LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back
Tell your Congressional delegation to take a stand today.
Today’s a busy day in Washington, D.C. The House and Senate are both back in session. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Skrmetti v. U.S, which concerns Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming health care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. But, as Mark Joseph Stern argues in Slate, the case is about far more than the Tennessee law. The fundamental question here is whether constitutional limits on sex discrimination will stand.
Though trans people are currently taking the brunt of Republican attacks on LGBTQ+ people, the attacks don’t stop there. That has been easy to forget for the last month, with vicious campaign ads and a targeted campaign against the House of Representatives’ first trans member, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del). But the ACLU reminds us of the bigger picture, as they outlined in a June brief:
Trump has promised that, if reelected, his administration will rescind federal policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and will assert that federal civil rights laws don’t cover anti-LGBTQ discrimination. ... A second Trump administration would strip LGBTQ people of protections against discrimination in many contexts, including employment, housing, education, health care, and a range of federal government programs.And of course, the attacks on civil rights and sex/gender equality will ultimately affect all of us. There’s no better time than now to stand up and tell our federal lawmakers to stand against these infringements on all of our civil rights.
My thanks go to Julia Serano for sparking this post and today’s action. She offers some language to riff on when you call your Congressional delegation. Like me, she lives in a blue state and is calling all Democrats. In the past, I have sent messages to Republican electeds on the topic of gender-affirming care for young trans people. I got one horrible message back, but just one out of a handful of messages. I don’t know whether that would change now. Here’s the language Serano suggests:
Hello _____, my name is _____ and I’m a constituent from _____. As an LGBTQ person [or ally, or family member of, etc.], I am calling to express my dismay at the number of Democratic politicians who have proposed retreating from trans rights since the election, and the lack of Democratic pushback to speaker Johnson’s and representative Mace’s congressional and proposed federal anti-trans bathroom bans. It’s clear from states where Republicans hold a trifecta that they will not stop with restrooms, or sports, or with trans people—their goal is to roll back all LGBTQ+ rights, censor all LGBTQ+ content, and force all LGBTQ+ people out of the public sphere.
We need our Democratic representatives (like you) to vocally speak out and push back against [and filibuster, if speaking to a senator] any and all anti-LGBTQ+ policies and legislation. Democrats also need us: LGBTQ+ people comprised 8% of voters in November’s election, 86% of whom voted for Vice President Harris. So I urge you to work together with our community to fight back against this GOP anti-LGBTQ+ onslaught starting now! I promise, I will remember what you did in this moment—whether it be strongly standing up for us, or capitulating to Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ+ moral panic—when time comes for the next election cycle. Thank you for your consideration.You can use the Find Your Members page at Congress.gov to get the contact info for your Congressional delegation.
Thanks in advance to all of you who step up with me today. For a little inspiration or a treat after you make your calls, enjoy Solomon Burke singing the famous tune written by the Blind Boys of Alabama, “None of Us Are Free.”