The first-ever mobilization of trans voters around a presidential candidate took place on Zoom on Tuesday, as around 1,000 transgender people, including lawmakers, advocates, health care workers and celebrities, logged on to show support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the presidency.
Trans Folks For Harris was one of numerous identity-based webinars to support Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month. Over the last few weeks, many LGBTQ+ advocates have embraced Harris, touting her decadeslong record of supporting LGBTQ+ rights, and her decision to make Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who transformed the state into a “trans refuge,” her running mate.
This came just after Advocates for Trans Equality released a report showing that 75% of eligible trans voters turned up to the polls in the 2020 presidential election, compared to 67% of the general U.S. population — and that trans voters make up a crucial part of the electorate.
“We know our rights and our progress are on the line, but so is our very sense of belonging,” said Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who was elected as the first openly transgender state senator in the country. If McBride wins her bid for Delaware’s open House seat, she would become the first transgender member of Congress.
“We have the opportunity, but more importantly, the responsibility in this election to show a trans young person who fears that the heart of this country is not big enough to love them too, that no matter what extremists say or do, our next president and vice president continue to have their backs,” McBride continued.
The Harris-Walz campaign has yet to release any concrete policy plans on civil rights ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, but advocates say Harris and Walz have demonstrated their commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ rights, access to abortion and the rights to bodily autonomy overall. A draft of the Democrats’ platform, which was released in July, outlines their fight to restore reproductive rights, address racial inequalities, and protect democracy.
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“It’s a step forward to ensure that trans people, especially Black and Brown trans women, have the representation and the resources they need to live with dignity and pride,” Zahara Bassett, CEO of Chicago trans advocacy organization Life Is Work, said on the call. “We need to make sure that our future is one of equity, justice and liberation for us all.”
Harris was one of the first elected officials to publicly back marriage equality in 2004, and she refused to defend Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban, in 2008. As a prosecutor, she also led the charge to end the so-called gay and transgender “panic defense,” a legal strategy often used to seek a lesser offense for perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ+ violence or murder by claiming that the victim made same-sex sexual advances.
In June 2023, Harris became the first sitting vice president to visit the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, and the site of the historic 1969 uprising of LGBTQ+ people fighting back against police raids in the New York City bar. And earlier this week, Harris released a video on X outlining how former President Donald Trump vastly restricted LGBTQ+ rights while in office — and how he would do so again if elected.
Trump has already promised to roll back several policies, including blocking access to gender-affirming care for minors and rescinding the Biden administration’s Title IX rules that expand protections for transgender students. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, introduced a bill in the upper chamber to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Trump has heavily criticized Walz for his unwavering and broad support of LGBTQ+ rights, including Walz’s signing of an executive order and a trio of bills to safeguard trans people’s ability to obtain gender-affirming care without fear of harassment from the state. Trump quipped on Fox News last week that Walz was “very heavy into transgender.”
Harris’ and Walz’s support of LGBTQ+ rights fits largely within the Democratic Party’s platform of protecting “the equal rights of all our citizens.” The party’s 2020 platform includes numerous promises to protect reproductive health, safeguard LGBTQ+-inclusive and affordable health care, and ensure protections are in place for people undergoing gender transition.
After Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, over 1,000 LGBTQ+ advocates, organizations, celebrities and others signed on to a letter in support of Harris’ campaign for president.
Today’s embrace of Harris is in stark contrast to how some LGBTQ+ voters remembered her last bid for president in 2019. Back then, some advocates took issue with Harris’ tenure as a prosecutor for how she pushed for criminal penalties for parents of truant children and which led to the arrest of many Black and brown people. Many also noted how as attorney general, Harris’ office denied an incarcerated trans woman’s request for gender-affirming care. Harris has since apologized and said she takes “full responsibility” for her office’s actions.
But still, not all LGBTQ+ voters are convinced. Harris’ support for the Biden administration’s policies towards Israel’s war in Gaza has alienated some of these voters. In the Democratic primaries this year, hundreds of thousands of voters cast “uncommitted” ballots as a form of protest to push for a cease-fire and end U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.
One of those voters, Roberto Che Espinoza, a Latinx trans divinity scholar and Baptist clergyperson, said he feels “politically homeless.” The registered Democrat said he would feel more confident in supporting a Harris-Walz ticket if she were to break from Biden’s policies on Israel.
Espinoza was frustrated when he saw Harris speak over a group of pro-Palestinian protesters at her rally in Michigan last week. A few days later, Harris took a moment to listen to the protesters at a rally in Phoenix and said that it was time to broker a cease-fire deal. “The president and I are working around the clock everyday to get that cease-fire deal done and bring the hostages home. So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about this race in 2024,” she said.
Espinoza knows very well the risk that a Trump victory would pose to the state of LGBTQ+ rights. He fled Tennessee last year after the state’s attorney general obtained his — and many other trans patients’ — medical records during what advocates say was a politically motivated attack against a major hospital in Nashville.
And he says if Harris were to be elected — as the first female, Black and South Asian president — it would no doubt be historic.
“But when I’m casting my vote, I’m essentially coming out saying this person represents me and I am unable to say that because of her continued investment in policing, in war, which means continued investment in violence,” Espinoza said.
Other advocates like Ash Orr, a trans Jewish person who has been organizing against anti-LGBTQ+ bills in West Virginia, said they share similar concerns about the scale of human suffering and death in Gaza but believes that Harris and Walz will be more open to hearing their voices.
“When you look at it from a lens of trans equality and abortion access, both Harris and Walz have consistently demonstrated their commitment to trans rights and their leadership is going to be crucial in ensuring that our rights aren’t just protected but expanded,” Orr said. “As a trans Jewish voter, I will be supporting Harris because I know what’s on the line and I know that if we can get them in office, we can still demand accountability and work towards ending this ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
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Though the public is still learning about Harris, and her policy platform is being pulled together just as quickly as her campaign, there are signs that the vice president is more receptive to listening to criticism. Abbas Alawieh, the co-founder of the “uncommitted” movement, said that there are indications from Harris of an “openness to engaging with our movement that feels like a shift from how our requests were being treated previously.”
Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) echoed similar sentiments and shared on Tuesday’s call about how Harris was quick to respond to feedback from trans lawmakers who were concerned over statements the White House made about gender-affirming care.
At the end of June, the White House released a statement that gender-affirming surgeries should be restricted to transgender adults only. While surgeries for trans youth are already exceedingly rare, the statement caused alarm among trans advocates who were worried that this was another intervention from the government about private medical decisions, as about half the nation has passed laws at the state level banning various forms of gender-affirming care for minors.
Zephyr was one of a dozen trans lawmakers who sent a letter to the Biden administration urging them to oppose any kind of categorical ban on health care for transgender people. Soon after, a spokesperson for the White House reaffirmed the administration’s support for access to gender-affirming care and the justice department’s fight against state and federal bans on care.
Zephyr said she met with Harris to get a clear reaffirmation that the Biden administration would continue its fight against policies that discriminate against trans people.
“When I met with Vice President Harris, I said, ‘I want to make sure you are not going to leave anyone in our community behind,’” she recalled. “She looked me in the eye and she said, ‘We will fight for you. I promise.’ That is one of the reasons I hope you recognize that when we vote for the Harris-Walz ticket, we are also voting for the framework under which we will continue to fight for trans liberation across this country.”