The Left’s Long History Of Transphobia

Trans discrimination isn’t an invention of the right wing. Liberals have been perfecting it for years.

The political left’s search for answers in the wake of Donald Trump’s election began almost immediately after the results were announced. One of the first targets was transgender people, a group that became the target of conservative ire once the Obergefell Supreme Court ruling came down and marriage equality became law of the land. At issue specifically are bathroom rights and whether trans people had the right to use the bathroom of their gender, like everyone else does. Everyone from Saturday Night Live to the New York Times to the Washington Post joined in, blaming Hillary Clinton’s loss on the fight for a safe place. A seemingly core human rights issue for Democrats had been abandoned in the blink of an eye.

The truth is, this is nothing new. There’s a long history of transphobia on the political left, ranging from general unease to outright calls for eradication through denial of transition care.

Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire: The Making of a She-Male came out in 1979. In the…