Know Your Enemy20 Maalis 2022

The Anti-Trans Agenda (w/ Gillian Branstetter)

Matt and Sam talk to Gillian Branstetter, press secretary for the National Women’s Law Center, about the spate of anti-trans laws sweeping the country: What do these interventions do? Who is pushing them? And why?

The American right has long been invested in policing gender boundaries, but its fixation on trans people — and trans children, in particular — has become more acute in recent years. Over 100 anti-trans state-level measures have been passed this legislative session alone, including athletics bans, curriculum/book bans, religious refusal laws, and bans on access to health care. Perhaps most alarmingly, states like Texas are instituting policies that equate gender-affirming care with child abuse, terrorizing trans kids and their families. With Gillian's help, we explore the conservative forces behind these bills and reveal the ideological fixations, misapprehensions, and contradictions driving this panic. It's a difficult but necessary conversation.

If you'd like to help fight the right's anti-trans onslaught, consider donating to The Trans Justice Funding Project.

Further Reading:

J David Goodman, "How Medical Care for Trans Youth Became ‘Child Abuse’ In Texas," NY Times, March 11, 2022

Melissa Gira Grant, "The Groups Pushing Anti-Trans Laws Want to Divide the LGBTQ Movement," The New Republic, Feb 17, 2022.

Jeremy W Peters, "A Conservative Push to Make Trans Kids and School Sports the Next Battleground," NY Times, Nov 3, 2019.

Judith Butler, "Why Is the Idea of ‘Gender’ Provoking Backlash the World Over?" The Guardian, Oct 23, 2021.

Jules Gill-Peterson "The Anti-Trans Lobby’s Real Agenda," Jewish Currents, Apr 27, 2021.

— Histories of the Transgender Child, UM Press, 2018.

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(267)

How Republics End (w/ Mike Duncan) [Unlocked]

This episode from January 2025 has been un-paywalled for your summer enjoyment...A stock rhetorical trope on the right is to invoke ancient Rome when talking about American decline—often making direct...

18 Heinä 20251h 15min

Zohran! (w/ Waleed Shahid) [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.We don't do too many New York City-focused episodes on Know Your Enemy, but Zohran Mamdani's decisive win in the ...

11 Heinä 20253min

A Complicated Man: William F. Buckley, Jr. (w/ Sam Tanenhaus)

This episode is one that Matt and Sam have been anticipating for years: after two-and-a-half decades of research and writing, Sam Tanehaus's authoritative biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.—youthful...

4 Heinä 20251h 52min

MAGA's War Over the War with Iran (w/ Curt Mills) [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Donald Trump's rise in U.S. politics over the past decade has been inextricable from his "America First" foreign ...

27 Kesä 20253min

Immigration Showdown in LA (w/ E. Tammy Kim) [TEASER]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Journalist Tammy Kim joins the pod to talk about the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles — and the raids that precip...

23 Kesä 20255min

Reagan, the Movie (w/ Jesse Brenneman) [UNLOCKED]

As the world falls apart — and we prep for our Buckley mega-episode with Sam Tanenhaus — we're unlocking this fun episode from late last year. Subscribe at Patreon.com/knowyourenemy to never miss an e...

12 Kesä 20251h 22min

Joe Biden's Betrayal [TEASER]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.If you pay any attention at all to political news, it's been hard to avoid Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's recent...

7 Kesä 20253min

Christopher Caldwell's Case Against Civil Rights

Attentive listeners will notice that this episode is about a book but isn't an author interview. That's because it's the first in a new occasional series of episodes that will be dedicated to books by...

2 Kesä 20251h 28min