Every 2 years, you hear politicians announce “this election is the most important in our lifetime,” when, in fact, it is not.
This time, however, it may actually be true-even no drama President Obama, in a speech last week, said that this election is the most consequential we’ve had so far, including both of the presidential elections where he personally was on the ballot.
When Trump was a candidate back in 2016, many of his supporters, including a notable gay billionaire, claimed he was “more liberal” on social issues than some of the other Republican candidates, and that he would at least refrain from attacking LGBTQ people like he seemed to be attacking every other minority group (as if we can separate them all).
Then he picked Mike Pence, one of the most virulently anti-gay, anti-trans politicians in America, as his running mate.
We do not have a partisan agenda. Here we have a gay agenda. And if Democrats fail to at least take back the House of Reps on November 6th, there will be repercussions to our community, to our lives, to our equality.
The stakes are so incredibly high, which is exactly why we’re doing a series of articles over the next 5 days, 1 article per day, on the reasons to vote. With any luck, a lot of you have already voted, early. But many will stumble out of bed Nov. 6, looking for the time and a reason to vote–so we are compiling them here.
With that, let’s dive in.
The background:
Just 8 months into office, Donald Trump announced that he would try to ban transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces, a move that was rejected by Trump’s own Defense Secretary and military leaders.
Then the administration announced it would try to amend the definition of “gender” in all regulations to exclude gender identity. This change would eliminate all protections for transgender people under Title IX federal law. The effect on trans people could be nothing less than catastrophic. Discrimination would essentially become legal in all areas of law- schools, housing, employment, etc., and would basically put the treatment of trans people at the mercy of individuals and elected leaders where they happen to live.
Related: Dear Mr. President: These trans people are sending a powerful message to Donald Trump
While it is a legally dubious move, intended more to incite the rancid GOP base than really drive policy, it still represents a threat to transgender people, who are already under legal and even physical attack. According to HRC, there already have been 21 reported murders of trans people in the US, a staggering sum with two months left to go this year. That Trump is stacking the federal courts with anti-LGBTQ activists and a Supreme Court majority, there is increasingly less legal recourse.
How a Democratic majority in the House and/or Senate would respond:
In the aftermath of the news regarding the administration’s plan to erase transgender people from federal regulations, Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress announced that they would take legislative action to protect transgender Americans should the party take back the majority in November. These leaders said they would pass legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include gender identity in all areas of federal law. If such a bill gets passed–a long shot even with a Dem majority–the political pressure would force Trump and his henchman Pence to at least think twice before vetoing it. That defense position would then signal to the rest of the country that trans cannot simply be erased.
What you can do:
Vote, if you have not already. Volunteer. Donate.
Here are a few pioneering LGBTQ groups doing important legal and political work in this area, with links to contribute:
National Center for Lesbian Rights
American Civil Liberties Union
Here are key candidates who could take the lead on ensuring trans and LGBT equality:
Christine Hallquist, first transgender major party nominee for governor in U.S. history.
Krysten Sinema, bisexual Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
Tammy Baldwin, first openly gay Senator.
Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Senator from North Dakota who has spoken out strongly on transgender rights and voted NO on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
misterjack
Republicans are anti-gay. DO NOT vote for them.
Scout
Do Not generalize! It only widens the divisive rhetoric, and your statement is incorrect. Although a significant number are, not all Republicans are anti-gay, not even close.
Lacuevaman
scout is correct. just know the candidates and be able to articulate the reasons you vote for one over another. its really just as simple as that.
funpitt412
I will not vote for a Democrat we need more independent people to run for office. We have got to wake up and learn that both parties are not perfect but I refuse to go back to the democrat plantation. We moved from San Fransisco to Dallas this year and I cannot believe how much better our lives are living in a republican run state.
misterjack
Bless your heart. You can be the first to jump in the oven when the gay-hating Repubs come for you.
Sass-zilla
So true! I lived in Chicago and LA and moved to Denver 10 years ago and the affordability and ease of living was great in a Republican state. Now it’s moving more and more democrat(because all of CA is moving here because they can’t afford to live in CA) and they are voting in all the same laws that sank CA, and forced them to leave in the first place. Just to say something about the trans thing that isn’t filled out in the article above… It’s great that we can be comfortable being gender fluid and can ask to be called whichever sex we prefer and use whichever bathroom feels right for us, but when it comes to Laws, we need to all agree on definitions and staying with the physical world realities is the easiest. If I identify as a woman and live life as a woman, but I am biologically a man, I should be considered a man for legal reasons. Otherwise, it will be impossible to legislate anything. Unless we get rid of all government assistance programs and insurance and medical actuary tables. As a young business owning man, what if I identify as a 65 year old black woman? Does the government (Federal and State) have to pay me social security now, medicare, will I get minority owned business status, will I fulfill my client’s female owned business quota standards, and can I ski on the woman’s Olympic team? These are all serious questions we should not take lightly before re-defining basic terms such as man and woman that have existed for millennia. Also medical evidence that is based on men and women being physically different (boy babies die at a higher rate than girls- nobody knows why, cancer rates, life expectancy rates are all different for men and women, etc.) These things have real medical and legal and insurance consequences that we better think about before just trying to make a small group of people feel good by pretending along with them.
GayEGO
I am a gay married man who has been with my husband 56 years and I will vote for Democrats of course. Interesting enough, the governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, is a Republican who has a gay brother, married to his husband. Governor Baker is a good governor and I will vote for him.
KevInSD
Yes gay people should vote. Yes, we should vote against anti-gay candidates. But don’t believe for a moment that “your life depends” upon furthering the interests of trans activists. LGB and T are not one group. They are 2 groups. “LGBT” was contrived in the 1990s to have LGBs believe that we share identical interests – and indeed a common identity – with transgenders, and that we are obligated to fight their wars and hand over our limited resources to them. In fact, we do not share an identity and they have different interests and priorities. Sometimes those interests and priorities are in sync with ours, sometimes they are in conflict. LGB people should never mindlessly equate our interests with trans activists demands.
nunya
Agreed. I don’t like being lumped in with the Trans crowd either.
PinkoOfTheGange
Really are you sure about that date? The 90’s?
So there were no transgender individuals at Stonewall?
None at the 1st meetings of The Gay Men’s Health crisis?
I didn’t do welfare checks on Gloria in 84?
Hold her hand at hospice in 86 when her mother got held in transit at Huston Hobby by thunderstorm?
Have tell her mother that her daughter passed 2 hour before touching down at SFO?
Wow learn something new every day
Let me tell you two something: I don’t like being near either of you let alone being associated with you base on our shared sexuality.
Lacuevaman
folks, let’s pray one day we do not need the acronymic labels. i see gender and sexuality not connected. but until that time we must take the advice of Ben Franklin: “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”