Liberals will lie to you and tell you to "just vote in the primary," but in reality they simply don't care about trans rights and do not believe there is ever a right time to challenge transphobic Democrats.
First primary: the transphobes hide their colors so you can't vote against them.
First general election: the snakes reveal their colors, but you can't vote against the traitors because "blue no matter who." They tell you to just vote in the next primary.
Second primary: the same people who tell you now "save it for the primary" shift their tune to "we can't give up an incumbent seat in a purple district!"
Trans people can see through these bad-faith lies. Yet of course, mansplaining trolls will be sure to breathlessly explain "lesser of two evil" math, as if that's not an argument we haven't heard a thousand times and already rejected due to its obvious flaws. There's never a shortage of arrogant cis people who think they know more about trans issues than actual trans people.
Liberals want your votes, not your voices. Be a good little minority and sit down. Shut up. Support the party. You owe the party your support. The party owes you nothing.
EDIT: A few thoughts to address the comment in the thread here:
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You need to get past your team sports approach to politics. I am not advocating voting against Democrats in general. I'm advocating for not voting for the 1% of Democratic candidates that have chosen to become fascist collaborators and adopt Republican positions on trans rights. To trans people, the Democratic party going TERF is a greater danger than the Republican party winning a slim majority in the Senate. The nightmare scenario here is what happened with Labor. Labor has completely fallen to Nazi collaborators. The UK has regressed in trans rights to now be the most transphobic country in Western Europe, and that happened under the rule of a center-left government. The trans people of the UK would have been better off with another term of conservatives than the transphobic labor leaders they elected instead. We don't need to elect more Fettermans who will turn around and vote against the party the first chance they get. So many people in this thread believe, "you have to vote for the Nazi collaborators, otherwise the Nazis will win!"
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On saving democracy: you are vastly underestimating how difficult that task is. You seem to imagine you can just write a bill that just says, "democracy saved," and call it a day. Actually saving democracy is going to require stripping powers from the presidency and dismantling the post-9/11 security state. That requires Democratic leaders of moral strength and conviction. It will take leaders willing to look their constituents in the eye and tell them, "I am going to vote for this bill to dismantle ICE. Yes, that means that occasionally an illegal immigrant is going to murder someone. I'm going to vote for this bill to dismantle the NSA's illegal programs. Yes, that means we may have more terrorist attacks than we would otherwise. It's worth it to save our Republic." Saving democracy requires leaders who are literally willing to vote to kill their fellow Americans. Every power you strip away results in a few more people dying. It's inevitable. And these transphobe Democrats are fundamentally cowards with no inner moral center. They'll follow any poll or vote for any policy they think will get them power. This kind of person is not capable of saving democracy. You can't defeat Nazism by voting in Nazi collaborators, and it's insane to pretend you can.
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Those arguing that trans rights are a minor or insignificant issue? Frankly, if you believe this, you deserve to have your right to vote taken away. If you're not willing to protect the vulnerable among your community, you deserve whatever evil befalls you. Karma's a bitch in that way. We can all go to Hell together if that's the path you choose.
As I keep pointing out, the problem with this argument is that it presumes that the United States is a law of nature, eternal and unshakable, simply the backdrop for our political battles. It is not. That much should be obvious with how much the fascists have managed to dismantle in such a short time.
Yes, FPTP means that a candidate from one of the two major parties will win. But also, every time a candidate from one of the two major parties wins, we get closer to authoritarianism (slowly with Team Blue, directly with Team Red), and the destruction of the United States. Both things can be true. There's not always a solution to our problems, or a correct course of action.
We have to do something other than FPTP with the two, current major parties. Well, no, actually, we don't have to. It's only if we want to save the United States (and protect vulnerable minorities) that we do.
Either you work with the current 'legal' democratic system, and vote for the lesser of two evils, and then work within the system to push for what you want with media, lobbying and peaceful protests; or you go with some sort of violent illegal acts - which will probably just get you in jail. If you don't vote for the better candidate who can win, and just sit on your arse complaining, you won't get much respect.
Yes, those are the options. I chose to advocate for peaceful-as-possible legal reforms of the current system, e.g. the big cities should 'secede' from state control, while remaining part of the Union, not unlike the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire. The point here is that voting in the "respectable" way for the lesser-evil party has not, and will not, save us from eventual authoritarianism, any more than the right configuration of deck chairs will keep the ship from foundering. (Well,a better analogy is that one party wants to rip the hull open more, while the other wants to run the pumps even if they can't keep up with the flooding, and repairing the hole isn't an option under the regulations.)
Maybe it won't save us, but voting the lesser of two evils will reduce the immediate damage. Better to have someone adjusting the deck chairs than stabbing people and throwing them into the water.
And we can push in other angles of reform at the same time.
When is this pushing other angles of reform ever gonna start? If it didn't in 2020, I have to wonder. I'm just not satisfied with "everybody gets stabbed, but a few years later" as the best possible outcome.
Not sure. What have you done to start it?
Been telling anybody who'd listen that we're on the path to authoritarianism with the two major parties since '96, donating to and promoting media organizations that spread the message, voting, contracting my representatives, and trying to influence local government.
"contracting my representatives"- is that like bribing? ;-)
Ok. But how does it help if we let repuvlblicans win because the democrats aren't good enough? Then we get republicans making things worse for us, blocking any resistance more aggressively, and signaling that we're ok with a quick fascist takeover.