Estimates by the Williams Institute place the percentage of transgender people at 0.6%, which is about a half a percent or 1 in every 200 people or so. I don't know about you, but I don't see anywhere near 200 people a week.
Conservatives have been worried about transgender women playing women's sports. It's good that they're concerned about women's sports, but this a non-issue. NCAA President Charlie Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, estimated that there are fewer than ten transgender athletes in the NCAA. In 2022, Politico reported that there were only four transgender athletes competing in high school sports out of 85,000. Only one of the four competed in women's sports.
Regardless of which side you're on, the question of transgender athletes is really only an issue for the tiniest fraction of Americans. The issue really only comes down to: is it fair one way or another? There are much bigger issues that the vast majority of Americans need to focus on.
Conservatives are also worried about transgender women going into women's bathrooms. They see it as a safety issue. Of course, bad people don't need permission to do bad things. But let's look at the issue of violence and transgender people. While transgender people are not more likely to commit crimes, they are four times more like to be victims, according to the Williams Institute. According to Congress, the murder rate of transgender people has doubled in the last four years. So it's far more likely that the transgender woman in the bathroom will be a victim of a crime than will commit one.
While I wish we all had more compassion for one another, the reality is, for over 99% of Americans, the transgender issue doesn't impact them. It's a fear-mongering diversion tactic to avert our attention when the cap on our prescription medicine costs are lifted and our access to affordable disease therapy is removed.
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