Let’s talk: the impact your vote has on the trans community

By Faye Seidler

fayeseidler@gmail.com

There are two things to understand, before I really get into how votes impact the trans community. The first is, I’m not here to tell you how to vote. Each person should vote for who they think would do the best job and there are way more issues on the table than just transgender issues.

The second is that while politicians and the laws they craft can have a major impact on people’s lives, rarely is that impact as severe as on the trans community.

I won’t shortchange the worry people have at the prospect of having to make a wedding cake for a gay or transgender couple, their concerns about allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms that make sense for them, or fear of their religious freedoms being denied.

But before we even get to the baker’s counter, trans people need to get through high school, hold a job, and exist.

When we introduce laws that allow companies to fire trans individuals just for being trans, that destroys their economic ability. When anti-discrimination bills are turned down or overturned, emphasizing the fear of trans predators, they get assaulted. When conversion therapy is put on the books, which is proven harmful and ineffective, they die. And when schools don’t support transgender students for who they know they are, they take away their future.

I don’t think the issues above are a zero-sum game. I don’t see us as living in a world where we can’t have common ground and make decisions that respect the dignity of all parties. This article is titled “Let’s Talk” because that’s what I hope to do here: start a conversation and find something that can work for everyone, instead of attempting to take absolutist or ineffective measures. My email is always included in articles to invite people to have an honest conversation with me about these issues.

So where are the parties on this? What will your vote impact?

Currently the 2016 Republican Platform aims to overturn the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title XI, which allows students to use the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity rather than sex assignment at birth. The actual platform also erroneously connects sexual assault with trans inclusion, when in fact sexual assault prevalence has never increased because of these laws, and sexual assault remains illegal regardless of trans inclusion.

The Republican Platform doesn’t want a one-size-fits-all federal requirement. They want to turn it over to the states to decide. The North Dakota Attorney General, Republican Wayne Stenehjem, joined several other states in suing the Federal Government to that end.

Our governor, and State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, said decisions on such issues should be left up to local school boards, parents, and community members. If it does become a state issue, I hope these individuals listen to their state, which had 66% of people behind anti-discrimination and 67% against that lawsuit.

Donald Trump told Fox News that the decision should be left up to individual states. “Everybody has to be protected...but it’s a tiny, tiny portion of the population.”

Trump’s running mate Michael Pence is known for taking hostile positions against the LGBTQ+ community and would likely use the position of vice president to advance that agenda.

Collectively, they are running on a platform of overturning marriage equality, expanding religious freedom rights, and defederalizing trans bathroom issues.

Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a great track record with the LGBTQ+ community, and I wouldn’t expect her to be more than lukewarm on the issues. The Democratic Party’s platform has only committed to fighting for anti-discrimination policies.

Donald Trump says that we’re a tiny, tiny portion of the population, but he forgets that trans people have families. We have parents, siblings, children, and networks of friends. The laws that impact us, also impact those that care about us. I guarantee there were calls from worried parents to their transgender children attending college in North Carolina, just to make sure their kids were safe.

Like I said, I’m not telling people who to vote for, but I am highlighting the impact of that vote on the trans community. I’m not saying to change parties or vote people out solely to support trans people, but I do encourage people to talk to their representatives when these issues come up, and encourage them to stop treating human rights as a bipartisan issue, and to encourage meaningful conversation toward effective solutions.