US elects trans person

[maryjane48]

https://globalnews.ca/news/3849421/dani ... -virginia/

[MCB]

...yay?

[RupertBear]

Congratulations to Danica Roem. The voters obviously elected the candidate that brought the best ideas to the table.

[Verum]

Sometimes the best man for a job is a woman

[GordonH]

I'm probably going to get a bunch of feedback on this one.
I never vote for someone based on gender, physical appearance etc.... etc
I place my X on a ballot based on what person says, how they say it. What they want to do once they get to city hall, Victoria or Ottawa.
As well if I know they would be the best person out of those seeking my vote & the job.

[Verum]

I'm probably going to get a bunch of feedback on this one.
I never vote for someone based on gender, physical appearance etc.... etc
I place my X on a ballot based on what person says, how they say it. What they want to do once they get to city hall, Victoria or Ottawa.
As well if I know they would be the best person out of those seeking my vote & the job.

You would be unusual in that case. Most people are biased, consciously or not. There is lots of evidence that we prefer people who look like us, or share other traits, even when such has nothing to do with someone's ability to do a job.
http://conf.som.yale.edu/obsummer07/PaperBen-NerKramer.pdf
I gather that even when we know this, it still doesn't remove the bias, unfortunately. Roem had to overcome significant bias to have a chance of winning, so this is quite an achievement.

[techrtr]

Must drive Trump crazy especially since she beat the Republican incumbent (who apparently isn't too fond of transgendered people). Way to stick it to em!

[Glacier]

I voted Green last election because she was the best looking candidate running in the riding.

[christopher]

GEE in the middle of Dixie home of Robert E Lee, Home of the confederate flag, home of all the bigots and racists, that is what the media had said I guess they are not as backwards as the media was reporting what a surprise.

[Verum]

GEE in the middle of Dixie home of Robert E Lee, Home of the confederate flag, home of all the bigots and racists, that is what the media had said I guess they are not as backwards as the media was reporting what a surprise.

Maybe only 45% are bigoted, since that's the % who voted for Bob Marshall, an extremely bigoted, homophobic, transphobic, anti-choice, anti-contraception, dinosaur of a politician.

[Glacier]

That's just dishonest. People take many things into account when voting. You are NOT condoning everything the person does in their personal life nor their positions on everything. If you were, you'd NEVER vote for anyone since everyone holds views you don't like.

It's like the illogical folks who claim that a bunch of racists voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. People vote for many different reasons, and most important of all is political affiliation irregardless of policies. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... servatives

[christopher]

GEE in the middle of Dixie home of Robert E Lee, Home of the confederate flag, home of all the bigots and racists, that is what the media had said I guess they are not as backwards as the media was reporting what a surprise.

Maybe only 45% are bigoted, since that's the % who voted for Bob Marshall, an extremely bigoted, homophobic, transphobic, anti-choice, anti-contraception, dinosaur of a politician.

I have traveled the Southern States extensively maybe more like bigots 10% tops, homophobic, transphobic will be higher then most states but I can tell you it is a great place to visit full of wonderful people black and white.

[Verum]

That's just dishonest. People take many things into account when voting. You are NOT condoning everything the person does in their personal life nor their positions on everything. If you were, you'd NEVER vote for anyone since everyone holds views you don't like.

It's like the illogical folks who claim that a bunch of racists voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. People vote for many different reasons, and most important of all is political affiliation irregardless of policies. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... servatives

It's not dishonest at all. I never said that 45% were bigoted, only that maybe they were. It was an obviously absurd response to a similarly absurd statement. I would have thought that was obvious.

That said, if you support/vote for someone who is so clearly a bigot, you are essentially supporting such bigotry, even if it is the lesser of two evils in your mind. You don't get a bye on that just because you agree on transport policy or similar.

[Verum]

I have traveled the Southern States extensively maybe more like bigots 10% tops, homophobic, transphobic will be higher then most states but I can tell you it is a great place to visit full of wonderful people black and white.

I wouldn't be surprised at all. I actually don't think that these places are largely populated by raging bigots or similar. I would say that such attitudes do still have a lot of sway, especially in politics though, but as we see in our own province, even a few percent can have a very powerful effect on policy.

[Glacier]

It's not dishonest at all. I never said that 45% were bigoted, only that maybe they were. It was an obviously absurd response to a similarly absurd statement. I would have thought that was obvious.

That said, if you support/vote for someone who is so clearly a bigot, you are essentially supporting such bigotry, even if it is the lesser of two evils in your mind. You don't get a bye on that just because you agree on transport policy or similar.

You said that maybe 45% voted on a single issue. Maybe the moon landing was faked too. That's how ridiculously low the odds are of this being the case. I know many Americans, and I can say that even among Republican leaning ones, they couldn't care less for the most part as to what you do in your own bedroom.

In fact, I would say that being against gay marriage and LGBT rights is probably one of the most politically toxic positions you can take, even during republican primaries. You had a social conservative (Ted Cruz) running against a social liberal (Donald J. Trump), and Trump won out. MANY republicans did not like Cruz because he seemed to care about LGBT issues. The majority of voters would rather have a womanizing hedonist representing them than a moralizing prude.

Now, yes, I know that you had people like Caitlin Jenner and such who backed Cruz and you had socially conservative types who backed Trump, but generally speaking most Republicans didn't have a probably with supporting a candidate who supported gay rights 20 years before Hillary Clinton did. It's 2017, so gay rights is no longer an issue. You might gain a few votes by beating that dead horse, but you'll lose twice as many in the process. Americans are not homophobic.

In fact, a higher percentage of Americans support gay marriage than percentage of French and Germans do... https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... bl%2Fed%2F