Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gushed about eliminating what he described as “gender ideology” in schools throughout his state. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley dehumanized trans girls and women, saying they “don’t belong in locker rooms of any of our girls.” And entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — a fringy political newcomer who has floated 9/11 conspiracy theories — effectively erased non-binary people when he insisted that there are only “two genders.”
Hosted by Fox News, the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election season was rowdy and contentious — even without former President Donald Trump — as candidates touched on topics like abortion, border security, taxes, the war in Ukraine, and competition with China. Questions in the second half of the two-hour affair prompted candidates to go after trans rights — and they did so almost exclusively in the context of education. Many candidates even called to do away with the Department of Education.
