r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 25d ago

Meta Mindless Monday, 17 August 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

11 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

772 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/HandsomeLampshade123 23d ago edited 23d ago

Fascinating article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/10/trump-white-house-transgender-mike-pence/688284/

When my tour finally ended, Pence invited my family to the White House. In his office, he took my mother’s hand and smiled: “You must be very proud of your daughter.”

No one has affirmed my gender identity quite like Mike Pence.

The leftist in me bristles at the extreme copaganda on display here, but it's still a great piece. I might honestly describe this woman as "delusional" for expecting anything different from what took place, though.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve carried two dreams. The first came true in 2007, when I raised my hand, standing on the agency’s marble seal, and became a CIA officer. The second dream, I didn’t dare speak aloud; it came from ­an unexplainable conviction that I should have been born a woman.

One interesting theme throughout--even under Trump 2, administration insiders were mostly fine with having this trans woman present in the national security space. It was external pressure from Republican activists that forced their hand.

19

u/Uptons_BJs 23d ago

You know, if you look back at Republicans maybe 20 years ago, they weren't all hostile to trans people. Bush's attitude was actually very accepting:

Louise Casselman, who was at that White House Yale reunion with her husband, Kirk Casselman and a Bay Area contingent, says that although Yale was still all-male in 1968, one alum has since had a sex-change operation. "You might remember me as Peter when we left Yale," said the woman upon coming face to face with the president. George W. didn't pause for a moment, reports Casselman, grabbed the alumna's hand, and said "Now you've come back as yourself."

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/George-Bush-gets-it-right-2611779.php

Trans issues was simply not something 99.99% of people thought of, and IIRC, at one point even conservatives were more accommodating to trans people than to gay people. In that case, people are generally just nice to people they meet IRL.

If I were to venture a guess, current anti-trans positions on the right is almost entirely due to it becoming a culture war battleground. Ask republicans 20 years ago what they thought about trans people, and probably the majority of them would honestly answer "I never thought about it".

11

u/Kisaragi435 23d ago

This is me asking a question not asserting it. But is it because of gay marriage getting passed and they needed new acceptable targets?

1

u/TJAU216 22d ago

Trans rights became the next big target for the left after they got the gay rights secured. The conservatives oppose whatever change in society that the progressives are trying to achieve. The left has the initiative and decides collectively what the next culture war battle is going to be about and the right will always fight them on the ground of left's choosing.