Senate Democrats Might Vote Into Law the First Anti-LGBTQ National Legislation in Decades. Contact Your Senator Now.
Senate Democrats are set to sign away the basic human rights of the trans kids of servicemembers, if they are not held to account.
Two days ago, after 81 Democrats in the House helped pass the NDAA with a “poison pill” that stripped healthcare from the trans children of servicemembers in the military, I warned that Democrats must avoid repeating the sordid history of liberal compliance with Hitler’s genocide of minority groups in Germany (and later other parts of Europe).
Today, we learned through reporting from The Independent that key Senate Democrats are ready to vote to approve the NDAA, which would be the first anti-LGBTQ legislation to pass through Congress in decades.
Congressional Republicans forced this issue by putting anti-trans provisions into the bill at the last minute, which forces Senate Democrats to decide whether they are willing to hold up a bill that is required to authorize military spending in order to defend trans rights. With only days to spare before the deadline to pass the NDAA, Republicans are essentially playing chicken with Democrats and betting that they will be too afraid of being perceived as too friendly to trans rights at the expense of “more important” issues if they choose to hold it up.
At least 41 Senate Democrats must be willing to vote “No” on “must-pass” bills like the NDAA that have anti-LGBTQ provisions in order to prevent the inclusion of anti-trans provisions, even when the deadlines are tight. While more than 40 Senate Democrats have signed a letter opposing poison pills on appropriation bills, only 10 of the 50 currently in the Senate would need to break with the party in order to pass the legislation into law.
Since this bill is likely to be voted on early next week in the Senate, we have little time to spare to take action. If Democrats are willing to cave to the GOP on this provision while Joe Biden is still president and Democrats control the Senate, that is an awful sign for their willingness to fight back against much broader bans on trans healthcare for minors or adults that could devastate millions of LGBTQ people once Trump is president and Sen. Thune is Senate Majority Leader.
The GOP is essentially copying the playbook that has been used to ban federal funds for abortion—the Hyde amendment—but against the entire trans community. The Hyde amendment has stuck around in funding bills for decades, showing that once these anti-trans provisions pass once, they may continue to ban trans healthcare for many years to come.
After spending over $1 billion on a nationwide campaign centered on the basic rights to bodily autonomy and personal freedom, Senate Democrats must stand together and stand firm against this poison pill and send a clean version of the NDAA without this cruel policy back to the House.
Unfortunately, Democrats are signaling that they might pass this bill as-is, if nothing in the political environment changes. That’s where you come in.
Democrats must be reminded immediately of the fact that LGBTQ voters across the country voted 86% for Kamala Harris and other Democrats, which was more than enough to protect the seats of several Senators who just kept their seats blue, such as Jacky Rosen—who appears likely to vote yes on this bill. They must be informed that LGBTQ votes are not to be taken for granted, neither in primaries nor general elections.
And we should not assume that our voices have no impact, or that all hope is lost. Seth Moulton, one of the first anti-trans Democrats after the election, appears to have learned this lesson already. After a large pro-trans rights rally outside his office last month, Rep. Moulton appeared to walk back most of his comments and voted “No” on the NDAA bill in the House this week. Similarly, H.R. 9495, which would have allowed Trump to shut down non-profit organizations with little accountability, lost significant support in the House from Democrats after constituents flooded their phones and emails with opposition.
This recent history tells us that our best shot at preventing this bill from passing the Senate is to immediately flood the phones, email inboxes, and social media of Democrats in the Senate with urgent and passionate messages over the weekend and into early next week.
I have provided a sample template you can use to reach out to your Senator as well as a link to find their contact information below. Feel free to write your own message as well—you may find it helpful to attach this or any of my other articles, and you’re welcome to copy and paste portions of the text from any of them into your emails. And please ask your friends, LGBTQ or not, to send messages to their Senators as well. We have no time to spare.
Dear Senator [Name],
My name is [Name], and I am a resident of [State]. I am writing to express my deep disappointment regarding House Democrats’ recent vote on anti-LGBTQ legislation, and to urge you and your colleagues to vote against it in the Senate next week.
81 Democrats in the House this week voted to pass the first anti-LGBTQ legislation in decades in the NDAA. As a [trans/gay/lesbian/bisexual person or ally], I feel compelled to express how deeply this vote undermines our faith in the Democratic Party who claimed to support us. We knew that Trump’s victory would be devastating for our community, but we had held out hope that Democrats would protect us.
The anti-trans policy in this bill violates the bodily autonomy of LGBTQ people and will inflict mass suffering and even death onto many children of military servicemembers. Is this how Democrats believe we should treat the children of people who serve in our military? Is this how easily Democrats will comply to other “poison pills” that attack trans rights or abortion rights once Trump is president? History shows that complacency toward emerging fascist movements can lead to horrific outcomes for marginalized communities, as the world witnessed in pre-World War II Germany.
We feel especially betrayed by the party right now, since 86% of LGBTQ people (and many allies) voted in favor of Democrats this year because of your stated support of the community. Data from multiple polling sources, such as this polling memo by Democratic polling firm GQR (https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/documents/HRC-National-Post-Election-Public-Memo-11624.pdf), shows that trans rights did not negatively impact Democrats as much as claimed.
In fact, the GQR data showed that the number of people who vote for Democrats because we had been led to believe the party cares about LGBTQ equality is larger than the number of people who vote against trans rights. Without the support of LGBTQ voters, Senate Democrats may have suffered additional losses in states Kamala Harris lost, such as Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, or Arizona. [Optional—include a link to my article backing this up https://www.madycast.com/p/countering-the-narrative-14-reasons].
Many in our community feel deeply betrayed by this vote. And we are ready to organize to mount primary challenges against lawmakers who put LGBTQ lives in danger. If that does not work, many of us will see no reason to continue to vote for Democrats in general elections—and 8% of the electorate identifies as LGBTQ across the country. If you and other Democrats continue to vote for bills that rollback hard-fought rights, we will have little reason to believe the party is serious about other issues you ran on like abortion rights, the environment, or holding Trump accountable.
I urge you to commit to voting “No” on the NDAA until this horrific policy is removed from the bill to demonstrate that you stand behind your commitment to LGBTQ equality.
Sincerely,
[Name]
If one of your Senators are in the following list who were mentioned in the article as supporting the bill, your ability to impact this issue is especially significant and I highly encourage you to reach out to them. But even if they aren’t on this list, you should still reach out to your Senator(s) in case they are wavering as well.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada
Sen. Mark Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is Senate Majority Leader, so he has the most influence on this legislation.
See your House Representative’s vote on the NDAA here. The immediate priority should be to prevent Senators from voting on this bill, but we must also hold accountable Democratic House Representatives.
If you’d like to discuss this issue with me or anyone else, feel free to send a message in the related thread of my subscriber chat.
Sent a message to my senator, here's hoping
Dang, it's rough seeing this post now.