Trump Ad Criticizes Harris for Supporting Transgender Rights

Republicans are once again adopting anti-transgender rhetoric in a series of ads across the country aimed at tapping into voters’ fears about transgender people as the November election approaches.

Over the weekend, former President Donald Trump’s campaign Instagram account revealed the following: New Advertisement Under the slogan “Kamala is for Them,” it targeted Vice President Kamala Harris’s support for gender-affirming treatment for all people, including prisoners and immigrants.

“Even the liberal media was shocked to learn that Kamala supported taxpayer-funded gender-reassignment surgeries for prisoners and undocumented immigrants,” the ad’s narrator warns.

The new ad hinges on a now-viral moment during the Sept. 10 presidential debate when Trump warned Harris that she supports “transgender surgery for illegal aliens in prison.” Topping that embarrassing claim was Trump’s own interpretation of Harris’s response. 2019 ACLU Candidate Questionnaire.

A few days before the debate, CNN reported: story It’s about a poll Harris wrote about cutting funding for new immigrant detention centers and cutting ICE funding. The article also notes that Harris supports “taxpayer funding for gender reassignment surgery for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.”

The ACLU poll asked candidates whether they supported gender reassignment surgery for transgender people who rely on public insurance, including those incarcerated or in immigration detention.

Harris responded that it was important that all transgender people receive such treatment.

“I support policies that ensure that federal prisoners and detainees have access to medically necessary treatment for gender transition, including surgical treatment, while incarcerated or in custody,” she wrote at the time. “Conversion therapy is medically necessary, and I will direct all federal agencies that provide essential health care to make conversion therapy available.”

The poll resurfaced during the debate week and drew a ton of coverage from right-wing media, with the Trump team jumping at the chance to use Harris’s response as an attack.

Trump has been highly critical of Harris and her running mate. Supported by Tim Walz He vowed to undermine LGBTQ+ rights, roll back Title IX protections for transgender students, criminalize doctors who provide care to trans youth, and make it much harder for trans adults on Medicare and Medicaid to get gender-affirming care.

Over the past few weeks, Trump has spent much of the campaign trail repeating: false claim It is known that children are undergoing gender reassignment surgery in schools without parental consent, but there is no evidence that this actually happens.

But Trump is not the only Republican candidate to use anti-sexist rhetoric as a strategy to curry favor with conservative voters.

In Texas, various conservative groups have launched an ad campaign targeting Democrats who support gender identity therapy for trans youth and allowing trans girls to participate in school sports on girls’ teams.

Texas Republicans are working to maintain their majority in the state Senate and have released several ads targeting Democrats who have been vocal supporters of LGBTQ+ equality.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) released two advertisement He attacked Democratic rival Rep. Colleen Allred, saying it was “wrong for our girls” because Allred supported the Equality Act and opposed a bill introduced by Cruz that would have banned trans girls from participating in competitive sports teams that match their gender identity.

Cruise’s campaign He told the Texas Tribune The new ads are part of a $6.7 million ad buy in partnership with the Texas Republican Party.

Likewise, the National Republican Congressional Committee advertisement He said South Texas Democratic House candidate Vicente Gonzalez was pushing for “child sex change.” The NRCC was busy supporting Republican House candidate Mayra Flores.

In Missouri, incumbent Republican Senator Josh Hawley is running. advertisement Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who has become an advocate against trans women’s participation in sports, has testified in support of anti-trans legislation across the country. Hawley’s ad accuses his Democratic opponent, Lucas Kunce, a lawyer and Marine who is running for Hawley’s seat, of supporting a “radical trans agenda.”

Coons, on the other hand, has criticized Holly’s opposition to abortion and trans rights. During his 2022 Senate campaign, Coons’ trans brother Warren Coons share The two talked about the importance of supporting transgender rights, and the fact that his brother said he “never threw me under the bus.”

With just 50 days until the general election, Republicans have begun to attack Democrats, but the strategy of amplifying harmful anti-trans rhetoric in the final moments of an election cycle is nothing new.

Today’s playbook is the same one Republicans used in the midterm elections, but the results show that these efforts have not resonated with voters.

During the 2022 midterm elections, conservative groups such as the American Principles Project, America First Legal, and Citizens For Sanity spent at least $50 million on ads containing anti-sexist rhetoric in 25 states.

America First Legal, led by former Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller, spent $4 million to promote President Joe Biden’s ads specifically targeting Black and Spanish-speaking voters. “Radical Gender Experimentation” Blaming the children and the White House “Prejudice against white people” And white people are ranked lowest in COVID-19 relief funding.

But ultimately, efforts to spread this anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and misrepresent the nature of treatment for trans youth are largely It backfired.

Voters overwhelmingly Rejected Moms for Liberty, a right-wing extremist group that seeks to instill conservative values ​​in public education, has endorsed candidates for 2022 school districts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and Iowa.

That same year, five states put abortion rights on the ballot, and voters chose to protect reproductive rights in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont.