As I mentioned in the post above, the Trump regime's war on the existence of trans people is clearly important enough to them ideologically and politically, to enact a series of punishments on the entire state of Maine, to cow their governor Janet Mills into submission. That's not just my interpretation as a trans woman, we literally just caught the acting Social Security Administration Commissioner admitting as much in writing:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/leland-dudek-resign
"The top Democrat on the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Wednesday led calls for the resignation of acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek following the revelation of internal emails confirming that the SSA canceled contracts with the state of Maine as political payback after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills publicly defied President Donald Trump in support of transgender student athletes.
The emails—which were obtained by House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)—show that Dudek ordered the cancellation of enumeration at birth and electronic death registration contracts with Maine, even though SSAd subordinates warned that such action "would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft."
Dudek—who is leading the SSA while the Senate considers Trump's nomination of financial services executive Frank Bisignano—replied to the staffer: "Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child."
He was referring to Mills, who stood up to Trump in February after the president threatened to suspend federal funding for Maine unless the state banned transgender girls and women from participating on female scholastic sports teams."
I mean good on Connolly to call for Dudek's resignation, but are centrist party strategists even paying attention to what's going on here? I can't stress how degrading it is to keep having to remind powerful cis people who were happy to promote supporting trans rights as a brand eight years ago, that the fascist Trump regime's anti-trans pogrom is going to affect everyone who isn't a fascist negatively, not just trans people. But also, that's exactly what's happening, and even as we speak these same people point to opinion polling as an excuse for leaving trans people and their civil rights to the tender mercies of guys like Stephen fucking Miller.
