Trading on that fear and hate, Republican candidates have run a
attack ads like Eric Hovde slamming Tammy Baldwin over what he calls her radical
agenda allowing men to compete in girls sports. He's not alone in the final
days of the 2024 campaign. The Trump campaign is also laser focused on
attacking Kamala Harris on transgender rights in an ad blitz and on the campaign
trail. Kamala support states being able to take minor children and perform sex
change operation, take them away from their parents, perform sex change operation
and send them back home. Of course this is a lie. It does not happen. In an
opinion piece in the journal Sentinel this week our next guest said, quote,
politician should know better than to attack people, especially children. Abigail
Swats is executive director of Fair Wisconsin, an advocacy organization for
the LGBTQ community and she joins us now. Abigail, thanks very much for being here.
Thank you for the invite. So as to the idea of children going off to school and
coming home with transition surgery, does that happen? Absolutely not. It is a lie
and I'm glad we're calling it a lie because it is not only untrue, it is
meant to deceive and frankly divide and create distrust with our educators
and our medical professionals and I find that lie absolutely disgusting. How do
these ads and statements affect people for whom you advocate? So to understand
the impact of the ads, I think first we have to realize that they are ethically
wrong because they are dehumanizing and lies and frankly ridiculous distraction
and that kind of hateful language, it does have a cost. It has an emotional
cost because turning people into issues and weapons does have an impact that is
quite dangerous on the LGBTQ plus community and frankly on everyone because
I think it has this impact of eroding empathy and that is really dangerous.
And and as an example of this impact actually, so I just want to say I am a
member of the LGBTQ plus community, but I'm not trans and it is incredibly
important to always center trans voices in this conversation and it is not okay
to always make trans and non-binary people defend their own existence and so
it is incredibly important for the rest of us to also show up and support. The
editorial you mentioned, I co-wrote it with a dear friend of mine who is trans.
I am here because in that editorial, you've probably noticed, my friend used
their initials out of out of a safety concern and that is incredibly important.
It sort of distills down the impact we're talking about. So the 2024
Republican platform states they will oppose quote left-wing gender insanity
trying to make inroads with voters by focusing in on these transgender
rights. What's the play there in your mind politically?
Wow, it's a really good question. I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask it
to though. I would love someone to ask them that question because they seem to
think that attacking trans people is a winning issue and I'm here to say that
as voters we cannot let that be true. We cannot let it work. They're trying to
use an identity as a wedge issue to divide and confuse and it's just a
distraction that we cannot let them let them take advantage of. On that, what is
your message to voters who are deluged by these ads and rhetoric?
My message is that I think we all need to hold a few truths in our hearts when
we're seeing this kind of deluge. It's the right word. We have to remember that
these are not issues and these are not weapons. Trans people are people who
deserve respect. Trans children are children who deserve love and support
and trust. They are not weapons and as LGBTQ plus people we've been turned into
issues against our own will by politicians who are trying to scare you to vote a
certain way by using your neighbors against you because trans people and
trans children are your neighbors and your friends and we in the LGBTQ plus
community care about a lot of issues those that target us and those that don't
those are the ones that we should really be paying attention to like housing
affordability and reproductive justice. Those are the issues that everyone
cares about and we're part of everyone too. So how important is the LGBTQ plus
voting block? Well, we're not a monolith. I'll definitely start with that but we
are pretty numerous. I'd say they're best estimate about 250,000 voting age
LGBTQ plus people in Wisconsin. So, well, we definitely don't vote as a full unit.
We could really make a difference in an election in a state where we know the
margin of victory is about 20,000 votes pretty often. So, I think it's important
when we are going around as fair Wisconsin talking to voters, we're hearing those
intersectional needs. People are caring about so many things that impact us often
disproportionately and we have to remember that our vote really, really
matters. What kind of fears do you have that that vote could be swamped by inciting
fear of harming children? I fear beyond just voting when it comes to the rhetoric
we're seeing because rhetoric just has a it has an impact and emotional cost but
it also turns into hateful policies and those policies also have a very
detrimental effect. All right. Abigail Switz, thanks very much. Thank you.
You're great. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on and in the
background will be my co-author who definitely helped me make sure that we
were on point with what you needed to ask. So, thank you for asking the needed
questions. Thank you. All right. Enjoy this weekend. Okay. Have a good rest of
you today. I will do my best. Bye. Bye.