Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to be on the identical web page with some Republicans and conservatives who do not suppose that transgender individuals ought to take part in ladies’s sports activities.
“I’m in opposition to individuals taking part in ladies’s sports activities who’re biologically male. I believe ladies have labored too arduous to develop ladies’s sports activities over the previous 30 years…and I do not suppose that is truthful,” Kennedy Jr. instructed CNN host Michael Smerconish on Saturday.
The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy is difficult President Joe Biden, who formally introduced his 2024 reelection bid on Tuesday, for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Transgender rights have been closely focused by conservatives and Republicans over the previous few months, with over 385 anti-trans payments being launched in america this yr alone. Restrictions on transgender athletes taking part in ladies’s sports activities have been imposed now in 20 states. Most lately, Kansas lawmakers voted to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s third veto of a invoice that bans transgender athletes from taking part in ladies’s and woman’s sports activities from kindergarten by school.
Debate round permitting transgender athletes to take part in ladies’s sports activities have soared in recent times, with conservatives saying that transgender ladies competing in all-female leagues have an unfair benefit over organic women and girls. Idaho was the primary state to enact restrictions on transgender athletes in March 2020, however a pause on the invoice has been positioned since August 2020 following a lawsuit that argues it is discriminatory in opposition to transgender ladies and ladies.
Some conservatives and Republicans have additionally been vocal over the previous few years about different points they oppose, together with COVID-19 associated restrictions and vaccine mandates, which Kennedy Jr. can also be in opposition to.
Kennedy Jr., the son of former U.S. legal professional basic and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, has been well-known for being outspoken in opposition to COVID-19 restrictions and opposed the vaccine. He launched a e-book in 2021 titled, The Actual Anthony Fauci: Invoice Gates, Huge Pharma, and the World Struggle on Democracy and Public Well being, during which he wrote that the nation’s high infectious illness physician is helping in a “historic coup d’état in opposition to Western democracy,” and touted unfounded COVID-19 remedies akin to ivermectin, which is supposed to deal with parasites, in accordance with the Related Press.
He introduced his 2024 presidential bid final week and launched his marketing campaign from Boston the place he spoke about his father’s 1968 marketing campaign, his criticism of the pharmaceutical trade, and his profession as an environmental lawyer.
Picture by Sean Gallup/Getty Photos
Earlier this month, a ballot by USA In the present day/Suffolk College confirmed that 14 p.c of Biden’s 2020 supporters stated they might vote for Kennedy Jr., whereas 67 p.c of these voters stated they might select Biden once more. Nonetheless, David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk College Political Analysis Heart, stated that the survey signifies Democratic voters would contemplate one other candidate.
“In 2020, Joe Biden obtained extra votes than every other president in U.S. historical past, but the ballot tells us that those self same voters are open to different Democrats to wage a spirited major,” Paleologos instructed USA In the present day. “Kennedy, though an extended shot at this level, begins in double digits and cannot be ignored.”
Additionally within the ballot, Kennedy Jr. was favorable amongst 33 p.c of Biden supporters who disapprove of Biden’s job within the White Home and the 35 p.c who described the president’s insurance policies as “too liberal.”
Newsweek reached out to the Nationwide Heart for Transgender Equality for remark.