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Editors note: This story has descriptions and clips of anti-trans ads, and could be difficult to watch for transgender people.
If you think you are seeing more anti-trans advertisements than usual, you are not alone. This week, a new round of anti-trans attack ads is blanketing the airwaves, reaching audiences of millions of people across the United States. The wave appears driven by Elon Musk’s America PAC, and the latest ad spend appears to have launched on Sept. 14. They target Democrats in swing states, accusing them of supporting “men in women’s sports” or wanting “your daughter to share a bathroom with a man,” and their purpose appears to be to elicit disgust against transgender people and drive voters motivated by that disgust to the Republican candidate. Meanwhile, some Democrats are struggling to respond, with some conceding the point to Republicans in their own ads and statements while other Democrats respond forcefully against the premise in the ads.
One attack ad from America PAC targets Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, James Talarico, in Texas. The ad is being broadcast to over 1 million people on Meta’s ad platform, and opens with “Texas knows bull**** when we see it. James Talarico believes there are six genders. He voted to spend our tax dollars on sex change surgeries for kids. Let’s stop this bull****.”
One set of ads targets Ohio Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. “Two years ago, Ohio parents gave Sherrod Brown the thumbs down,” it says. “Why? Because Sherrod Brown supported taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids. New election, same Sherrod Brown. Let’s defeat this woke liberal again.”
Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska, is also the target of anti-trans attack ads. One ad raises fears that transgender people might hurt your kids in bathrooms. It opens with a woman’s voice, sounding fearful: “Would you want your daughter sharing a bathroom with a biological man?” The narrator continues: “Mary Peltola co-sponsored legislation that would require it. We must protect our daughters from this radical left lunatic. Vote this November to stop Mary Peltola.”
Another Democrat targeted by anti-transgender ads this week is Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, who has rather forcefully supported transgender rights even in the wake of the attacks. The ad clips a Fox News interview with El-Sayed, who, after being asked about his support for gender-affirming care, retorts by asking whether host Jesse Watters is circumcised, then says, “You probably should move on.”
Ads have also targeted other Democrats, such as Josh Turek and Sarah Trone Garriott in Iowa. Both have already tried to distance themselves from transgender people in response. Turek’s campaign told The New York Times that he opposes “taxpayer-funded sex changes,” which would presumably include Medicaid and Medicare. Meanwhile, Trone Garriott released an ad of her own stating that she opposes “letting men in women’s locker rooms.”
You can see the full ad spend from America Pac in Meta’s ad library here.
This week’s ad spend is largely driven by America PAC, which has dropped $100 million on anti-transgender ads targeting Democrats. “The PAC’s emphasis on trans issues is striking because that’s been a much less prominent theme in GOP Senate ads so far this election cycle, per AdImpact, which tracks political advertising,” Axios’s Mike Zapler reports. “On its face, the strategy is at odds with what voters say they want candidates to talk about. Concerns about the economy dominate; trans and LGBT issues barely register.”
Zapler’s point is correct. Anti-trans ads may scare Democratic candidates, but among the general public, polls consistently show that voters rank transgender issues among the lowest-priority issues they care about and vote on, with less than 1% of respondents naming “wokeness/transgender issues” as a top issue. Regardless of the public’s specific views on topics such as transgender people’s access to bathrooms or gender-affirming care for transgender youth, voters decide their ballots far more on issues such as housing affordability, gas prices, and jobs. Democrats who decide to capitulate on transgender issues in response to these ads, as some have, risk alienating their progressive base while gaining nothing from Republicans, who will simply move on to hitting them on another trans-related issue.
Nevertheless, anti-transgender advertisements will saturate the airwaves for the next two months as the election draws near. For transgender people, that means constant exposure to hateful messaging, running alongside the evening news and football and appearing on the internet without warning. These ads do incredible damage to unsuspecting viewers. They paint transgender people as predatory and disgusting to a national audience in a cheap attempt to win votes, and every viewing raises the temperature of the hate and abuse directed at a community that is already a target. Meanwhile, Democrats face a decision point of their own: capitulate and lend these ads credibility, or defend the transgender constituents being used as bait. So far, in some of the states Musk is targeting, they have chosen the former, and the ads have not stopped.
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