Beyond “Wedge Issues”

Donald Trump became President once again yesterday, and among his first orders of business was the restriction of transgender rights. If you’re somebody like me who is friends with several transgender people, you might find this action to be a grim awakening for what they — and possibly any other members of the LGBT community — might have to deal with for the next four years. However, if you are a political commentator in the mainstream media, you likely just view this as nothing more than a “wedge issue.” Here are Michael D. Shear and Michael Gold describing what Trump thinks of trans people and their rights in The New York Times on 1/18/2025, for example:

Mr. Trump and his advisers used transgender rights as a cultural wedge in the hopes of appealing to suburban voters who are turned off by the practice of transition, especially among young people. He repeatedly vowed to prohibit transition from one gender to another but was vague about what federal powers he would use to effect that ban.

The sentence here is worth parsing if only because it reveals what those behind this article actually think of transgender people. Their rights — mentioned only in abstract — are “a cultural wedge” discussed “in hopes of appealing to suburban voters.” Of course, why suburban voters — or any group of voters, for that matter — would take issue with transgender people having rights is left unsaid.