Among the dozens of Zoom meetings organized for Kamala Harris following her jump into the presidential election just two and a half months ago, one is notable for the ambivalence of some of its participants.
Harris has a better than even chance of becoming the first Black and female President of the United States, but Black trans women have a conflicted history with her.
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This included a who’s who of prominent trans people, including Kim Coco Iwamoto and Sarah McBride.
More than a thousand people joined the Trans Folks for Harris Zoom call in August, but the vice president’s record on issues that directly affect the trans community loomed in the background, dampening enthusiasm for some callers who questioned her commitment to their constituency.
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“I have never seen a candidate where I feel completely safe, and I’ve ever been able to breathe a full sigh of relief, never,” Channyn Lynn Parker, CEO of the Brave Space Alliance, told the 19th. Her group serves trans and gender nonconforming youth on the south and west sides of Chicago.
“So, I don’t know if Kamala is going to be any different in that regard.”
One indication of the soft support, or outright hostility toward Harris, was seen at an LGBTQ+ town hall organized by CNN in 2019, when the Democratic nominee first ran for president.
While Harris made a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community right from the top when she introduced herself with her pronouns, Black trans women made headlines by interrupting the event repeatedly, protesting that not a single Black trans woman was included among the questioners. That decision is usually left to a town hall’s organizers.
But Black trans activists were already disappointed with Harris over a number of decisions and policy positions she’d taken in her roles as San Francisco’s District Attorney, California Attorney General and U.S. Senator.
As DA, Harris cracked down on sex work on the streets of San Francisco.
As AG, she has faced harsh criticism over blocking gender-affirming medical care for a trans woman in prison in 2015. Harris, however, has since apologized for this and disavowed her previous position.
And in her time as U.S. Senator, Harris backed a package of bills that went after “sex trafficking” on sites like Craigslist at a time when sex work decriminalization was a high priority for LGBTQ+ rights organizations. Black trans women are overrepresented among sex workers.
The former prosecutor didn’t help her case when, in answer to a question at that same town hall, she drew attention to her work outlawing “panic defenses.”
“You’ll remember the tragic cases involving transgender men who were killed,” Harris said, ironically misgendering the overwhelming number of victims of transgender homicide.
Precious Davis, a Black trans activist and chief strategy officer of Center on Halsted in Chicago, said she hoped the Zoom meeting for Harris, which she helped organize, would provide permission to vote for the vice president.
“We are a part of a community who have the most to lose,” Davis said of Black trans women. “Our rights and freedom are at stake. We have seen Donald Trump’s attacks against the trans community time and time again.”
Trump’s horrendous record on trans issues includes spreading misinformation about gender-affirming care, disparaging trans athletes, uplifting anti-trans activists, referring to “transgender insanity,” passing a trans military ban, and repeatedly misgendering trans folks. Among other anti-trans policies, his current platform calls for outlawing gender-affirming care, banning trans athletes from teams that align with their gender identities, banning trans identities from being legally recognized, and cutting federal funding from schools that respect trans students.
Harris has also selected an extremely pro-LGBTQ+ running mate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz passed several policies that helped trans people during his time as governor, including helping to make the state a refuge for trans folks.
Hope Giselle-Godsey, another Zoom-meet organizer and the executive director of the National Trans Visibility March, expressed reservations about Harris, but added, “I would rather have a fighting chance with her than have no chance at all with Trump.”
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