Well, it’s that time of year again. The time of year that comes every four years. It’s the time of year that will change our lives. The most crucial time in our country’s history. I am not voting for Kamala Harris because she is Black, or a woman, or of South Asian descent. I am voting for Kamala Harris because our livelihood is on the line. Kamala Harris is a future President for the people, while Trump is for himself and his own agenda. Kamala Harris has a track record, some may find some blemishes within it, but it is far more better than Trump’s. The opportunity to request a Mail-in Ballot may be gone, ending October 29th, but the election board is still accepting and receiving ballots mailed after the 29th. If you have missed the Mail-in Ballot option, please, please, please, go find your local voting site and vote in person on November 5th. There are many reasons why to vote for Kamala Harris that affects LGBTQ+ rights, as well as with a focus on Black men. I will tell you my reasons and opinions as to why I voted for Kamala.
First, anyone on my site I assume would be African American or some other minority here in America. We are Black first before we are gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans. We have to take notice of what Harris-Walz will do for the Black community. Right now, what everyone is talking about is Harris’ Black Male Initiative. Her plans to strengthen the Black male community and build transgenerational wealth. Polls suggest in 2020, many Black men did not want to vote for Harris because she was a woman. Often referring back to her record when she was California’s leading attorney and her stance on crime, which often affected Black men. But everyone deserves a second chance, which at the same time, she has given low level offenders in California a chance to regain their lives through programs of restorative justice. The Black Male Initiative proposal aims to provide Black men “with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights.” Part of the proposal includes providing one million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others to start a business. According to the campaign, the loans would be provided through a new partnership between the Small Business Administration and some lenders and banks. Harris is also calling for creating and investing in programs that help expand pathways for job opportunities for Black men, including promoting apprenticeships, strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and investing in more Black male teachers. On the campaign trail, Harris has said she will cut college degree requirements for certain federal jobs if elected president. Another component includes legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in the industry. The vice president has often reiterated that she believes marijuana should legalized in the US. She has not forgotten Black America, let alone Black men.
Trump has been running ads discussing illegal immigrants coming into the office under the Biden-Harris administration, as well as bringing transgender rights to the forefront as an issue. The Trump ads posit the Biden-Harris administration and the Presidential Democratic Nominee, Kamala Harris, as being for “them” and not “Us.” We are all one America based on the same rights and privileges afforded to any American in 2024. Why would Trump promote a divide in America such as the one he is promoting? He is suggesting that Blacks, Puerto Ricans, LGBTQ+ persons, women’s reproductive rights, and any other group that opposes the Trump regime is un-American and does not have the right to the freedoms and privileges of a “real” American. There are many Trump supporters, but could that mean that America is just rearing its ugly racists, overly conservative, and forcibly religious head again. It seems that Trump is giving his supporters reason to voice their biased views about marginalized communities and groups in America. But this post is not about Trump. We already did that with the Project 2025 post. This post is to show you why I voted for Harris-Walz in 2024.
Harris and Walz did not just start their involvement in the LGBTQ communities due to the election, they have always been there. Let’s start with Walz. Trump has criticized for being “very heavy into transgender. Trump says that anything transgendered, Walz thinks is great he claimed in an appearance on Fox News in August, further implying that he is not where the country is on anything. Trump’s comments referenced Walz’s longtime pro-LGBTQ+ record as governor of Minnesota. Walz has signed laws making Minnesota a sanctuary state for trans healthcare, Minnesota as now a “Trans Refuge” state due to a new law that prevents out-of-state laws from interfering in the practice of gender-affirming health care there. Under Walz, Minnesota also banned anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy. While as a football coach for Mankato High School in the 1990s, Walz also served as the faculty advisor of the campus’ first ever GSA.
When Harris first ran for president in 2020, the California senator released a plan outlining her LGBTQ+ agenda, one that included plans to prohibit the discredited, harmful practice of conversion therapy and overturn Donald Trump’s ban on open trans military service, if she were elected to the White House. Among her other pledges were the passage of legislation mandating data collection on trans and queer identities in the U.S. census, training law enforcement in LGBTQ+ cultural competency, improved tracking on anti-queer/trans hate crimes, reducing incarceration rates of LGBTQ+ people, banning the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses in court, and placing a White House Chief Advocate for LGBTQ+ Affairs.
Harris’ 2020 website also included pledges to cover “all medically necessary services, including hormone therapy and gender confirmation surgery” through Medicare for All, more pathways to asylum for LGBTQ+ refugees, and pulling federal funding from homeless shelters that discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth. She further called to establish a fellowship program to “help lift up promising young leaders within the transgender community.”
Kamala is committed to bringing this same leadership to the White House to ensure that LGBTQ+ people are able to live proudly and openly, without fear of discrimination. “Right now, far too many members of the LGBTQ+ community experience unequal treatment — from the worker who is fired for who she loves to the trans student whose school refuses him access to the appropriate bathroom. Discrimination is wrong, and Kamala will fight tirelessly to end it.”
In addition to Trump-era policies that sought to actively disenfranchise LGBTQ people, without federal-level protections, the LGBTQ community continues to face discrimination in nearly every aspect of daily life.
In the last two years, states have considered 1,197 anti-transgender bills. Of those, 129 have been passed into law. Anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ laws restrict access to needed health care for adults and children, deny individuals the right to live freely and safely as they are, and hinder the ability to simply exist free from discrimination.
From its first day in office, the Biden-Harris administration set about undoing many of the Trump administration’s regressive anti-LGBTQ federal policies and enhancing federal protections.
However, when a new presidential administration takes office in January 2025, the LGBTQ community will still be confronting a dismal policy landscape in about half the country where trans adolescents — and increasingly trans adults — face unlawful discrimination. In many states, trans people cannot access gender-affirming medical care; are unable to use restrooms in schools and other government buildings; find that updating gender markers on identity documents is challenging or impossible; and cannot fully participate in society as their authentic selves.
“The Biden-Harris administration has a strong record of protecting and expanding the freedom of LGBTQ people at a time when those freedoms have faced an unprecedented assault. With further attacks on our rights and a landmark Supreme Court case on the horizon, we would encourage a Harris-Walz administration to continue this commitment and do everything in their power to protect our rights, our health care, and our freedom to be ourselves without fear.” — James Esseks, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project
What You Can Do Today: Recently, dangerous and discriminatory efforts to strip trans people of their rights, including efforts to use the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to limit care for trans servicemembers, have only increased. These tactics affect everyone. Write to your Congress member today to stop this assault on our freedom and on our lives.
References:
Harris unveils new proposals targeting Black men as she looks to shore up coalition | CNN Politics
Kamala Harris’ Stance on LGBTQ+ Rights Then and Now | Them
Why a Harris Presidency Promises Hope for LGBTQ Rights | ACLU