Letter to Representative

Ok, so what I wrote for this week was a steaming pile of sh*t, so instead, I’m posting something from my blog, with new stuff added to continue the story. Sooo. . . read past the credits. 🙂

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Today I received an email from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, (D: PA6) who represents my former home of Phoenixville (where Wife and Daughter still live.) It was all about Pride and Juneteenth and how happy she was to celebrate both. 

In reply, I sent the following letter:  

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Dear Congresswoman Houlahan,  

 In an email sent 6/21/2024, you wrote:

This month, we’ve been able to celebrate that diversity in so many ways, and I want to highlight it here for you all! 

And yet, transgender people (especially transgender women) are still being targeted by bigoted laws and violence. Remember the T part of that acronym? Well, we need help- desperately.

The GOP made clear it plans “Eradication” (see Project 2025, also CPAC March 2023), Trump said “On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children” (TPUSA speech, June 15, 2024)  

Anti- trans bills skyrocketed from 143 in 2021 (18 passed) to 600 (87 passed) in 2023. In 2024, there have already been 602 bills (42 passed) and we’re only 1/2 through the year. (https://translegislation.com/)

The night you were first elected, I met you at the victory party, as I worked on Rep. Shusterman’s campaign. I said “Transgender people need help. Can you help us?” And you said you would. You may not remember this, but I do. So I ask: what have YOU done? Specifically. (I already know the answer.)  

I know I am just one person from a small minority of voters, but we NEED help. NOW. A careful reading of Project 2025 states intent: 

Project 2025 wants to label our very existence as ‘pornographic’ and threatening to children, which to them is punishable by execution.

“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.  Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders [emphasis mine]. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.” (Project 2025, p.5)

“[The next conservative Administration] should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children [emphasis mine]—until Congress says otherwise through legislation. [footnote referenced]”. (p. 554).

Oh, what does the footnote say? “This could require seeking the Supreme Court to overrule Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), in applicable cases, but the department should place a priority on doing so.” (p. 576)

554 U.S. 407 reads “Sentencing a defendant to death for any crime other than homicide or crimes against the state is unconstitutional per se under the Eighth Amendment.” (“Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008)”)

Congresswoman Houlahan, I’m studying anti-transgender hate for my PhD dissertation at Penn State. I follow what the GOP and associated hate groups (Heritage Foundation, Focus on the Family, etc) have done and are doing. I’m terrified.  

I ask again: PLEASE HELP US!

Yours, 

 (sign off)

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(Note: the Representative for State College is GT Thompson who is MAGA to the core, and attended his gay son’s wedding THREE DAYS after opposing protections for same-sex marriage. Writing to him would be a waste of time.)

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So I posted this on my blog on June 21, thinking I’d get a form letter back, la di da. And, you know what? I did get a form, well, email. On June 25, I received a form letter back via email which enumerated the usual democratic LGBTQ wish list talking points, which is what I expected. BUT. . . it was addressed to MISTER Sophie L. ********. . . Not once but TWICE.

Being the calm, cool, collected person that I am, I reacted well to this. Yeah right. I was breathing fire. . . but more than that, I was disappointed. Very disappointed. So I sought out the advice of my dear friend Lisa Longo, who knows the politics of SEPa very well. She suggested that instead of posting this glaring misgendering ON A LETTER ABOUT LGBTQ RIGHTS all over social media, that I try speaking to her office manager/chief of staff Sue W. And so I did. I called the office and, after a long hold time, was told she wasn’t in (as expected.) Social media blast ready. . . fire in 3…2…1… Sue W called me back.

She apologized profusely. I pointed out that I saw two possibilities: either the staff member who read/replied to that email was either A) Incompetent or B) Transphobic or C) Both. She claimed otherwise, entering a long discussion about the address database that was over six thousand people blah blah and that it was a database error blah blah. I asked her to make sure. So an hour later, she called back, confirming the database error, and stating that it had been corrected. Being me, the ever-forgiving type (yeah right) (again), I stated that I doubted that the representative even saw the email in question. And I was correct.

Thousands of emails and calls a month, yada yada. Rep. Houlahan represents the 6th PA district, with a population of 771, 296 with a Median household income of $98,751 (so. . . rich folks.) (Sources: Wikipedia and her site.) Running the numbers, the Williams Institute, UCLA says that the approximate population percentage of PA is 4.1%. That’s (counts on abacus) approximately 31, 623 LGBTQ people in her district. Of those (again, referencing Williams Institute) an estimated 1.6 million of U.S. adults 13 and over are Transgender. Population-wise that’s about 1.14 percent low-ball estimate, as many people are stealth or not admitting to it. Go figure. That would mean 8,763 transgender teens and adults in her district. In 2022, Rep. Houlahan won her election 47,318 to her opponent’s 36,076. That’s a difference of 11, 242. So while transgender voters wouldn’t be enough on their own to swing the district, ALL LGBTQ voters would be. Yes, I had these numbers ready for that call. I’m bitchy that way.

In any case, Sue W. apologized and offered to send out a new form letter with the proper salutation. I said I’d prefer that the representative be asked to actually read what I wrote, understanding that her time is very limited. Sue W. agreed to this.

So- matter resolved. In fairness to Rep. Houlahan, her record on LGBTQ votes is stellar. She is an ally. So please don’t contact her office with emails, calls, etc. asking for explanations. As I said: the matter is concluded. So why bring it up at all?  

Did I mention that what I’d written was a steaming pile of sh*t? That’s why.

Vote Blue like our lives depend upon it- because they do.

Be well.

Tags: featured, opinion, politics

Category: Transgender Opinion