#DrewsViews: Why You Should Pay More Attention to State Lawmakers

by Andrew Adams

With the 2020 democratic primary in full swing and the 2020 presidential election around the corner, it can be easy to forget that any other type of elected representative exists. Most people forget that it’s actually the local and state representatives who make a lot of the day to day laws that impact your life the most. Because of the difficulties the LGBTQ community has with being treated equally on a national, state, and local level, every election is important to people like us, people whose lives are politicized by default. Here are 10 reasons why you should cast informed ballots in every local and statewide election coming up!

• HB2, and all other transphobic bathroom bills, which makes it illegal for a trans man like myself to use a men’s bathroom in a public or government owned place were proposed by state representatives
• All of the recent horrible abortion criminalization laws were passed in state representatives, like those laws in Ohio and Alabama
• Right now, in the state legislatures of Florida and other states, there are bills being proposed by state legislators that would make it illegal for a doctor to help anyone under the age of 18 medically transition, including the use of hormone blockers
• Local school board elections can be very important too, as a lot of school boards have the power to decide if trans people can use the bathrooms they want, if gay people can bring their partners to prom, and other school related policies
• City officials have the power to pass human rights ordinances in their cities, like the one in my hometown of Jacksonville, which protects LGBTQ people from experiencing housing or job discrimination, even if there aren’t any national or statewide protections
• Speaking of protections, state lawmakers have the power to institute statewide protections for queer people
• Statewide lawmakers can also decide if adoption agencies can discriminate against lgbtq families, which could bar lgbtq people from adopting
• The legalization of recreational and medical marijuana use is a decision made in state legislatures, so regardless of your stance on the issue, state legislatures are important
• State lawmakers determined whether or not your state had marriage equality before the Supreme Court ruled on it
• Voter turnout in local elections has been decreasing for awhile, which makes your vote matter even more than ever!

State and local lawmakers are crucial to the every day lives of LGBTQ people. The bills that they vote for can change things as minor as traffic patterns to as major as the safety of transgender people to live authentically. As often as these elections or elected officials are overlooked, they make the bulk of the decision making for the entire state! Check your voter registration on vote.org to make sure you are registered, update your voting address, and of course, to register to vote.

Simply Googling your zip code and who represents you will yield every local, state, and national government official that you can vote for and who represents you. So use these tips and these reasons as motivation to go vote for the change you want to see!

About the Author:

Andrew Adams is a transgender college freshman at the University of Central Florida who is committed to LGBTQ advocacy at the local and national levels. Nationally, Andrew serves as a youth ambassador and advocacy volunteer for The Trevor Project, a youth social media ambassador for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and a Volunteer and Intern Coordinator for Point of Pride. On the legislative side, Andrew lobbies for the Equality Act by visiting with his Congressional representatives and their staff.

Additionally, Andrew has spent years fighting to change his school district’s bathroom policy to be trans-inclusive, and the fight is still ongoing. Andrew is an International Baccalaureate student and a volunteer at the Mayo Clinic, and he hopes to go to medical school and become an adolescent psychiatrist specializing in transgender health. For fun, he practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, creates sculpture art and plays the piano.