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By Sabrina Jacobs (@bri_jacobs)
To know a transgender person is to love a transgender person.
It’s that time of year again – LGBTQ+ history month!! Over the past few years, the trans community has made a lot of important strides. Sarah McBride becoming the first openly trans state senator, Unholy made Sam Smith and Kim Petras the first nonbinary and transgender artists, respectively, to have a song reach the Hot 100, and Amy Schneider proved she’s once again smarter than all of us by winning the Jeopardy tournament of champions. What is… a win for the trans community?
While there have been a lot of incredible victories, the transgender community has also had to face a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Honestly, trans and non-binary people are too busy running Delaware and writing viral songs – the last thing they need is Ron DeSantis getting involved with their treatment plan. The man can’t even smile correctly, who let him run a state? Logically, we can only assume that Ron DeSantis doesn’t know how to smile because he’s never had the joy of meeting a transgender person. Data for Progress finds that while 69% of voters report knowing someone who is gay, only 30% of voters know someone who is transgender and even less (21%) know someone who is non-binary.
We also find that knowing a transgender person significantly impacts sympathy towards the transgender community. Voters who say they personally know a transgender person report nearly double the rate (68%) of sympathy for transgender people compared with those who do not know a transgender person (35%).
Since having a personal connection to a transgender person is clearly important, there’s only one logical solution: mandatory drag brunch at the Republican National Convention with Sasha Colby. And while we’re at it, let’s include a screening of Sex Education followed by a panel discussion on transgender representation in media moderated by Elliot Page. This convention is gonna blow some conservative minds.
Read the full polling here.
Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:
Virginia is for lovers, not Republicans.
Virginia voters have made it clear: Republicans can’t be trusted. On most things, but especially abortion. With an election on the horizon, Virginia has an opportunity to overturn their Republican controlled House of Delegates. Obviously, a Democratic-controlled House and Senate would be great for Virginia as a state, but we also just love any opportunity to frustrate Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Our favorite hobby!
In a new poll, Data for Progress finds that Virginia voters in competitive districts distrust Republican candidates on abortion and reproductive healthcare by a -17-point margin, with a -27-point margin among Independents. Additionally, these voters do not trust Glenn Youngkin by a -4-point margin, with a -7-point margin among Independents. Valid. Republicans have a famously bad track record when it comes to anything related to reproductive health. And we have a hard time believing that Glenn Youngkin has been within 10 feet of a gynecologist.
On the flip side, Virginia voters are more than happy to entrust their reproductive healthcare with Democrats, Planned Parenthood, and Vote Pro-Choice. In competitive districts, Virginia voters trust Democratic candidates by a +7-point margin, Planned Parenthood by a +17-point margin, and Vote Pro-Choice by a +19-point margin. And you know why? Democrats definitely know where tampons are located in a CVS, yet we’ll bet good money that it’s a toss up for Republican men. And if that’s the case, they shouldn’t be making decisions about our bodies.
So Virginia voters, this is your opportunity to save yourselves from the Republican anti-reproductive health council. On November 7th, do yourself a favor and vote for Democrats.
Read the full polling here.
It’s RuPaul’s world and we’re just living in it.
In honor of National Coming Out Day, Data for Progress asked adults an incredibly important question: who is your favorite queer celebrity?
The results were fascinating. Among LGBTQ+ adults, RuPaul took an easy W, followed by Lady Gaga and Freddie Mercury. However, things changed when we asked all adults. Ellen climbed up from fifth place to first, bumping RuPaul down to second with the Rocket Man (sorry, Elton John) at third.
If you ask us, this might be our most important work to date. Nothing tells us more about society than RuPaul taking the win amongst LGBTQ+ adults and Ellen winning amongst all adults. The duality of man.
Find the full ranking here.
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