Sorry, liberals: Josh Hawley is delighted a Berkeley professor called him transphobic

Let’s deal with the facts first: Transgender and nonbinary people — those who don’t identify strictly as male or female — exist. Some of them have healthy uteruses and ovaries and are capable of becoming pregnant. Sexologists have scientifically documented this for decades, and society is only slowly waking up to that reality.

That’s the backdrop to the Very Online drama after a contentious exchange between Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and University of California at Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Tuesday. With faux naivete, Hawley demanded that she define the term “people with a capacity for pregnancy,” asking whether abortion should be considered a women’s rights issue. Undaunted, Bridges condescended right back, “We can recognize this impacts women while also recognizing it affects other groups,” and noted — correctly — that his line of questioning was transphobic.

All Missourians should be embarrassed by their U.S. senator’s undisguised contempt for an American testifying before a committee he sits on. But we need to be clear about what’s really at play here. Republicans are all too happy to sit back and smile every time the left traps itself in a circular firing squad of radical inclusivity and complicated terminology. And Hawley has no problem scoring political points on the backs of a tiny sliver of an already tiny number of people who are already viciously discriminated against and at exceptionally high risk of suicide. That it happened with a liberal woman of color from California doesn’t hurt his case, either.

So to their target audiences, sure, both Hawley and Bridges dunked on the other. And Bridges deserves credit for remaining cool and making sure facts were inserted into the congressional record. It’s clear which side history will vindicate.

But Twitter isn’t real life, and no minds were changed. It’s just another reminder that in GOP politics, 2022 edition, one of the most maligned, misunderstood and vulnerable minorities among us remains a prime target.

This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 1:45 PM.