Can someone explain to me how my state got everything else right for the most part but went stupid for this one?
Literally, let’s inspect little girls privates, but not boys, because 10 trans students exist and MIGHT want to play sports with their friends? Jesus.
It was also kind of disgusting that literally all our state initiatives were funded by a 1%-er, Brian Heywood and his Let’s Go Washingtion PAC.
If that’s an actual question, my guess at an answer is that since this election’s blue wave was more voting against Republicans than for Democrats, it’s not a sign of fundamental change among the electorate. People mostly still believe today what they believed a few years ago (though there’s clear leftward shift), and one of the few genuinely popular things Republicans have is their anti-trans agenda. Therefore when typically Republican-leaning people got to vote on it, they voted against Republicans and simultaneously against trans rights. This is doubly so because trans women in sports is one issue where Republicans can actually make a seemingly rational (but wrong) argument for their case.
Some things lag in politics. Trans kids in sports are the new boogeyman so most people have a hard time accepting the premise. If trans kids are going to be excluded we at least need to focus on education and general acceptance. When I was in high school pretty much nobody was openly gay although I like to think we wouldn’t have treated them like lepers (probably would have). Meeting LGBTQ people in college was common though and a lot of us got over our fears and misconceptions. I’ve met maybe 3-4 trans people in my entire life but in actuality it was probably more because they didn’t feel safe to present as the opposite gender. Unfortunately I think it will take time to get over the initial shock and the best we can do is to try and defend their right to self-determination and encourage them to be who they are so everyone can see this is really no big deal.
Also from a purely propaganda point it’s a great wedge issue, mostly because it’s what I like to call a grey water issue wherein theres a lot of nuance involved so it makes people stupid. Ideally people would stop being stupid and handle this based on an instance by instance basis especially since there are so few trans folks to begin with.
Mind you I know enough about biology to know that it’s a rainbow of fucken grey, because biology abhors easy answers. There’s no such thing as a perfect specimen only a type specimen and even that’s ignoring a lot of variation.