Comment by tsimionescu
1 day ago
While you're right on the terms, you're wrong about the stigma on cross-dressing. There is really very little distinction bigots make between their hate for cross-dressing and their hate for trans people. It all falls under a big umbrella of "degeneracy" to them. Even actors in cross-dressing roles are often hated by these people.
I mean there certainly is a stigma, the stigma is probably on average greater than the current stigma surrounding trans people because even Republicans understand gender dysphoria as an illness. Ohio's Republican governor DeWine is, even by Democrat standards a huge trans rights and treatment supporter even for minors. It's legitimately uncanny to read stories about him from back home. But cross-dressers occupy an almost exclusively sexual connotation now that femboy/butch/tomboy/andro occupy the common term for just casually dressing in a manner defying gender norms.
But when it comes to policy actions taken by bigots they pretty narrowly target transgender people. If for no other reason than trying to legislate dress is going to (and has) run into 1A issues for anything not extremely narrowly scoped. Project 2025, arguably the comprehensive policy manifesto for the new GOP only really outlines policy targeting transgender persons.