For the queer and trans community living in the South outside the Blue Wall of states, like me, the past couple of years have become increasingly dangerous, especially for trans folks and drag queens. Tens of thousands of trans folks have moved out of the South because of the increasingly hostile environment, including the loss of gender-affirming care for trans people and bans on drag queens. Put simply, MAGA people and their candidates want to eradicate trans folks and drag queens from public life, and as he did in his first administration, former President Donald Trump will actively pursue regressive anti-LGBTQ policies as outlined in Project 2025, the game plan for his second term.
With the Project 2025 plan on the table, and the risk of Trump being elected, some in the queer and trans community in the South have even left the country out of the legitimate fear of a Trump presidency and a fascist state. Also, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision granting Trump total immunity for official acts has raised the stakes considerably. Immigrants, trans people, and drag queens are the targets of the MAGA crowd, and their bigotry and hate would be unleashed under Trump.
Recently, Mark Robinson, the MAGA candidate for governor in North Carolina, went so far as to say that some folks ought to be killed, and he meant us. The founder of Project 2025 went even further and threatened that Trump's election would be a second American Revolution but that it would be bloodless if the left allowed it just to happen. I'm guessing if we just submit to our oppression quietly, we won't be shot?
Project 2025 is also intended to dismantle the safety net for things like Social Security and disability and the regulatory system that protects our environment and us from unchecked corporate power. In this context, it is more important than ever to defeat Trump, and it will take all of us together to do so.
As the first female Black and South Asian candidate to head the Democratic national ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris' historic presidential bid will shatter the highest glass ceiling in all of American life. Moreover, when fulfilled, her bold and progressive economic agenda will rival former President Barack Obama's health care plan in terms of importance for working families. With her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, it is undeniable that a Harris-Walz administration will be champions of working families, and protect and expand reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
That all said, Harris may be a challenge for some progressives because of her association with President Joe Biden and his stance on Gaza, but she has distinguished herself from his position. While it is fair and right for people to push her hard on this issue, it was powerful that Harris asked the leaders from the uncommitted movement to meet with her before the recent rally in Michigan. And while her first response in Michigan upset some, we could see the influence of the uncommitted movement, in the way that Harris responded the next time at a rally in Arizona when people were protesting for Gaza. Instead of shutting people down, or saying that protesting was helping Trump, she said that what they were protesting was important, and then she said she was working for an immediate ceasefire.
Even before she ran for president after Biden withdrew in late July, Harris was one of the earliest high-profile leaders in the administration to call for an immediate ceasefire, which she did in March. She also delivered the sharpest rebuke against Israel's handling of aid flows into Gaza and described the conflict as a "humanitarian catastrophe" for innocent civilians. And privately, according to reports, she has told Biden and other top officials that the administration needed to take a stronger stance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and focus on a long-term peace to the decades-long conflict.
Her recent decision to choose Walz as her running mate instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, something unexpected for her, was a huge nod to those who care deeply about Gaza, as well as labor, progressives, and young voters. Not to mention Walz's LGBTQ, reproductive justice, and progressive accomplishments in Minnesota that have become the same policy wins Trump and Fox News constantly rail against when discussing his qualifications, with a unique and pointed anger toward his policies supporting transgender rights. Walz is like a younger, even more queer-friendly progressive version of Senator Bernie Sanders.
Harris and Walz's strong commitment to unions, working families, the civil rights of all our communities, and lifting up the middle class is why Sanders, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), labor, and progressives have stepped up to support them. As in France and England, progressives and labor need to work in coalition with the center-left to defeat fascism. The threat is real. Recently ProPublica discovered dozens of training videos to teach the MAGA army of operatives who will infiltrate the so-called deep state to dismantle it.
So in these perilous times, we need to come together to do both: Defeat the lethal threat of fascist forces here in the United States and push for an immediate ceasefire, which can only be done by electing Harris and Walz. I ask everyone to vote for Harris and Walz like our lives depend on it. Because, for many of us, it does.
Gabriel Haaland, who is trans, is the former president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and a union activist. They now reside in Asheville, North Carolina, where they are a member of Queers 4 Voting Rights, a grassroots, antiracist group.
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