On Wednesday Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign did what it does most days, often multiple times a day: sent out an email with bold and capitalized text interspersed throughout, imploring his supporters to give money to his campaign.
But as the email railed against public school teachers talking about transgender people — calling it “socialist lies” — Hawley’s campaign may have done away with the gender binary entirely.
The email asks potential donors if they want to “keep Transgender Propaganda OUT of our classrooms today?” and then has two big red buttons to Hawley’s WinRed fundraising page.'
One button says “Yes — Keep transgender propaganda out.” The other? “No — Teach children there is more than one gender.”
The likely mistake garnered attention on social media Wednesday because Hawley has spent a lot of time lately railing that there are only two genders, as opposition to transgender rights has become a core issue for the Republican base.
He made a speech recently at the National Conservatism Conference where he talked about how America is the “heir to revolutionaries of the Bible.” They reject our history and our traditions,” Hawley said of the Democratic Party. “They say sex is merely a social construct. That men can get pregnant. That women can be men. That the nuclear family is a repressive institution.”
Hawley is not up for reelection until 2024. His campaign arm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Across the country, conservative lawmakers have launched efforts limiting the rights of transgender students, including attempts at passing legislation to prevent transgender students from participating in the school sports leagues that match their gender identity.
The Huffington Post recently reported that in states that recently passed such laws — Kentucky, South Dakota, Tennessee, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia — there were often at most one trans student looking to play a sport.
Still, Republicans have attempted to fold the issue into a larger argument about giving parents more say over what is taught in schools. In several school districts, parents have pushed to ban a number of books that mention LGBTQ identity.
In March, Florida passed a law prohibiting teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity between kindergarten and third grade and allowing parents to sue the school district if they don’t feel they are teaching age appropriate material.
Opponents of the Florida law say it creates a chilling effect, where teachers are unable to acknowledge if a student has an LGBTQ parent.
This isn’t the first time Hawley’s campaign has sent out a fundraising email criticizing the Democratic Party’s embrace of transgender rights. In an email earlier in September, it said America is in crisis because “no one even knows what a woman is.”
A July email said the Democratic Party was trying to change the definition of woman so it didn’t have any meaning.
