Kamala Harris’ life as vice president took a 180-degree-turn in 24 hours, from her stumping for Joe Biden in Provincetown, an LGBTQ+ culture hub and haven, on Saturday, July 20, to becoming a potential presidential nominee on Sunday, July 21 when the news broke of Biden leaving the race.
However, since becoming the candidate, Kamala Harris’s silence on LGBTQ+ issues has been deafening. Kamala’s website has one sentence about us, under the heading Protect Civil Rights and Freedoms: “As President, she’ll fight to pass the Equality Act to enshrine anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQI+ Americans in health care, housing, education and more into law.” The Advocate ran articles about president and vice president candidate debates not mentioning LGBTQ+ issues.
Taking us for granted?
“I’m getting used to saying Madam President. But with that said, it is important for her to recognize us and elevate the LGBTQ+ community. The fact that she has not spoken definitively about our community is a misstep in my mind,” stated Paul Glass, the co-founder and program coordinator of LGBTQ+ Elders of Color. “I think it’s something she needs to correct. I think she needs to have a town hall and address the issue concerning LGBTQ+ issues in particular.”
However, with less than a month away, Harris and her campaign may feel she lacks the time to hold a town hall meeting with us. With LGBTQ+ Americans mostly Democrats, Harris’ groundswell of support from the LGBTQ+ community followed her announcement in July. Immediately after announcing her bid for the White House, an HRC press release announced that over 1,100 LGBTQ+ leaders, celebrities, influencers and activists had signed a letter endorsing Harris.
For two decades, Harris has been a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, beginning with her tenure as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2004 and up to the present in the Biden-Harris administration with the passing of many pro-LGBTQ+ policies and initiatives. For her running mate, she chose an experienced governor and congressman who now-famously helped launch a gay-straight alliance at his high school.
Some feel her track record speaks for itself. However, others think it’s not enough to rest on her laurels.
Unmet trans issues
“She has the iconic video talking about trans rights and trans lives from when she ran many years ago, but what about 2024?” Giselle Byrd shared with me. Byrd is the new executive director of The Theater Offensive in Boston and the first Black trans woman to head a major theater company in the country. ”The life is different. Our opportunities are different. But we are still seeing the same sort of injustices. Trans folks are still being murdered. How are we being protected at a federal level, because there is not a lot of protection for us? We are not thinking beyond gay marriage.”
With anti-trans bills continuing to be introduced into legislation across the country to obliterate any traces of transgender Americans from public life — education, bathrooms, athletics, military, healthcare and legal recognition — Harris cannot afford to not speak up on trans civil rights while on the campaign trail, because Trump is. The “Team Trump Agenda 47 Policy Tour” clarifies its plan to revoke gender-affirming care. The plan states it will “stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth because no serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender.”
Although a pro-LGBTQ+ ally, Harris made some missteps on transgender advocacy. In 2015, she denied gender-affirming surgery for a trans sister in prison. In 2019, Harris co-sponsored the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) with 27 Republican and Democrat senators. Had she repealed FOSTA-SESTA, both acts working together would have decriminalized sex work, created a safer and consensual work environment online, provided financial stability and stopped sex trafficking.
What Harris must do
Harris has the LGBTQ+ vote in the bag. However, once the election is over, we must use our voting clout. The LGBTQ+ community must push Harris on a laundry list of issues.
These immediate actions would exponentially improve quality of life:
Repeal FOSTA/SESTA to decriminalize sex workers, allowing sex workers the dignity of a safe work environment.
Protect gender-affirming care, because the government should not decide.
Protect the Respect for Marriage Act 2022 that expands same-sex and interracial marriage rights against a Trump Supreme Court.
Pass the Equality Act prohibiting anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination nationwide, beyond employment and in every aspect of our lives, like housing, federal funding and public education, to name a few.
We must stress to Harris that democracy can only begin to work when those relegated to the fringes of society can begin to sample what those in society take for granted as their inalienable right.
Irene Monroe is a theologian and news commentator.
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