Much of the discussion among Democrats grasping to make sense of Donald Trump’s victory has been directed toward the party’s support for transgender rights.
The argument goes something like this: The majority of Americans aren’t on board with transgender rights. It’s too much. It’s gone too far. It scares voters who think that their kid will go to school a girl and come home a boy, or that there’s transgender women lurking in bathrooms waiting to attack, or that transgender athletes are dominating girls’ sports.
That argument is wrong. Democrats don’t need to abandon fighting for transgender rights and protections in order to win elections. In fact, when issues surrounding transgender rights are on the ballot, they win.
In 2018, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to uphold nondiscrimination protections for transgender people, winning nearly 68 percent of the vote on the same ballot that a Republican governor won 70 percent.
As was the case with a similar ballot question in New York this year, the question on transgender rights proved to be more popular and received more votes than the same politicians who’ve been quick to suggest that Democrats’ support for transgender rights is what lost them the election.
Why was the 2018 Massachusetts ballot question successful? While the opponents pushed a message of fear about transgender women in bathrooms, the yes side ran a targeted voter-outreach approach that spoke to moderate, middle-ground voters. The strategy was to listen to those voters’ concerns with empathy and respond with the relevant facts. We didn’t ignore their fears or chastise them for misinformed views, nor did we obfuscate what it was that we were aiming to do.
The campaign’s messengers in ads and on the doorsteps included public safety officials like police chiefs and, importantly, transgender people themselves who were personally impacted by the issue. It turns out it’s harder to vote against someone’s rights after you’ve looked them in the eyes.
It’s not only in Democratic strongholds like Massachusetts or New York where voters support transgender rights when given a choice.
In Anchorage, Alaska, a 2018 ballot question to uphold transgender nondiscrimination protections passed with 53 percent of the vote, and similar ballot questions have passed in municipalities in red states like Idaho and Arkansas. In fact, there’s a long history of voters supporting gay, lesbian and transgender rights at the ballot box going back to the 1980s.
To be clear — voters don’t always vote to protect transgender rights. For all the victories, there have also been defeats. The measure that passed in Anchorage was rejected three years prior, in 2015, the same year Houston voters rejected a similar effort.
Lessons from the fight for same-sex marriage should teach us that setbacks at the polls can be overcome.
In 2004, many believed Democrats lost because of their support for marriage equality. And in 2008, California’s Proposition 8 banned gay marriage in the same election that saw Barack Obama sweep Democrats to victory in a national landslide.
Yet by the end of his presidency, gay marriage was the law of the land and enjoyed clear majority approval. Today, LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly support Democrats and are a core component of the party’s big tent.
It would be political malpractice to jeopardize that support. If we’re going to counter Republican attacks, we’ll need the LGBTQ community — including transgender people themselves — to help deliver the message, just like they did in Massachusetts in 2018. That’s how we win.
That didn’t happen in this election. The Republicans’ infamous “Kamala is for they/them” ads were everywhere in the final stretch of the campaign. But rather than counter those with our own message explaining why we stand with the transgender community, Democrats ignored the issue. We failed to explain that schools aren’t transitioning kids, that women’s bathrooms remain safe, that transgender girls deserve to participate in sports.
This wasn’t a losing issue for Democrats so much as it was an ignored issue, and we can’t address concerns — unfounded or not — when we don’t even talk about them.
Democrats need to trust that voters will side with transgender rights, so long as we tell them that we do first.
Matthew Chilliak is the former campaign manager and director for Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and his Serve America PAC. He was also a regional outreach director for the 2018 Yes on 3 campaign for transgender nondiscrimination rights in Massachusetts.
