Erin Reed is my go-to journalist for trans issues, and here’s her take on some disappointments from last week’s election:
On Tuesday night, as election results poured in, it became immediately clear: anti-transgender ads had failed to earn Republicans a victory in the year they relied on them the most. Despite $183 million spent on ads targeting transgender people and any Democratic politician who had ever expressed support for them, even Democrats who openly supported transgender people won in Republican strongholds. As a trans woman won her race in a conservative Alabama district and fierce defenders like Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, there was a lot to be hopeful about. But it was not all good news for transgender people on Tuesday night: results began to trickle in showing that anti-trans ballot measures were likely to pass in a handful of states, including blue states like Colorado and Washington. Though some of those vote totals remain uncertain, there is a significant likelihood that we will have our first anti-trans policies written into law in “safe states,” and there are already plans to ensure they never truly take hold.
In Colorado, a state many transgender people fled to because of its strong protective legislation, a sports ban and a surgery ban for transgender youth were ahead by razor-thin margins of 52-48. Neither has been called. Importantly, both measures are statutes, not constitutional amendments. That means the legislature can rewrite them, and it makes them ripe for challenge under the Colorado Constitution, in a state with strong legal protections for transgender people and a state Supreme Court that has enforced them, meaning the laws may never truly take hold. A state constitutional challenge would also be largely insulated from the U.S. Supreme Court: that case would run through the state court system, and the U.S. Supreme Court lets states interpret their own constitutions to protect more rights than the federal Constitution does.
Constitutional measures need a 55% “Yes” vote to pass in Colorado, so both of those measures would have failed if they had been constitutional. As a Colorado resident now, I encountered paid petition gatherers every time I went to the grocery store or to a public event. Coloradans need to learn to say “no” to those automatically. Also, there were a dizzying array of measures on the ballot, most of them worded in a confusing fashion. That’s not cope or an excuse, just a note — no matter whether voters were informed or uninformed, we have work to do in Colorado to protect trans kids.
The Colorado anti-trans ballot measures came from a nutcase in Wellington named Erin Lee, and here’s the background on that. Mind your own business, Karen.
Here’s Reed’s take on the Washington measure:
In Washington, similar dynamics are in play, and in fact the news may be a little more hopeful there. Initiative 638, which requires girls who want to play girls’ sports to get a statement from a health care provider verifying their sex, a requirement critics have warned could mean genital inspections, is passing 57-43 with plenty of the vote still out. Meanwhile, Initiative 1, the “parents’ bill of rights” that could have resulted in the forced outing of transgender youth, is trailing and seems likely to fail. Initiative 638’s apparent passage in a state that is otherwise very safe for transgender people has been cause for concern and consternation on an otherwise positive night.
But even here, it appears that organizations are preparing for legal challenges. Sam Fox of Legal Voice sent a statement on Initiative 638 stating, “Legal Voice will take every measure to protect young people from this discriminatory law.” Meanwhile, a press release from No Hate in WA State, one of the main organizations opposing the ballot measure there, stated, “Many have said that I-638 is likely unconstitutional and we understand there are legal groups and organizations considering litigation.” Washington’s state Supreme Court leans quite left and it has struck down voter-passed initiatives before, as recently as 2020.
Democrats who took a strong stance on trans rights, like Peggy Flanagan and Matt Little, who I posted about yesterday, did well. So did Democrats who weren’t as loud and proud, including Talarico, Annie Andrews and others. They all won despite an avalanche of despicable ads trying to tie them to boys playing in women’s sports. This is one of the many issues where softly trying to make it go away doesn’t work. Republicans are going to call you things like “Tranny Annie” (in the case of Andrews) no matter what you say about trans kids. The best defense is a good offense:
While we’re talking about children, let’s have a little joy and love from La Presidenta:
Mexico is by no means a paradise for transgender people, but there’s an openly trans member of the Chamber of Deputies (like our Congress).
