Despite ‘moderation’ claims, Wisconsin Republicans are still obsessed with attacking the LGBTQ community

From Sen. Ron Johnson’s GOP convention speech to legislative candidates, Republicans haven’t paused in their demeaning attacks on people who don’t conform to their views on gender and sexuality.

Some Republican officials have recently put out a call, in light of the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, for Americans to “turn the temperature down in this country” and “cool it down” with heated, even violent, political rhetoric. But the respite had only a brief run inside this week’s Republican National Convention and Wisconsin Republicans have shown no sign of curbing remarks that have been divisive or demeaning.

Just as Sen. Ron Johnson used part of his convention speech to accuse Democrats of “sexualization and indoctrination” of children, similar tones can be found in down-ballot candidates.

Stacey Klein, a Trempealeau County resident now running for State Senate, began a brief but failed campaign late last year hoping to challenge Democratic US Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Klein launched her brief US Senate campaign with repeated invectives about Baldwin’s sexual identity as a lesbian and with vicious attacks against the transgender community—accusing them of having a “mental disorder.”

“I simply ask why her whole justification for her being a Senator surrounds her life in the bedroom while ignoring the real needs of America?” Klein wrote in a self-published column. 

In another column about Baldwin, the first lesbian elected to the US Senate, Klein attacked the transgender community: “Tammy and her body-mutilating cheerleaders would have you believe that kids can fully understand the ramifications of chopping off body parts? I cannot believe that as I travel Wisconsin, I actually have to listen to sitting United States Senators argue for the right to take knife [sic] to the bodies of our little ones.”

At no point has Baldwin expressed support for surgical procedures on minors that address gender dysphoria, although the often-debunked claim has become a standard talking point for many far-right candidates and officials. Instead, Baldwin and other Democratic senators have fought for measures “to help ensure no one in our country has their health care undermined by discrimination or bigotry” and promise to “further strengthen protections for people with disabilities, trans people, and people seeking to access care for pregnancy, infertility, or related conditions.”

Klein has also expressed a willingness to have cameras in classrooms to monitor teachers’ lessons and has attended an event with the extremist group Moms for Liberty, a leading source of efforts to ban books, especially items designed to educate or teach tolerance toward members of the LGBTQ community. “Made many new connections and saw familiar faces,” she wrote on Facebook after the December meeting.

Along with the anti-LGBTQ remarks, Klein has promoted conspiracy theories about COVID vaccines, immigrants, and the 2020 election.

When California-based banking mogul Eric Hovde entered the US Senate race in February, Klein exited. She converted her federal campaign account to a state account and declared her candidacy for a seat in the Wisconsin Legislature, challenging incumbent state Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-La Crosse) in the 32nd Senate District.

“Stacey Klein is more concerned with scoring points with book-banning bigots than focusing on the issues that impact Wisconsinites of the 32nd State Senate District,” said Philip Shulman, spokesperson for the progressive group American Bridge 21st Century about Klein’s remarks against Baldwin. “Her vile attacks on one of America’s most beloved senators will do nothing but galvanize support against her misguided run for office.”