The mere existence of trans people has become one of the (many) hot button issues in this election cycle. A reporter for MSNBC sat down with a group of students at Rutgers University and asked what’s the one question they would ask candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. One student’s very personal response was straight from the heart.
Stephanie Ruhle, host of the show The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, asked the question of Rachel Toepfer. Rachel is an intern and team member for the organization MassDems and was poignantly candid when responding.
“If I were to ask Vice President Harris a question I think I would ask her, ‘How soon do you think we can get the equality act passed.'” The equality act, by the way, would provide protection from discrimination for “LGBTQ+ people across key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service.”
The issue is a big one for Democrats, alongside abortion and voting rights. Rachel’s big moment came when discussing a question for Trump. It was simple: “Do you see me as a human?” The answer stopped Ruhle in her tracks.
Depending on what side of the internet you go to, Rachel is either or a hero or someone who needs to “start eating healthy, exercise, go outside and move, and with some weight loss they might actually have a better chance at a healthier life.”
Victor Shi, a member of the Harris-Walz Youth Team, also commented on the exchange, calling Rachel’s statements one of “raw honesty and vulnerability” and a thing that “so many young people think about when they see Trump.”
Gen Z, Victor said, is the most racially and sexually diverse generation of all time, and that it recognizes the existential threat Trump poses to lives. He said very clearly he didn’t want to move backward. “We’re not going back,” he said.
So what has Trump been saying about the “transgender issue” lately? At a news conference on August 8, Trump took a shot at Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, saying he was “heavy into the transgender world.”
A day before that he went on Fox News and said pretty much the same thing: “He’s very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great, and he’s not where the country is on anything.”
It goes much deeper than that. Trump’s campaign has spent over $19 million on TV ads that are anti-trans. The ads zeroe in on taxpayer-funded gender transitions and use Harris’ comments from 2019 where she said she’s in favor of transgender inmates getting gender-affirming surgery.
“Kamala is for they/them,” one of the ads say. “Trump is for you.” There’s a strategy to this. One of Trump’s biggest issues is abortion, and he needs an issue where the majority of his party is on his side. That issue is transgender rights.
A political economy professor at Claremont McKenna College named Cameron Shelton told CBS News that Trump needs his party to forget about things they disagree about and “remind you that you agree with me on transgender rights.” For Gen Z’ers like Rachel, the issue is much more than just a political talking point.
