I would say this is actually an ironically encouraging sign that we are lurching in a good direction. There’s always going to be some level of racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc., but those things are mainstream enough that you have to be really hard right to beat the drum for them.

And yet here we are and they do. Do you remember how the term “Groomer” appeared? It was the DeSantis administration justifying the “Don’t say Gay” bill. That was a bill that, sure, mentioned gender dysphoria in passing, but it was primarily aimed at gay people.

I don’t see any evidence at all the Republicans have become less racist or less homophobic. Racism seems no better, maybe worse, than it was in 2008, and as the mainstream Republican establishment has declined, the party seems to have given in to the homophobic grassroots.

None of which really explains though why they’ve gone from merely laughing at transpeople to turning them into villains, while continuing to demonize the groups they’ve always done. Perhaps, far from transpeople being the only ones left, they’ve realized they can get away with scapegoating more groups than they previously have done.