I see little to no evidence that this country has moved left over the past 30 years other than GWB's expansion of Medicare and Reagan's Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
What bar does the latter cross that the former does not?
The cost shifting due to EMTALA probably isn't real leftist either (I would expect a more leftist policy to share the costs more broadly, not just among those utilizing a hospital).
Don't assume the battle is won because you've captured a couple of cities and papers. The fact remains that the majority, at least in America, seem to be somewhat socially conservative.
EDIT: It'd be nice if we were more liberal. The biggest obstacle to that is the haughtiness and premature victory behavior that is endemic to the progressives right now.
Houston lost an important proposition for equality recently because all the progressives assumed the battle was won...and then they lost when the biblethumpers got their congregations to the polls.
What also didn't help is that this vote was attached to an off-year municipal election, in which the median voter age was 70.
I don't have all the background knowledge on this and I'm admittedly not an expert on LGBT, but that's actually pretty brilliant. I have no particular feelings on LGBT stuff, but I certainly wouldn't want anyone that still has male genitalia in the same bathroom as anyone's wife or daughters.
Not because I think those exact people would be harmful or aggressive, and this is more than likely going to be met with accusations of me being a bad man- but I don't know who else out there is going to pretend they're trans to creep/spy/abuse women.
If they've gone far enough to do the operation and use the other facilities then I see no problem. That shows more commitment to the issue than I'd ever be able to muster.
There's also a lot of Hispanics in Houston (I'm Anglo but my wife is a native-born Mexican; mother in law is Mexican in Mexico and has a 2nd home in The Woodlands; my cousin's family are Chicanos and own a non-profit publishing company in Houston; and my wife's aunt is a semi-famous LGBT Chicana author/professor, enough for a Wikipedia page, at the University of California). In my experience (probably extensive compared to the average HNer as I've lived in Zapopan, Jalisco; speak Spanish and married to a Mexican)- Latin Americans born there tend to be socially conservative and economically liberal, while Chicanos are just average Americans with some hispanic cultural background when you get down to it. Similar to how some folks run around saying they're Italian-American, they're just American but it makes people feel special (the real Italians, just like the Latin Americans disagree those Americans have anything in common with them).
"The left" as a whole can't have one part banging on about how all men are rapists if not confined by filled-out consent paperwork, but on the other hand they all have the right to go into women's bathrooms if they say certain magic words, which, by the way, it is transphobic to ask any questions about so don't make any silly claims about how this can't be fraudulently used because any attempt to prevent fraud is ipso facto transphobia. "The left" as a whole is going to have to pick one or the other; there is no way to convince the public of both.
This is the same logic used to discriminate against Muslims because we don't know that they're not terrorists.
(And, incidentally, why on earth does everyone take it for granted that a public bathroom is a place where you can easily spy on other people's genitals? The entire problem could be solved forever if builders used proper floor-to-ceiling walls, with louvered vents for ventilation. It weirds me out that nobody else thinks bathroom design is insane.)
That's not discrimination or racism, that's reality. I'm not saying shoot first or discriminate by having him taken away. I'm saying be aware.
For a bathroom, I don't see it as the exact same thing. I want anyone with a penis in my bathroom not my wife's. Not only could most people with a penis easily overpower her 120lb frame, it does open the door for liars.
There was another post above that made the point: are all people with male genitalia a bunch of rapists? I'm personally spooked to even be friendly to a child I don't know, so I understand his point entirely. Or are we going to be able to walk into a woman's bathroom unrestricted? Difficult to have it both ways or exceptions for people who are mentally a woman but physically a man.
At some point societies have to make some decisions on how we're going to do things and it will always end up imperfect. I agree with you that we can do better but how to achieve that isn't clear without compromising on other factors that others feel are important.
Trump thinks Mexico is sending its rapists to the USA. Marijuana (note the Spanish name) was banned due to propaganda that it was being used by mexicans to rape white women, same story for cocaine and black people, same story for opium and Chinese people. Just handy propaganda to enable state sanctioned discrimination.
One day politicians will tire of inventing problems in order to keep groups down, and start fixing real problems that affect us all. One hundred years of propaganda about rapists yet women are still having to fight to have their accusations taken seriously, to give just one example.
After the 2008 election, the Democrats controlled state governorships 29-22. After the 2014 election, the Republicans controlled them 31-18.
After the 2008 election, the Democrats controlled 62 state legislative houses, with 36 for the Republicans (98 total -- Nebraska has a single, non-partisan legislature). After the 2014 election, the Republicans controlled 68 state houses (the highest number since 1928) and the Democrats controlled only 30 (the lowest number since 1860).
"Moving left"? In a pig's eye.