veto them.
Despite their best gerrymandering, Republicans are just a vote or two short of a veto-proof majority in either house of Wisconsin's legislature. Yet this could be an issue where some Democrat might waver, intimidated by possible attack ads depicting him/her as Norman Bates attacking Marian Crane in the shower.
(If I start seeing a bunch of right-wing cartoons depicting exactly that, I swear I'm gonna draw your guy as Lars Thorwald!)
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