Ted Cruz accused Colin Allred of supporting trans children. His answer was disappointing.

Vice President Kamala Harris was asked directly about transgender people for the first time this campaign season on Wednesday when Fox News’ Bret Baier questioned her about a 2019 statement in which she said she supported the use of taxpayer money for gender-affirming care for people living in being in prison. .

“I will follow the law, and it is a law that Donald Trump has actually followed,” she said. “These surgeries are available, on a medical necessity basis, to people in the federal prison system.” When she mentioned Trump, she was referring to a New York Times article on Wednesday that said former President Donald Trump’s administration had provided gender-affirming care to inmates. Trump has released fearsome ads attacking Harris for supporting such policies.

When Baier pressed her on the issue again, Harris went back to Trump, who she said spent “$20 million on those ads, trying to create a sense of fear among voters because he’s actually in this election does not have a plan that focuses on the needs of the American people.” She continued, “Twenty million dollars for that ad, on an issue that, as it pertains to the biggest issues affecting the American people, is actually quite remote.”

It could be the last of Harris’ rare mentions of transgender people in this campaign. At this year’s Democratic National Convention, only two speakers even used the word “trans,” and Democrats have generally been reluctant to defend trans people and their rights, as Republicans have spent millions of dollars on anti-trans ads -generate resentment.

In two close U.S. Senate races, Democrats Sherrod Brown, who is running for re-election in Ohio, and Rep. Colin Allred, who wants to unseat incumbent Ted Cruz in Texas, have failed to convince transgender people that they will have our support.

Allred, who has been attacked by Cruz for voting against a 2023 Republican law requiring sports participation to be based on birth sex, responded with a short ad that begins: “Ted Cruz is lying again. But now he’s lying about our children. I am a father. I am also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all children are God’s children. So let me be clear: I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports, or any of those ridiculous things Ted Cruz says. Ted Cruz is lying about my record because he can’t defend his own record.”

Saying “I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports,” does Allred agree with Cruz that transgender girls are boys? Or is the former NFL linebacker trying to have it both ways with phrasing that allows him to plausibly deny that he opposes the participation of trans girls? Whatever he meant, it is interpreted by transgender people (and probably anti-transgender people) as an opposition to trans girls’ participation in sports.

In Ohio, an ad from the Senate Leadership Fund, the political action committee of Senate Republicans, says: “Brown endorsed Biden, voted to allow biological transgender men to participate in women’s sports and supported allowing puberty blocker and gender reassignment surgery for minors.” Brown’s response was to take out an ad that, referring to trans girls in sports, states: “This is already banned in Ohio.” The ad says Brown agrees with Republican Governor Mike Dewine that “these decisions should be made by local sports leagues, not politicians.” Brown’s ad includes a news segment from a fact-checking journalist saying that Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s claim that Brown “voted to allow transgender biological males to participate in women’s sports is false.”

While Brown’s ad doesn’t take a stand against trans girls playing sports — as Allred suggests when he says he’s against “boys playing girls’ sports” — his ad does suggest that he won’t fight for transgender participation in sports, as he apparently does. believes that politicians should have no say in this. He says transgender girls are “already banned” from participating in girls’ sports in Ohio, but he notably doesn’t say it’s wrong for them to be banned.

Furthermore, the Brown ad’s uncritical use of the language “transgender biological males” in “women’s sports” suggests an acceptance of the premise that trans girls are not girls. It may seem like a sensible political strategy, given how radioactive the polls are on trans athletes; but characterizing trans girls as boys in a sporting context would lead to characterizing them as such in other contexts as well.

After all, if trans girls are really boys when they play sports, then they would also be considered boys in the bathroom, like boys in medical offices and thus denied access to female hormones. If trans girls are boys when they play sports, then trans women should be considered men in all contexts.

Contrary to conservatives’ claims that their goal is to protect the integrity of sports competition, their focus on the issue of trans athletes has never really been about fairness. The goal was to set a precedent that leads to the complete marginalization of trans women and girls.

Unsaid by both Senate candidates is what these ads mean for their past support of the Equality Act. Allred co-sponsored the Equality Act in 2023 and voted for it when it passed the House in 2021. Brown co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill in 2023. Neither bill came to a full vote in their respective chambers last year. The Equality Act, as written, would guarantee equal rights for transgender people under federal civil rights law. That includes educational opportunities such as scholastic and collegiate sports.

It is worrying to see that the Democrats running for Senate are apparently turning against transgender people. These elections are already causing us enough stress. As a community, we understand that Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans gaining control of Congress would be an unmitigated disaster for transgender progress, but if Democrats take the fight further, it would threaten the struggle even more would strike.

We fully understand that the only thing standing between us and the Republican Party’s desire to “purge gender ideology from society” is the Democrats, so the prospect of liberals abandoning us has been high throughout this campaign season.

Harris’ response to Baier was milquetoast, but it provided a marginal bit of relief, as did comments from her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in an appearance on the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast pointed out that Republicans tend to attack transgender people:

“We see it now; the hate has shifted to the trans community. They see that as an opportunity. “If you watch sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing arguments are intended to demonize a group of people for being who they are,” Walz said. “We’re trying to make the point that access to health care, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs and keeping the local hospital open are the things people are really concerned about. They run millions of dollars worth of ads demonizing people who are just trying to live their lives.”

For Harris’ part, she vowed to follow the law, which currently requires the government to provide gender-affirming care in a variety of contexts, including to people incarcerated in federal prisons. But laws can change, and she has not promised to defend those policies if there is an effort to change them. Will she fight back if a Trump judge decides that incarcerated people should not receive such care? Will our rights be a legislative priority under a Harris White House?

We simply don’t know.

Transphobia has historically been an election loser for Republicans, dating back to 2016, when then-North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who signed the now infamous trans toilet law, lost in a red wave election. During the 2022 midterm elections, conservative groups spent millions on anti-trans ads, only to be wiped out at the ballot box. But Democrats have inexplicably avoided a fight on trans issues this year.

A few weeks ago, speaking to NBC News, an unnamed Harris adviser expressed admiration for the effectiveness of Trump’s anti-trans ad, if not its content, describing it as “a great ad.” The Washington Examiner reported last month that the Harris campaign had consulted the British Labor Party for strategic assistance. That is the party responsible for banning puberty blockers for all trans young people in Britain. Neither the comment from Harris’ adviser nor the reported consultation with the Labor Party inspires confidence in me as a trans person and a voter who depends on Democrats for my rights in this country.

What makes Democrats’ apparent capitulation even worse is that there is little evidence that anti-trans ads are even breaking through with voters. Polls show that trans issues are of little importance except to a small handful of voters. Harris also said as much in her interview with Fox News, but Brown and Allred (who previously supported the Equality Act) responded to the Republican Party’s ad by softening their public support for trans rights in states where trans youth have been borderline tortured by GOP policies. .

I worry that the Democrats’ or Harris’ loss next month will not only result in a disastrous Trump policy for transgender people, but that Democratic advisers will hinge these hypothetical losses on Democrats’ support for transgender people.

The Democratic silence in the face of widespread Republican attacks on transgender people is already sending signals of declining support for our community. The presidential election has become more restrictive lately, as happens with most October elections, but that’s not the fault of transgender people or the result of Trump’s transphobic ads.

Trans people like me are anxiously awaiting the outcome of this election as we dream of the day when we have a party that is willing to fight on our behalf and that will not remain silent or yield ground as the Conservatives wage their reckless hate campaign.