Who Has Our Backs?

Earlier, and earlier are the presidential politics is beginning, now it is over two years before the election are candidates are politicking for the office.

We hear that this or that candidate will have our backs, while other use their hate for us to get votes and donation and others are doing...

Targeted assault on transgender Americans highlights need for Equality Act
Bangor Daily News
By The Editorial Board.
June 1, 2019

Three times in one week, the Trump administration issued rules and proposals to take rights and protections away from transgender Americans. This is a targeted assault on an already vulnerable group of people that should concern all Americans.

Last Tuesday, the administration finalized a rule that allows health care workers to refuse to treat transgender patients based on religious objections. On Wednesday, it announced draft rules that would allow homeless shelters that receive federal funds to turn away transgender individuals.

And, in the most sweeping anti-transgender move yet, the administration last Friday, released a proposal that would gut patient protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity that were included in the Affordable Care Act. The same proposal would also eliminate protections from discrimination for women who have had abortions.
[…]
Sen. Susan Collins is the act’s lone Republican sponsor in the Senate, with only a handful of Republicans signing on in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“All Americans deserve a fair opportunity to pursue the American dream,” Collins said when the Equality Act was introduced in March. “It is time we ensure that all people are judged on their talents and abilities, and have full access to the services they need and the opportunities they seek.”

Just keep in mind that it was Sen. Collins who cast the one of the deciding votes in favor justice Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile Democratic candidate are fighting over one another who can protect our rights the best…

Kirsten Gillibrand unveils LGBTQ agenda on first day of Pride
CBS News
By Cara Korte
June 1, 2019

The only Democratic candidate for president who has campaigned at a drag club, is now the first candidate to present an agenda to protect the rights of gay and transgender Americans. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced Saturday — the first day of Gay Pride Month — her plan to help enforce LGBTQ rights.

Gillibrand's plan sorts priorities into four categories: equal rights, families and children, health care, and safety.

Gillibrand would also use the Department of Justice to classify LGBT individuals as a "protected class" and direct specific attorneys in the department to focus on the abolition of LGBT discrimination.

To safeguard equal rights, Gillibrand would call on two federal agencies to fight LGBTQ discrimination. Upon being elected, she would overturn the Trump administration's ban on transgender men and women serving in the military, and direct the Department of Defense to ban restrictive policies affecting HIV-positive members of the military.

Many other Democratic candidates say they are supporting us including former Vice President Biden.

Biden: Fastest way to end transgender violence 'is to end the Trump administration'
CNN Politics
By Caroline Kelly
June 01, 2019

(CNN) Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden on Saturday accused President Donald Trump's administration of endangering the LGBTQ community by failing to defend LGBTQ individuals' rights and safety.

In a speech to the Human Rights Campaign on the first day of Pride Month, Biden described the difficulties still faced by many transgender people, including lack of access to health care and social services, as well as transphobic violence that he said was enabled by the Trump administration.

"We've already had five, just this year, five black transgender women killed violently in 2019 -- that's outrageous. It must, it must, it must end," Biden said as the supportive crowd broke into applause.

"And the fastest way to end it is, end the Trump administration," he said, before referencing Trump's transgender military ban and move to withdraw protections for transgender students.

Biden argued that the Trump administration was at odds with the notion of America as a beacon of decency and stood "on the wrong side of history."

He says all the right things, but so do all the other Democratic candidates, however the election is still seventeen months away.

However there are those who don’t think that the Democrats are doing enough.

The Democrats’ Neglect of Transgender Rights
It's not just about bathrooms. It's about livelihoods—and lives.
The New Republic
By Casey Quinlan
May 28, 2019

To most political observers, President Donald Trump was never expected to champion transgender rights, but since taking office, Trump-Pence administration attacks on the trans community have been relentless. Since the start of 2017, the White House has instituted a trans military ban, rolled back protections for transgender access to bathrooms and other facilities, and erased references to LGBTQ people from government websites and from federal data, to name but a few of its actions. Recently, the administration let it be known it opposes the Equality Act, a nondiscrimination bill for LGBTQ people, which recently passed the House.

And Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a regulation that rolls back an Obama administration policy designed to protect transgender people from discrimination in health care. The Trump rule removes language from federal health care law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

Yet, when the Trump administration began, with the virulently anti-LGBTQ Vice President Mike Pence at Trump’s side, Democrats shrank from the opportunity to even mention transgender people by name. Various pundits and talk show hosts called the struggles of transgender people “boutique issues” and “campus pet peeves.” In April 2017, David Betras, the longtime chairman of the Mahoning County, Ohio, Democratic Party, told media outlets that he didn’t think Democrats were sending the right message to blue-collar voters.

I think that actions are more important than words. When the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed in 2009, it was the first law to include us. It is stated right there in the law that the victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

And it was signed into law by president Obama… a Democrat and no other legislation passed any chamber until this year when the Democrats took control of the House.

Do you remember in New York state when they passed SONDA in 2002 they said they would come back for us… well it took until 2019 to pass GENDA.

Why did it take so long to pass GENDA?

Well the Republican controlled the Senate until last year and the Democrats now have a trifecta the Senate, the Assembly, and the governorship.

Still, when NCTE recently asked every member of Congress to put a transgender flag outside their offices to show support for Trans Visibility Week, response was mixed. More than 100 members of Congress, including many Democrats running for the 2020 presidential nomination—such as Sanders and Senator Kamala Harris—did so. But that leaves more than 180 Democratic senators and representatives who decided not to participate in this simple show of support.

True. But how many Republicans displayed the trans flag?

Let’s look at legislation introduced around the country…

Democrats… Just about every pro-LGBTQ+ legislation has been introduced by Democrats.
Republicans… Just about every anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been introduced by Republicans

Yeah they might not talk about us on Sunday morning talk shows but they support pro-LGBTQ+ legislation and policies.