We Are "It"

We are the center of a new ad campaign by the Republican juggernaut! And it is not going to be pretty.

Trump and Republicans Bet Big on Anti-Trans Ads Across the Country

Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars on the ads, part of an attempt to help them win over suburban female voters.

The New York Times

By Shane Goldmacher

Oct. 8, 2024

With just four weeks until the election, Donald J. Trump and Republican candidates nationwide are putting transgender issues at the center of their campaigns, tapping into fears about transgender women and girls in sports and about taxpayer-funded gender transitions in prisons.

Since the beginning of August, Republicans have poured more than $65 million into television ads in more than a dozen states on these topics in some of the country’s most competitive races, according to a New York Times analysis of advertising data compiled by AdImpact.

It is bad news, I mean really bad news... the Republicans are targeting minorities... immigrants,

They lied about Springfield Ohio, they lied about Aurora Colorado, and they are lying about us!

Privately, though, Democratic strategists concede that the transgender attacks are taking a toll in some races. The most aired Trump ad in recent weeks was rated as one of his campaign’s more effective in September in some Democratic testing, according to results reviewed by The Times.

Lies and bigotry win out!

LGBTQ Nation reports,

Trump showed a drag queen in a hateful ad. She used it to raise $15K for trans people.

"The devil works hard, but Petty Gonia works harder," the drag performer wrote of her efforts to counter Trump's hate.

By Daniel Villarreal

Monday, October 7, 2024

Drag queen Pattie Gonia said she is considering her legal options after former President Donald Trump used video footage of her in a recent anti-transgender political ad against Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. The drag performer used the ad to help raise $15,000 for Trans Lifeline and Point of Pride, two organizations that support trans lives and gender-affirming care, respectively.

Thousands of fans notified the drag performer after Trump’s ad aired last week. The ad mentions Harris’ support of providing lifesaving care to transgender inmates (something required by federal law). It also shows images of Harris standing next to Pattie Gonia, next to a trans woman and also a nonbinary individual who both were Biden Administration officials. The ad concludes with the line, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

[...]

Chapter 9, Section 5 of the platform promises to “end Left-wing gender insanity,” stating, “We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.”

The Advocate writes...

Anti-drag, anti-LGBTQ+ hate rises again 

America’s far-right spent much of 2022 and 2023 uniting in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly by targeting drag shows and the people who attend and perform in them. This trend had shown signs of easing off in 2024, but new incidents show far-right extremists have not given up on this line of attack.

• K. Wayne, An English teacher at Peninsula High School in Seattle left their job after an online bullying campaign targeted them for their extracurricular performances as a drag king. The alternative newspaper The Stranger tells their story.   
• “My drag persona is a form of creative expression, completely separate from my role as an educator. Drag is not a crime, and I stand by my art and my right to express myself,” K. Wayne told USA TODAY in a statement. “This must stop. people must be able to exist without being doxxed, without being bullied and without fear of living private and personal lives.”
• Meanwhile, across the country in Somerville, MA, a scheduled drag queen story hour at a library was canceled following a bomb threat that forced an evacuation. The event had been targeted by a small protest.
• Throughout the last two years, dozens of drag events have been similarly disrupted by threats. USA TODAY outlined how drag became a major focus of the far-right in this story from the last day of 2022.

The Washington Blade report that,

With just four weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump and Republican candidates in key down-ballot races have spent more than $65 million on anti-trans television ads since the start of August, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The move signals that Republicans believe attacking the vice president and other Democratic candidates over their support for trans rights will be an effective strategy along with exploiting their opponents’ perceived weaknesses on issues of immigration and inflation.

Vote Blue, the life you save might be your own!