With less than a week to go until Election Day, extremist candidates and organizations affiliated with them are sending hateful messages about transgender people to mailboxes and airwaves in swing states.At least 25 states across the country have seen advertisements.
One of the organizations that is funding the anti-trans propaganda is America First Legal, which is run by Stephen Miller, a former member of the Trump administration.The Human Rights Campaign’s research shows that a lot of advertising money is going to Black and Spanish-speaking voters through TV, radio, digital, and direct mail in an effort to lower Democratic turnout.
False claims include that the Biden administration is promoting “chemical and surgical castration of boys and girls” and mandating “sex-change surgeries on minors.”Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, and Matthew Whittaker, the short-lived Trump Attorney General, make up America First Legal’s board of directors.The American Principles Project, whose funding comes from billionaire couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who have a long history of supporting candidates who oppose transgender people, is another advertising group.The Southern Poverty Law Center asserts that American Principles’ mission is to spread conspiracy theories of the radical right.
The groups are said to have spent $50 million supporting extremist candidates, according to HRC.America First Legal spent $4 million on a radio advertisement aimed at Black voters in the cities of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Detroit, all of which are important swing states.
In one advertisement, the narrator declares, “The Biden administration is pushing radical gender experiments on children.””Hands off our kids,” say leaders of the left in America and Joe Biden.
Although Republicans like Herschel Walker, a candidate for the Senate in Georgia, and Doug Mastriano, a candidate for the governorship in Pennsylvania, are supported by the advertisements, their names are not mentioned.As registered “issue-oriented” nonprofits, America First Legal and American Principles Project are prohibited from coordinating directly with candidates for elective office.
The Human Rights Campaign’s interim president, Joni Madison, stated, “Instead of using their final pitch with voters to outline policies on the issues that voters actually care about, they’re trying to create mass hysteria and fear — and doing so at the expense of LGBTQ+ people and, especially, transgender youth.”Anti-equality candidates and their extremist allies are using fear-mongering and division to win votes through these ads.
Attacks on transgender people are also coming directly from candidates.A television commercial featuring Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds emphasizes what she refers to as her “values of faith, freedom, and hard work.”She asserts, “We know right from wrong, boys from girls, here in Iowa.”A law prohibiting transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports was signed by Reynolds earlier this year.
Since she finished in a tie for fifth place with trans swim champion Lia Thomas in a swim meet, swimmer Riley Gaines has made a small business out of promoting anti-trans messages to right-wing candidates.After Kelly vetoed two anti-transit measures, she has eliminated ads for Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Democratic Iowa Gov. Laura Kelly.
Gaines said in the spot, “This must stop.”Laura Kelly shouldn’t be governor if she can’t protect women.
