The announcement of Sen. JD Vance as former President Trump’s running mate triggered LGBTQ activists who are whining about the Ohio Republican’s views on so-called transgender rights.
Vance is causing alarm in the LGBTQ community for his conservative, pro-family views and recent legislation he has been behind that addresses issues like gender-affirming care and questions about gender identity being added to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.
“It’s hurtful to see someone who has been so overt in their hatred and bigotry for trans people selected for Senate, let alone for potential vice president,” Dara Adkison, executive director of a state transgender rights organization, TransOhio, said.
“Seeing someone who’s supposed to potentially represent all of us hate us with so much venom and disdain and invalidation of our personhood and right to exist just isn’t fair,” Adkison added, according to The Hill.
“This is anything but a unity ticket,” Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said. “We are not simply choosing between two campaigns. We are choosing between two fundamentally different visions of America.”
Other activists were a little less worried.
“Right now is not the time to panic — this is the time for us to be organizing, getting to know our neighbors, and figuring out what our community’s strengths are,” said Ash Orr, a transgender rights organizer in West Virginia.
“They want us to panic. They want us to feel isolated because, if we feel isolated, we’re easier to pick off,” Orr added.
Democrat transgender Arienne Childrey attacked Vance and other Republicans for “fighting against” people in American communities.
“Nobody ever got more affordable prescription drugs because of a trans bathroom ban. No mom or dad ever got a better-paying job because of a gender-affirming care ban,” Childrey, who is running for an Ohio House seat, said, according to The Hill.
“He claims our Appalachian values, but I don’t see it,” she said of Vance. “I see a guy who likes to claim the ‘hillbilly elegy,’ and he don’t know one damn thing about what it means to be a hillbilly — it means to be out there fighting for your community, not fighting against people in your community.”
“I am a trans woman, and I am a progressive,” Childrey declared, “but I am also, proudly, a hillbilly.”
But the president of a conservative LGBTQ rights group and other gay conservatives at last week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee dismissed the fearmongering and whining.
“Don’t confuse the commitment to parental rights and traditional, biological gender issues as being something that’s homophobic,” Charles Moran, president of Log Cabin Republicans recently told NBC News.
“Some of the things [Vance] has talked about is ensuring religious freedom. … Ensuring liberty and ensuring the ability for parents to really have control of their kids’ education. These aren’t LGBT rights issues, these are just issues surrounding freedom and liberty,” he added.
The activists on the left were called out on social media for their attacks on Republicans and, in particular, Vance.
I do not know anyone on the right that is trying to take away LGB rights. That is just more lies and rhetoric from the left.
— Just Looking (@just_looking82) July 16, 2024
So much for the democrats “Toning it down.”
— TomsCigars (@TomsCigars) July 15, 2024
Oh so the alphabet ppl are against him? Then I like JD even more…
— Ted (@Ted045302758951) July 23, 2024
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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