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Over 20% of Gen Z is queer and out about it, and the numbers are rising every goddamned year.

Stop and think about that. *Twenty fucking percent*. One in five. And good data suggests that better than one in twenty Gen Zers are trans and out. And that group votes almost exclusively on the left.

Absolutely no political ANYTHING wins, long term, by attacking a demographic that votes as a bloc.

(2/?)

As time passes, the people who most oppose queer and trans rights are dying, and now they're dying fast. They're being replaced by people on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

And we have absolutely no reason to believe that trans and queer folks will ever go back into the closet.

(3/?)

There's a myth that people vote more conservatively as they age, and it's bullshit. There's some rightward drift as folks become wealthier, but in general for the last several centuries the median political position on everything has drifted slowly to the left.

And our current economic inequality is only exacerbating the leftwsrd tilt of young voters, who are wildly poorer than prior generations.

(4/?)

The net of all of this is that the right is facing a reality where identity politics are failing more by the year, and they really don't have anything else in the tank.

Either they win now and fundamentally change the system, or it's game over for them.

(5/?)

So, yes, while certain candidates pose an immediate, existential threat to us, if we can avoid them for even a little while longer, all the gerrymandering in the world can't save them. Really, worse than that--it'll suddenly snap back against them, driving them from power in unimaginable waves. Just look at what happened in the most recent UK elections for a really good example of what happens when the gerrymandering collapses.

(6/?)

So, yeah, if we can make it through the next few years, we have every reason to believe this demographic tidal wave is irreversible. The time to stop it, for the right, was back in like 2014.

Theyre a decade too late. Kairos.

And that's why I'm relentlessly optimistic about our future.

(7/7)

@Impossible_PhD I think it's also important to note that, when you look back through history, conservative movements are always trying to "get back to the good old days". While a few of those people have some sort of Nazi or white plantation fantasy, for most it's the "good old days" that they remember.

The number of people who remember a time when gay people weren't out and proud are rapidly dwindling. Same with trans people. We're out now and every new US voter who just turned 18 does not remember a time when trans people didn't exist in public life. As long as we stay out and proud, that is going to continue.

A few of them were so sheltered that they may not have known about trans people until they moved out of their parents house but it's a small number. (That's also why the right is so fascinated by homeschooling. It's a way to create new voters with their same regressive view of history.)