Why anti-transgender political ads are dominating the airwaves this election

If you’ve watched TV this month, you’ve likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. From Oct. 7 to Oct. 20, Trump’s campaign and pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million on ads, more than 41 percent of which were anti-trans. Independent journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Erin Reed joins Laura Barrón-López to discuss.
John Yang:
If you’ve watched TV this month, especially sports like football or baseball, you’ve likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. Laura Baron-Lopez looks at what’s behind them.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender. But this election year, Republicans have spent a considerable amount of money on ads demonizing transgender people. From October 7th to the 20th, Trump’s campaign and pro Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million and more than 41 percent of those ads were anti-trans.
Man:
Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners.
Woman:
For prisoners.
Kamala Harris:
Surgery for prisoners. Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access.
Man:
Hell no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.
Man:
Kamala supports transgender sex changes in jail without money.
Man:
Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls in their sports. Kamala is for they, them. President Trump is for you.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Erin Reed is an advocate and independent journalist covering LGBTQ issues and she tracks transgender legislation around the world. Recently, Erin announced her decision to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election. Erin, thank you so much for being here.
Erin Reed, Independent Journalist and LGBTQ Plus Activist: Thank you so much for having me on.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Anti-trans rhetoric is a regular part of Donald Trump some speeches. He regularly lies about kids going to school and receiving gender affirming surgeries before they return home. But now, in the final stretch, Republicans have been putting out increasing amount of ads that are anti-trans, making it essentially their closing argument. Help us understand the scope and the rhetoric in these ads.
Erin Reed:
I have tracked around $100 million in ads. We see Donald Trump spending more money on these ads than on housing, immigration, and the economy combined. This is a major issue for him. Meanwhile, you have groups like the Senate Leadership Fund dropping extreme amounts of money in Senate races in Ohio, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, and they’re all focused on transgender people.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
The top issues, according to most polls right now, is the economy, abortion, immigration. So why do you think Trump and his allies are making this one of their main closing arguments?
Erin Reed:
It’s important to note that some of the biggest benefactors of the Republican Party, some of the most influential organizations in the party we’re talking, groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, for instance, have made this their main issue.
If you’re running a campaign in a place like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan at any level, and you want money in your campaign, targeting trans people is a really good way to do that. But as for Trump, I think that there’s something different at play here. I think that this is a classic fear campaign. We’ve just got polling today showing that Harris is catching up on the economy and on other issues that Republicans tend to pull well in.
And so the purpose of a fear campaign is to distract you from issues that you normally care about by making you so afraid of a group of people, of somebody like me, for instance, that you’re willing to throw everything else away because you’re scared.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Who are these ads targeting? They run during major sporting events. They were just on during the World Series. Who is he trying to reach here?
Erin Reed:
The group of people that are watching these sporting events are young men. And I think in a lot of cases, the Republican Party is trying to tap into what they hope is some level of fear that they can draw up from that group of people. If you look at most polling and anecdotally, really, young people tend to understand trans people better than anybody else.
They’re not as afraid of us. And I think that might be part of why this messaging campaign might be falling short.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
These ads make pretty specific claims about surgery for transgender inmates and undocumented immigrants. Let’s take a listen.
Man:
Under liberal border czar Kamala Harris, illegal aliens are pouring into our country, including murderers, rapists, and even terrorists. Instead of paying for their crimes and receiving justice, Kamala will give criminal illegal aliens to taxpayer funded transgender surgeries.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Walk us through the facts about what’s actually happened with those populations.
Erin Reed:
What the ad is actually talking about is medical care in the United States is a right by the 8th amendment. You cannot deny medical care to prisoners. And under the law, a law that was in place during the Trump administration, if a doctor determines that an inmate needs medical care, then they get it.
So these ads are actually focused on two instances where a transgender person received gender affirming care in prison, a surgery. And the amount of money spent on these particular cases is far less than the amount of advertising dollars that Trump is pouring into this issue.
About 2 to 400 times more money is being used in political ads to make you afraid of two transgender inmates. So afraid that you’re not going to care about the economy anymore, you’re not going to care about abortion anymore.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Erin, when you take a step back, what are the stakes in this election for transgender Americans?
Erin Reed:
It’s been an especially difficult year in the last two or three years for trans people. Just two days ago in Odessa, Texas, they passed a $10,000 bounty on trans people found in the bathroom. I’ve been tracking anti LGBTQ legislation for years now. And it’s not just the ads. The legislatures themselves are spending more time on this issue than anything else. This has been priority number one.
And the trans people that live in these states, they constantly have to hear their humanity debated in public. They constantly have to worry about things that I think a lot of Americans take for granted, things like going to the bathroom, getting an updated driver’s license, playing a school sport with your friends. But trans people right now are under a relentless assault by the Republican Party. These bills are passing in primarily Republican states.
Even if Trump doesn’t win and we get a Kamala Harris presidency, we have to contend with a nation that has been primed to hate people like me.
Laura Baron-Lopez:
Erin Reed, thank you for your time.
Erin Reed:
Thank you so much for having me.