[ajross]

This is leaning on "regular" too hard. Certainly there are lots of nice conservative people who don't performatively sneer at queer folks. Lots of trans kids have grandparents who love them but still vote republican. "Regular" people aren't, in the general case, assholes.

What's true is that "median" political discourse in conservative circles has swung pretty hard on the sneering side over the past few years. But this doesn't so much reflect the views of "regular" voters as it does an attempt to use this as a wedge issue to pry a small handful of voters from the other side.[1] But "median" discourse is aimed at a tiny fraction of the population! "Regular" politics is boring, so no one reports that stuff. Only voter-motivating controversies make their way into press conference material.

[1] Basically: there are a lot of people, mostly older voters, who hate gender pronouns and all the new social conventions, but who might otherwise be tempted to vote for a democrat.