Why us? What got me was the fact that the Trump campaign spent $65 million dollars against us! Whoa can you imagine what that much money spent helping us could instead of tearing us down?
PBS NewsNov 2, 2024If you’ve watched TV this month, you’ve likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. From Oct. 7 to Oct. 20, Trump’s campaign and pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million on ads, more than 41 percent of which were anti-trans. Independent journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Erin Reed joins Laura Barrón-López to discuss.John Yang:If you've watched TV this month, especially sports like football or baseball, you've likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. Laura Baron-Lopez looks at what's behind them.Laura Baron-Lopez:Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender. But this election year, Republicans have spent a considerable amount of money on ads demonizing transgender people. From October 7th to the 20th, Trump's campaign and pro Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million and more than 41 percent of those ads were anti-trans.
Can you imagine how much animosity and hate those ads have generated against us with his lies? His lies have real life consequences, violence against minority communities have skyrocketed in the last couple of years.
A party faction that includes several GOP governors says government shouldn’t get involved.PoliticoBy Daniel PayneOctober 31, 2024Donald Trump is spending more on ads criticizing Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights than he is on any other subject in the campaign’s closing days — and down-ballot Republicans are following suit, believing the issue can tip close races.But nationwide, the GOP is finding it’s easier to oppose trans rights in theory than in reality — when it means kicking a child off a team or blocking parents from proceeding with medical care recommended by a doctor. Some Republicans are even warning their party’s stance conflicts with conservative values on individual and parental rights.[…]The sharp focus on transgender rights may not only lay the groundwork for the next phase of the culture war but also foreshadow more efforts to restrict federal protections for transgender kids’ ability to transition, play sports or use facilities in accord with their gender identity. The fights could test the party’s core beliefs — about using the power of federal and state governments in ways that affect localities and families.
That is what I fear, in January we will see more Republican states pass more draconian legislation against! That we will see Texas try to get medical records from out of state for not only us but for women also who may have had an abortion out of state.
In North Dakota, Gov. Doug Burgum said he was uncomfortable with the use of “the heavy hand of state government” in a bill he vetoed, which restricted teachers from using transgender students’ preferred pronouns without teacher and administrator permission.Arkansas’ then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson said a bill he vetoed would have created “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents.”And in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine used the language of the anti-abortion movement in describing his veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care as “pro-life.”
They use us to rile up their evangelical Christians and there transphobic and homophobic base. The LA Times writes…
By Robin AbcarianNovember 3, 2024Gallup recently published a list of what Americans consider the most pressing issues as they choose the next president. Unsurprisingly, there is no overlap between Republicans and Democrats on the top five.Republicans say they are concerned about the economy, immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.Democrats are concerned about American democracy, Supreme Court nominations, abortion, healthcare and education.Transgender rights — for or against — are nowhere to be seen among the top concerns of voters in either party. In fact, of more than 20 issues the pollsters asked about, transgender rights ranked dead last in importance to voters overall.So why has former President Trump’s campaign been spending tens of millions of dollars on inflammatory ads attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights?
Since she is only following the policy that Trump okay-ed! Notice Trump has been silent about the fast that it is his policy.
Since the beginning of August, Trump and other Republicans have reportedly spent more than $65 million on anti-trans ads, concentrating on the battleground states — although even here in deepest-blue California, I can’t turn on my television without seeing them.[…]As the Harris campaign and others have pointed out, the ad is misleading. Federal policy, including under the Trump administration, has allowed incarcerated transgender people to receive gender-affirming medical care. Only two federal prisoners have ever received gender-affirming surgery, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and FactCheck.org.
His loyal cult followers just ignore those pesky little facts.
So what exactly is going on here? Is it as simple as demonizing a vulnerable group of people to score political points in a close race? Or is it something deeper?“What Republicans are seeing or feeling is that people are anxious about the future,” M. Gessen said in a conversation about the ads with a New York Times opinion editor last week.“They’re anxious about their economic future,” said Gessen, a nonbinary journalist who frequently writes about LGBTQ+ issues. “They’re anxious about their social future. And it can all be boiled down to this anxiety about one’s children — that one’s children are going to come home from school one day and speak a different language than the parents or use a different name and generally be a stranger.”
Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Alvarez otherwise known as the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 case.
There’s no law against lying in political ads, but I’m guessing Trump’s inane ramblings about school sex-change operations are too bizarre even for his ad makers. Picking on transgender incarcerated people and migrants must have seemed like the next best option. But the message is always about fear.
The PBS article says,
Erin Reed:It's important to note that some of the biggest benefactors of the Republican Party, some of the most influential organizations in the party we're talking, groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, for instance, have made this their main issue.If you're running a campaign in a place like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan at any level, and you want money in your campaign, targeting trans people is a really good way to do that. But as for Trump, I think that there's something different at play here. I think that this is a classic fear campaign. We've just got polling today showing that Harris is catching up on the economy and on other issues that Republicans tend to pull well in.And so the purpose of a fear campaign is to distract you from issues that you normally care about by making you so afraid of a group of people, of somebody like me, for instance, that you're willing to throw everything else away because you're scared.[...]Laura Baron-Lopez:Who are these ads targeting? They run during major sporting events. They were just on during the World Series. Who is he trying to reach here?Erin Reed:The group of people that are watching these sporting events are young men. And I think in a lot of cases, the Republican Party is trying to tap into what they hope is some level of fear that they can draw up from that group of people. If you look at most polling and anecdotally, really, young people tend to understand trans people better than anybody else.They're not as afraid of us. And I think that might be part of why this messaging campaign might be falling short.
And that is the bottom line… fear. Fear that the undocumented immigrants eating your cats and dogs. Fear of people who worship different religions. Fear of us. Fear of those who are different from them and the LA Times ends with this,
This presidential campaign is going to be over soon. But the damage Trump has done to transgender people — by fomenting fear, by scapegoating, by “othering” — will most assuredly live on.
Two take-aways from the video... WE VOTE! The percentage of LGBTQ+ people who vote is 94%! high. While at the same time these ads had zero influence on getting people to vote and zero influence on people changing their votes!
Not a lot of transgender adds here in So CA, though it is an issue for the far right. I met my first transgender when I worked at the post office in the mid 70's. I also took a class in human sexuality that explained things and then had that same person as a guest. I don't understand a lot, but I do understand being kind. My neighbor is also a transgender and we get along fine. People are so quick to judge based on what they see. I am a Christian and I try not to judge. Jesus taught love, not hate. Too many people forget that. Oh, I voted for mail and have for years.
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