Vote As Though Your Life Depended On It, Because Some Lives Do

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t vote, thinks it doesn’t matter, feels like your vote doesn’t count, think about the disaster of 2016, and think about these things, and then Cast a Goddamned Vote:

Republicans in Congress are lining up behind legislation that would roll back protections for transgender Americans. The GOP has introduced a bill to block federal funding to colleges that allows transgender women to participate in sports with cisgender women, while a second bill would block funding to schools that disobey state laws regarding “materials harmful to minors,” mimicking state laws that have been used to remove books discussing history around race and LGBTQ themes; it’s a national Don’t Say Gay bill.

And though the bills have no chance of becoming law this year, since Democrats narrowly control both Houses of Congress, they signal the GOP’s efforts to demonize and criminalize our trans brothers and sisters. And Republicans would be in a position to advance those bills next year if they win control of the House or the Senate in the midterm elections, so now is the time to fight, by your vote, for our community because if the GOP wins this battle, the war against all LGBTQ+ Americans will be on.

And while the GOP seeks to discriminate trans Americans it also seeks to protect white supremacist Americans and Nazis in both our police force and military.

Last week the House approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to compel government officials to prepare a report on combating white supremacists and neo-Nazi activity in the police and military.

The amendment Passed despite every single Republican voting against it. The GOP is coming for trans people but not Nazis and white supremacists?

Also last week, when Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, passed two bills to protect women’s access to abortion and reproductive healthcare services, every single ‘No’ vote except one came from a Republican.

The second bill, the Right To Travel For Abortion Services, protecting the right to travel across state lines to obtain healthcare, including abortion, passed 223-205, with all 205 “No” votes coming from the GOP.

While both bills face extreme odds in the Senate, where Republicans have dubbed it “Abortion Tourism,” it does tell Americans where the GOP stands, and how far the GOP will go to make access to abortion completely illegal in the entire country.

And then we have Senate Democrats working on legislation to make contraception rights, same-sex marriage and parenting, and interracial marriage, the law of the land, but all but one of the Senate Republicans have refused to say they would vote for them.

Let all of this sink in: trans Americans are under attack, but Nazis are given a pass. Abortion rights, and the right of women to make their own choices about their own bodies, might become a criminal offense in America; contraception could become illegal; your same-sex marriage, my same-sex marriage, might be nullified; and interracial marriages, even Clarence and Ginni—which perhaps is Clarence’s plan all along—might be outlawed.

If you think your vote doesn’t count, or you think we don’t need your help defeating these racist, transphobic, homophobic, anti-women Republicans, then you aren’t thinking.

November is coming, CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE, or wait for the GOP to come after you, because they will.

NBC News  Newsweek   NCRM   NCRM