Tonight’s Democratic debate: stop overlooking LGBTQ women
When the 2020 Democratic candidates convene tonight to debate LGBTQ issues, there’s a critical topic that must be part of the conversation: sexual and reproductive rights and access. These rights, which are foundational and fundamental to LGBTQ equality and bodily autonomy, are under attack nationally by the Trump administration, in states that increasingly pass abortion and other restrictions, and, as of last week, in a Supreme Court challenge to Roe v Wade.
Why should an LGBTQ-focused debate center reproductive health and rights? At the first LGBTQ-focused candidate event last month, these issues were never even mentioned. Maybe that’s because historically the issues of white gay men have taken precedence over those of concern to LGBTQ women and LGBTQ people of color. But the two fights are inextricably linked, and treating them otherwise denies historical precedent and ignores the current lived experience of LGBTQ women in America.
As the acting board chair of LPAC, a political organization for LGBTQ women, and the former Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of Planned Parenthood, I’m no stranger to the fundamental importance of the full range of reproductive rights for all individuals, and especially for LGBTQ women who are too often marginalized by the law and by traditional healthcare.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney pointed out how these movements have been working together for decades in a HuffPost op-ed in 2017. They noted that Supreme Court decisions like Lawrence v Texas, which overturned a Texas law prohibiting private same-sex physical relations, depended on precedents establishing and protecting abortion rights. And reproductive justice advocates have been working tirelessly at the intersection of these movements from the beginning, immediately understanding and fighting for this common ground.
The fight is far from over. In fact, it’s heating up with a newly conservative Supreme Court majority putting LGBTQ equality and abortion access cases front and center. Restrictive (and vindictive) state abortion rules and the Trump attack on Title X are forcing health clinics serving LGBTQ women to close or cut back on access, not only to abortion but also to cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and birth control.
Decreasing access to women’s health services disproportionately impacts LGBTQ people, particularly LGBTQ women and trans women of color. Clinics like Planned Parenthood, which are some of the only places where clinicians are especially attuned to the needs of the LGBTQ community, and which do everything they can to serve people regardless of ability to pay, are being targeted. Because LGBTQ people have disproportionately low rates of insurance coverage, cuts to these high-quality, low-cost services are especially harmful. These attacks also impact LGBTQ womens ability to get pregnant and start families, and more often than not it is the same groups working against access to sexual and reproductive health who target us when we seek to become parents.
It’s crucial that Democratic candidates discuss the deep connections between reproductive rights and LGBTQ women’s health, and forums devoted to our community are the perfect place to start those conversations. Before leaving the Presidential race, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand consistently drew the connection between reproductive rights and LGBTQ women’s rights. Her platform said, “Republicans’ assault on reproductive freedom may be motivated by misogyny, but it hurts transgender and non-binary Americans too. I have always pledged to protect funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X-funded health care providers, which serve millions of LGBTQ patients — many of whom have nowhere else to go for compassionate, gender- and orientation-competent healthcare.” Against the backdrop of the Supreme Court cases being heard this week it is welcome to see more candidates speaking forcefully on these issues, but it will require ongoing work to make it clear to LGBTQ women that our healthcare access and freedom is a top priority.
In an election cycle where a gay man and multiple straight women — but no LGBTQ women specifically — are excellent, viable candidates for the nomination, the needs of LGBTQ women as a distinct demographic must not be overlooked. LGBTQ women are a larger percentage of the population than gay men, and we are a reliably progressive voting bloc — if we believe that our concerns are being represented. A smart candidate will use the upcoming LGBTQ forum to start a robust and ongoing public discourse about how abortion access and sexual and reproductive rights are a critical issue for LGBTQ women, and also to remind gay men that they are also significant beneficiaries, both in terms of their health and their hopes for true equality.
Voter counts aside, it’s also time for our elected leaders to acknowledge our community as a distinct group with unique and pressing needs. When rights are rolled back, LGBTQ women are among the first to be harmed. Speak to us.
Dawn Laguens is an expert in residence at design and innovation firm IDEO and the acting board chair of LPAC. Previously, she was executive vice president and chief brand officer at Planned Parenthood.
