Black LGBTQ+ women are calling for Kamala Harris’s opinion on these issues.
Vice-President Kamala Harris speaks at a rally in Gila River Indian Community, on October 10, 2024. Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA NETWORK via Imagn Images
Since running for office, Kamala Harris has kept a deafening silence about LGBTQ+ issues. We need her voice to speak out for us in a few key ways. We need her voice to speak out for us in a few key ways.
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“I’m getting used to saying ‘Madame President,'” said Paul Glass, co-founder and Program Coordinator of LGBTQ+ Elders of Color. But with that in mind, it’s important for her recognize us and elevate our LGBTQ+ community. Glass said, “I think she should have a town hall and address the issue concerning LGBTQ+ issues in particular.” “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. Harris received a groundswell of support immediately after her announcement. This is because LGBTQ+ Americans are largely Democrats. A press release by the Human Rights Campaign stated that more than 1,100 LGBTQ+ celebrities, leaders, influencers and activists signed a letter supporting Harris immediately after she announced her bid for president.
For the past two decades, Harris, who was San Francisco’s District Attorney in 2004, has been an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ issues. This began with her tenure there, and continues today with the Biden-Harris Administration, which is a proponent of LGBTQ+ policies. Others feel that her 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 told me. She is the new executive of The Theater Offensive, a major theatre company in Boston. “The life is different. Our opportunities have changed. We still see the same injustices. “Trans people are still being killed,” she said. We are not thinking beyond gay marriage.” 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”, which clarifies the plan to end gender affirming care, was announced on January 10, 2010. 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, Sen. Harris (D-CA) made some missteps on transgender advocacy. She denied gender-affirming surgeries for a prisoner trans sister. Harris, along with 27 Republican senators and Democrats, co-sponsored two bills in 2019: the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act. 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. The LGBTQ+ community should push Harris to address a number of immediate issues. These immediate ones that 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.
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.
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