Another week has come and gone, and a wealth of new LGBTQ+ political headlines came and went with it. When it all gets overwhelming, we’re here to help keep you up to speed on the week’s latest LGBTQ+ news. We’re now just 30 days, 4 weeks, or 1 month from the election day, when you can go and cast your vote in the 2024 elections.

This week saw a mix of positive and negative headlines for the community, with the balance leaning towards the negative because of political attacks. The Trump campaign is attacking trans kids in a brazen new way, trans people are struggling to get (and keep) accurate driver’s licenses, and a surprising celebrity is helping to correct the national trans narrative.

LGBTQ+ silence at the VP debate

This week saw Tim Walz and JD Vance face off in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. Throughout the whole event there was no mention whatsoever of LGBTQ+ issues, despite the widespread Republican attacks against trans people across the nation. However, that silence was not only expected, but probably a good thing. Tim Walz’s positions on LGBTQ+ matters, including protecting trans people, is well documented. JD Vance seemed to want to distance himself from some of Trump’s more extreme rhetoric during the debate. A discussion likely wouldn’t have garnered anything but attacks and meaningless soundbites.

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The Trump campaign blames school failures on trans people

During the debate, JD Vance seemed to be trying to appear more moderate and make Trump’s statements seem less extreme. Shortly before the debate, however, Vance made sure we’d know that’s not who he really is. Taking to the stage alongside an anti-LGBTQ+ pastor, Vance claimed he knew the real problem that was behind declining education quality in the United States: trans kids. Vance claims that we’re teaching “radical ideas” and not teaching “reading, writing, arithmetic.” In Vance’s view, spending money on schools is “tax dollars on radical organizations that are poisoning the minds of our kids,” and claims that “we’ve got American children that can’t add 5+5, but they can tell you there are 87 genders.”

It appears that these bizarre lies are part of a new push from the Trump campaign that ties into Trump’s plan to destroy the Department of Education. Trump himself echoed some of the claims nearly verbatim in a conversation on Fox News with Kellyanne Conway. Suggesting that the only thing taught is “transgender” (whatever that means), he said “We want reading, writing, and arithmetic, […] right now, you have mostly transgender. Everything’s transgender.”

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Chick-fil-A is making new moves but hasn’t changed

This week, Chick-fil-A confirmed they will open restaurants in the UK. This is part of a massive push from the famously anti-LGBTQ+ fast food chain to move into the international market. Chick-fil-A is advertising these restaurants as its first in the United Kingdom, but seems to be trying to play down the locations it had there back in 2018 and 2019 which closed down during protests of the company’s anti-LGBTQ+ donations. Shortly after those closures, the company claimed that it would no longer donate to the hate groups it had been supporting, and that might have been an attempt to clean up their image ahead of this latest push.

But it is important to note that while the company no longer donates directly, the people who run Chick-fil-A and receive the money you spend there still do. Dan Cathy, the company’s chairman donates extensively to the National Christian Foundation, which has worked to stop the Equality Act from passing, supports preventing trans youth from accessing healthcare or playing sports, and funds the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation.

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MAGA trolls are sharing homophobic attacks on Buttigieg

A Twitter/X account called “Breaking 911” seems devoted to sharing fake stories that attack both sides of the political spectrum. Recently, it’s claimed Melania Trump has filed for divorce and that Tim Walz has been accused of sexual assault. Both claims have no sources and are entirely false.

Similarly, there is no truth behind their claim that “Pete Buttigieg has revealed that he is HIV-positive.” That hasn’t stopped right-wing influencers from sharing the homophobic claim. Tim Miller, a gay political strategist, noted that he had seen the claim reposted by a “MAGA pundit” and received 500K views. Chasten Buttigieg has responded to the lie by pushing for people to keep supporting the Harris campaign.

Texas wants to take away trans licenses

Driver’s licenses have become the new hot button topic for anti-trans attacks. We previously discussed Alabama’s new requirements to update gender markers on a driver’s license, which require trans people to be sterilized. While Texas previously required a court order to change your gender marker on your license, the state has now started refusing to change it even with such a court order. When people try, they’re added to a list of trans people who try to update their gender markers.

Now, the state is going a step further, and Texas is looking into whether it can retroactively change previously corrected gender markers back. This would potentially mean that trans people presenting their licenses with their correct markers would be guilty of fraud and would leave them having to out their gender history to everyone from nightclub bouncers to landlords for rental agreements. This, of course, comes right before the 2024 election in a state that requires ID, such as a driver’s license, to vote, meaning this could be part of a larger voter suppression plan.

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Trans Texans could be about to lose their licenses entirely

A new Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Assessment Map

This week, Erin in the Morning released her latest Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Assessment Map. The map provides a depiction of the relative risk to trans adults and trans youth in each state based upon the legislation being enacted and proposed there, as well as trends within that state. The latest update for the adult map sees Texas move to a higher risk after the new concerns around trans driver’s licenses there.

For the trans youth map, Erin Reed has moved the risk level from high to moderate. While the situation is still dire, she cites the more positive polling that Harris has received after replacing Biden. Then there’s the fact that the government funding bill has been kicked down the road meaning the proposed bill that included anti-trans elements is not an immediate concern. This all seems contingent on Trump losing in November.

Will Ferrell is helping correct the trans narrative ahead of the election

Finally, to end on a good note, there’s a new documentary out that could help to change the national trans narrative. It comes from a surprising place: Will Ferrell (who now regrets a transphobic SNL sketch) and Netflix (which has regularly platformed transphobic comics). Will & Harper is a documentary that follows Ferrell and his newly out friend Harper Steele as they go on a road trip across the United States. Ferell recently discussed how when Netflix wanted to acquire the documentary, one of his key condition was that it had to be released before the 2024 November election. “We wanted it to have enough runway for people to get to see it and hopefully start having important discussions in their living rooms,” he said. Will & Harper is available to watch on Netflix now.

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