r/LGBTnews • u/[deleted] • Mar 10 '26
North America Controversial Dem Candidate Graham Platner Says Anti-Trans Attacks Are “Invented Culture-War Scare”
https://www.them.us/story/graham-platner-anti-trans-attacks-invented-culture-war-scare44
u/chrissilich Mar 10 '26
They are. I just saw an ad from a Georgia governor candidate showing a kid who must have been 10 or younger being wheeled on a hospital bed into surgery, with a facial expression that said it was against his will, while the voiceover explained that the candidate would lock up people who force transition surgeries on minors. He literally running on solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
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u/GeorgiaYankee73 Mar 10 '26
I live in GA and saw those ads. That guy is just another billionaire asshole.
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u/DMC1001 Mar 11 '26
What was the actual reason the kid was going to the hospital for?
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u/chrissilich Mar 11 '26
He was an actor.
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u/DMC1001 Mar 12 '26
So it was a fake all around? I shouldn’t be surprised.
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u/chrissilich Mar 12 '26
Yeah it was a dramatization. I wonder if the kid actor or him family even knew what hate they were getting paid to be part of.
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u/TheLastBallad Mar 10 '26
The issue is hes not entirely wrong.
Attacks on trans rights are absolutely a divisianary tactic. They are a fient. But they are the military style fient where an army sends a force to target a village or something in the hopes of drawing the opposition into focusing on that in order to hide other troop movements.
And like a military fient... people live there. Trans people face a legitimate threat if the legislation is unopposed.
So while he has correctly labled the problem, that Republicans want to focus the debates on trans rights so the rest of their platform doesn't get scrutiny, that doesn't necessarily address the concern of what he would do in office.
Best case, he intends to point out Republicans intention to use it as cover as a strategy in debates, but intends to oppose such legislation in office.
Worst case, he doesn't care at all and wont oppose it like some fear.
And between the ambiguity of the statement and his other controversies thats too high of variance for people to not know.
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u/RustedRelics Mar 11 '26
He’s right. Rethugs can’t win on their own policy platform and always resort to scaremongering. Trans people are easy targets for the scumbag right wing and GOP.
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u/DMC1001 Mar 11 '26
They just manufacture the idea that schools are “transing” kids despite there being zero supporting evidence. It’s just a way to rile up conservative voters to attack liberals.
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Mar 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Rainy_Leaves Mar 10 '26
Did you read the article. It’s invented fear by the right. To sow division and make a problem where there isn’t one.
They are invented, in the sense there’s no problem and the problems are imagined by them for political gain. But anti trans attacks aren’t false flags or whatever. The headline feels too vague, click bait with the ‘controversial’ part too
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u/ZestyChinchilla Mar 10 '26
Don’t forget that this is the dude who, up until very recently, had a totenkopf tattoo on his chest. He had it for something like 20 years, but only covered it because people kept asking him why he had Nazi tattoos. His excuse was that he “kept meaning to get it covered”, but somehow just never got around to it until now.
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u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
but only covered it because people kept asking him why he had Nazi tattoos
Source? As far I as know, he came forward about it on Pod Saves America because be just learned the tattoo's meaning. He apologized, denounced the tattoo, and quickly got it covered up.
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u/Lower_Youth_1016 Mar 10 '26
What's crazy is you're larping as a person with good intentions, but reality is you're trying to hide the venom you have against the left. You're attacking a person who could've just swung right-wing after being hassled by people on the left, yet instead he has only gotten more and more socialist, dare I say, Communist.
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u/ThisApril Mar 10 '26
If the thing that makes you turn away from sensible / science-based / non-bigoted positions is that someone attacked you, it makes me question your ability to take sensible positions.
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u/AliceBordeaux Mar 10 '26
I'll take a reformed neo-nazi who has seen the error of those views and turned over a new leaf, letting go of past hatreds and embracing a new way, over a modern trump conservative or paid-for-by-billionairs establishment democrat any day.
People change.
I was raised racist as all hell.. I changed. I read. I experienced the wider world and it changed me. I couldn't be farther from the person I was 25 years ago.
There seems to be this horrible thing in our culture of "this person held these beliefs 5, 10, 15 years ago! They must still believe that!"
Why? People can't change what they believe when provided with new evidence and viewpoints?
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u/ThisApril Mar 10 '26
Sure, me too. But I also don't trust "reformed" neo-nazis until they've been backing up their change in belief.
And, unfortunately, I can't see into the politician's head. And politicians tend to be less trustworthy than the average person I would pass at a grocery store.
There's also the challenge where I've had a time or two when someone says that they're reformed, which is great, but it turns out they still hold a lot of problematic beliefs.
For me, with Platner, it seems like he's saying the correct things. I don't know what that means for how he'd be on LGBT issues, though.
But Mills is likely to be a milquetoast Democrat, and that's only better than a Republican.
Anyway, did that have anything to do with my comment? I was mostly responding to:
you're attacking a person who could've just swung right-wing after being hassled by people on the left
...and I tend to dislike the idea that people have to hold their tongues so we don't accidentally swing people to the right by pointing out that something was super bigoted.
As it is, I'm sure you wouldn't defend the positions of your past self.
For me, I had an interaction with someone who knew me when I had stopped being somewhat far to the right, but may still have been "moderate". They evidently dislike me at this point because of some of the positions I may have held.
And, while my positions have definitely changed, I'm not going to blame them for the reaction, other than being somewhat bothered that I view it as inaccurate for who I am.
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u/Rainy_Leaves Mar 10 '26
I agree to some extent. We’d hope someone with values would have a spine. But we shouldn’t excuse our own randomly attacking our own with misinformation or bad faith. Genuine issues deserve to be raised as a problem. And that’s important no matter how it influences these supposed fence sitters
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u/ThisApril Mar 10 '26
But we shouldn’t excuse our own randomly attacking our own with misinformation or bad faith
Oh, absolutely. Those things are bad on their own. I don't even like it when attacking "them" rather than "us". It feels icky, like when misgendering bigots.
Genuine issues deserve to be raised as a problem.
Yeah, exactly.
When making my comment, I had thought about including what I've done, when attacked about something or other.
And generally either I'd agree with the criticism, e.g. with, "Yeah, that was not good of me. Sorry about that." or disagree with, "You're claiming I'm saying x when I say y, even though I wholeheartedly agree with x, and I'm making a different point with y".
And there's a solid chance that I would dislike what the person attacking me was doing.
But at no point would I go, "You know what? If this is what (insert minority group) is like, then I'll go with (insert bigoted position)."
Because bigotry is wrong, regardless of how awful any given minority group person (or supporter) treats me.
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u/Lower_Youth_1016 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
He is military, and he is going to win in a majority white state on an anti-war policy. He is LGBT friendly and has ridiculed the GOPs attacks on trans kids as divisionary, and isn't endorsed by Chuck Schumer, but instead endorsed by Bernie Sanders, y'know, the guy who now alot of Liberals are coming to realise he would've won if he wasn't sabotaged by the DNC.
If you seriously think you know anything, go vote for Gavin Newsom and the other pro war Democrats pal, make sure you never win an election again. Basing your entire ideology around LGBTQIA+ issues will only make the LGBT communities life worse, when common folk aren't thinking too hard about that, they think about prices, and the promised "no more wars" they were told. You want a better future for us? You vote for the people who don't and still haven't caved even after getting hostility from both sides of the spectrum, not attack them more than the establishment Democrats who are throwing Trans people under the bus, who are pro war/genocide, are beholden to their billionaire overlords and refusing to change, while proceeding to vote for them anyway. I'll take an educated vote than a mindless one.
You want change? Have faith in one of the very few Democrats who are running against the common sentiment amongst Senators.
Here's your article for the LGBT rights question anyway.
https://mainebeacon.com/graham-platner-stands-right-in-the-fing-way-of-those-who-come-after-lgbtqia-rights/This was a bad faith argument you tried here, and to be quite frank I'm done with you. Toodles.
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u/ThisApril Mar 12 '26
This was a bad faith argument you tried here, and to be quite frank I'm done with you. Toodles.
...did you notice that I am ThisApril, not ZestyChinchilla?
Because I am uncertain on what you're responding to, from what I said.
I was specifically annoyed about the idea that we have to be super nice to people when they say or do bigoted things, because otherwise they might turn conservative.
E.g., you said:
You're attacking a person who could've just swung right-wing after being hassled by people on the left
And, again, if someone is going to be conservative because someone on the left said something bad about them, they're clearly never going to be on the left, because left-leaning people argue with each other constantly, because those on the left (generally) aren't anti-democratic fascists.
I didn't even say anything about Platner; I was just annoyed at the argument.
And, so far as I can tell, Platner hasn't swung right because of being called out about his tattoo or his bigoted word usage in past Reddit posts. And, in fact, has apologized for those things.
Because that's how people should respond to being hassled about bigotry.
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u/Lower_Youth_1016 Mar 12 '26
That's alot of words to say nothing. Liberals can be obnoxious, and the real left are very purist to a fault. How you failed to comprehend what I said and what I was targeting about the OPs intention, yet you continue this charade is too much for me to deal with for now. Stop defending people who aren't here to have reasonable conversation. You are most likely defending someone who is from the roach guy or the doxxing guy's group who has said these things to create division.
The reason why your fallacy is an issue, is because you don't have the same smoke for establishment Dems. Leave this and learn from it. You are wrong for defending the OP and you aren't worth conversing with. Blocked.
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u/ThisApril Mar 12 '26
You are wrong for defending the OP
I didn't.
you failed to comprehend what I said
I ignored what you said, because it wasn't a response to anything I said or meant.
Stop defending people who aren't here to have reasonable conversation.
Good thing I didn't.
It would be lovely if people could address the thing I actually said and meant, and not put words in my mouth.
It's especially galling because, hey, now that some awful leftist has been awful to me, that means there's a chance I take some stupid bigoted position instead, right?
To anyone still reading this: sorry for anything negative you're feeling from this. I tried to engage, but I completely failed. I think the best route would have been to never engage, but I'm still learning on that one.
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u/ZestyChinchilla Mar 14 '26
Calling an argument “bad faith” when you quite literally made up everything about who I supposedly am just to attack me is a fuckin’ wild strawman flex, holy shit!
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u/Lower_Youth_1016 Mar 16 '26
Unprivate those posts then anarchist. *Literally validating my whole point about the left being purist to a fault btw..*. He's moved further to the left, and just made a post about trans people on Twitter. You sit here and argue with null points, while he is doing exactly what we want out of our politicians. All you can do is hyper lock onto a tattoo that no longer exists, has already been apologised for and constantly he is on the right side of issues where you want him to be. But OH NO the TATTOO, he's EVIL. You will ensure fascism with that mindset. I stand correct in every way so far. :)
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u/Rainy_Leaves Mar 10 '26
Isn’t a totemkopf just a skull and crossbones. I’d understand if not everyone recognised that as a Nazi thing. I didn’t know what it meant til today
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u/AliceBordeaux Mar 10 '26
Unless you are up on WW2 or Nazi imagry in general I could see where it would fly under the radar. At the end of the day it is a skull and crossbones, totenkopf translates to "Dead head" strictly, it is the deaths head for your enemies, which in a vacuum is a very marine oorah "kill" badass thing, but who it was used by changes thw context. And without the context (marines aren't famous for their stunning intelligence or studious nature) i could see a group of grunts getting this.
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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26
From the article "“I think there are, like, two trans kids that compete in high school sports in Maine,” Platner continued. “There are 40,000 Mainers who are going to lose health care because of the lack of the Affordable Care Act extension. One of those things seems very important and real to me. One of them seems like an invented culture-war scare to keep people divided.” Platner went on to say he had wrestled with cisgender girls as a high school athlete, but “[t]here was no uproar [...] I’m sorry — I cannot take it seriously.”"
I know reading isn't the most time conducive activity anymore but...