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A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector .
My family and I stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings in Georgia a few weekends ago after watching one of our kids take part in a marching band competition. Surrounding us in restaurant were wall-mounted televisions. Most showed sports, repeatedly punctuated by political ads.
At least half of them attacked transgender people. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything more rancid on a TV broadcast.
One image after another of smiling human beings, framed as a monstrous threat.
A person’s existence is never a debatable point. But these ads weren’t even gesturing toward persuasion. They were harangues, treating transgender people as nothing but targets and receptacles for hatred. Certainly not people worthy of the most basic respect.
The spots reminded me of an equally rancid ad from Alabama’s past. Faced with an extinction-level political event in Alabama’s 1970 gubernatorial campaign, George Wallace circulated a flyer showing a white girl sitting with seven Black children. The text read “Wake Up Alabama! Is This The Image You Want? Blacks Vow To Take Over Alabama.”