Gallup recently released a list of what Americans consider the most pressing issues when choosing the next president. As expected, there is no overlap between Republicans and Democrats in the top five.
Republicans say they are concerned about the economy, immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.
Democrats are concerned about American democracy, Supreme Court nominations, abortion, health care and education.
Transgender rights (for or against) are not among the top concerns of voters of either party. In fact, of more than 20 issues pollsters asked about, transgender rights ranked last in importance to voters overall.
So why has former President Trump's campaign been spending tens of millions of dollars on inflammatory ads attacking Vice President Kamala Harris' support for transgender rights?
Since early August, Trump and other Republicans have reportedly spent more than $65 million on anti-trans ads, concentrating on battleground states, though even here in bluest California, I can't turn on my TV without seeing them.
“Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” says a dismissive narrator. “It's hard to believe, but it's true. Even the liberal media was surprised that Kamala supported taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens.”
A series of edited images show Harris with transgender people, including Admiral Rachel Levine, the US assistant secretary of health, and a drag performer named Pattie Gonia, and actors playing inmates in the series “Orange is the New Black.”
“Kamala is for them,” the ad concludes. “President Trump is for you.”
As the Harris campaign and others have noted, the ad is misleading. Federal policy, even under the Trump administration, has allowed incarcerated transgender people to receive gender-affirming health care. Only two federal prisoners have ever received gender-affirming surgery, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and FactCheck.org.
In other words, this is not a problem.
For months, Trump has made wild claims about children going to school as one gender and coming home as another. I originally assumed he was awkwardly referring to the debate over whether schools should be forced to tell parents that their non-binary or trans children are “out” of school, or in a “social transition.” But no, he has repeatedly claimed that schools are actually sending children to undergo gender-affirming surgeries without their parents' consent. (I can't believe I had to write that.)
Trump's fear campaign against transgender people (because that's what it is) is disgusting, false, and dangerous.
“When I see these ads, I think about Trump's first term,” said Heron Greenesmith, deputy policy director at the Transgender Law Center. “Just the cruelty. “They’re nasty and mean and they hit.”
So what exactly is going on here? Is it as simple as demonizing a vulnerable group of people to score political points in a close race? Or is it something deeper?
“What Republicans see or feel is that people are anxious about the future,” M. Gessen said in a conversation about the ads with a New York Times opinion editor last week.
“They are anxious about their economic future,” said Gessen, a non-binary journalist who frequently writes about LGBTQ+ issues. “They are anxious about their social future. And it can all come down to this anxiety about your children: that your children will one day come home from school and speak a different language than their parents or use a different name and generally be a stranger.”
This explains the moral hysteria over gender-affirming child care that has swept through the country's red states. At least 22 states have passed bans on such care for transgender and nonbinary minors; five have even made it a serious crime. And at least 70 clinics that provided gender-affirming care have closed since 2021, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
There's no law against lying in political ads, but I guess Trump's inane ramblings about sex-change operations in schools are too bizarre even for the creators of his ads. Pissing off imprisoned transgender people and immigrants must have seemed like the next best option. But the message is always about fear.
“I mean, fear affects certain people,” said Greenesmith, who is nonbinary. “It works with people who are already prepared to look for 'in' and 'out' groups. But most Americans support people's right to live in their gender and have autonomy over their health care, and they support people being protected from discrimination for things we have no control over.”
This presidential campaign will end soon. But the harm Trump has done to transgender people – by fear-mongering, scapegoating, and “othering” them – will surely endure.
Rags: @rabcarian
