Elections Matter for The Trans Community
It’s not even Halloween 2019 as I write these words, but it’s clear that the 2020 presidential election campaign roaring at full speed already.
I have a lot of transgender friends, as well as friends in the larger LBATQ community, who are somewhere between disappointing and enraged that our issues don’t have a higher profile on campaign stages.
Well, I’d encourage everyone who thinks that way to look back to what now feels like ancient history—the fall of 2016. The only time the issue of transgender rights came up was when the Republican candidate was asked if he had any concerns about letting Caitlyn Jenner use the bathroom of her choice at Trump Tower.
Trump’s answer was that Jenner could use the bathroom of her choice. Jenner endorsed him, and has regretted it ever since, offering multiple apologies and regrets.
In the almost three years the current administration’s been in office, life for transgender people in America has become dramatically worse. The same in true in many other parts of the world.
Hate crimes against trans people jumped 37 percent in one year, according to the British government. The murder of trans women in the United States is on a record pace.
What has the federal government done to help? Nothing. The president’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military was only the first of what’s become a series of attacks on our right to exist. Nineteen other countries still allow openly trans people to serve, including Canada, Australia and several nations in Europe.
Through executive orders, court action and other means, the administration is attempting to allow discrimination against trans people in health care, in housing, and in the workplace. The National Center for Trans Equality Action Fund has identified over 30 discriminatory practices the administration has imposed or tried to impose since January of 2017.
It’s beginning to feel more like 1949 than 2019 to a lot of us.
It’s heartening to see the Democratic front-runners all taking on the issue of our rights and our survival. The stakes truly have never been higher. This is why I find it doubly sad that 17 percent of all adults who identify as LGBTQ are not registered to vote. Some trans people, no doubt, are dealing with the miles of red tape that go with a legal name and gender change. But this is an obstacle everyone should at least try to overcome.
A change in control of the White House and Senate will likely lead to the passage of the Equality Act, which would guarantee Civil Rights protections for LGBATQ Americans and render any Supreme Court decision against us as moot.
So please do all you can to vote. Our lives may literally depend on it.
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Category: Transgender Politics
About the Author (Author Profile)
Claire Hall was born and grew up in a large city on the left coast and has spent most of her adult years in a beautiful small coastal community where she's now an elected official in local government after spending many years as a newspaper and radio reporter. In her space time she loves reading, writing fiction (her first novel was published by a regional press a couple of years ago), watching classic Hollywood movies, and walking.Subscribe
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