Dear MoveOn member,
Conservatives across the country are celebrating a horrid new Arkansas law
that allows medical workers to deny care to people in the LGBTQ
community.^1 The bill sailed through the legislature, where Republicans
hold a supermajority, and the Republican governor signed it into law on
Friday.^2
This new law is part of a frightening wave of state legislation targeting
the LGBTQ community: Nearly 200 bills have been introduced this year
alone, mostly targeting trans youth.^3
And the three states where bills have already been signed into
law—Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi—all have one thing in common:
Republicans hold insurmountable supermajorities in their state
legislatures.
According to a recent study from the Human Rights Campaign and the
Equality Federation Institute, states with unilateral Republican control
are significantly more likely to pass laws attacking the LGBTQ
community—laws that place kids, trans women of color, and other vulnerable
communities at the highest risk for violence and harm.^4
One reason so many of these laws are being passed is because Republicans
have spent decades consolidating control in state and local governments,
building a bench of extremist candidates who can implement the GOP's
hateful agenda once in office—and in 75% of those races, Democrats are not
even on the ballot.^5
That all ends now.
MoveOn is expanding our partnership with Contest Every Race, an
organization that aims to find progressive leaders to run in every single
state and local election across the country and put an end to the
destruction done by the GOP.
John, will you chip in $5 a month to make sure we
have the consistent funds we need to power our work with Contest Every
Race to recruit, train, and help progressive candidates win in 2021 and
2022?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Contest Every Race was founded after the election of Donald Trump to fight
back against Republican dominance in swing-state legislatures and rural
parts of the country by ensuring that no GOP candidate runs unopposed in
state or local elections.
Over the next year, MoveOn will help recruit hundreds of diverse,
energized MoveOn members to run in these critically important races and
break the stranglehold that Republicans have on state and local
policymaking. And we're uniquely qualified to do it, because MoveOn has
members in every single district in the United States!
But we're not stopping there. We're investing in these candidates,
including training them to
* recruit and organize volunteers,
* raise grassroots donations,
* most effectively use social media to get their message out, and
* do whatever it takes to run a winning campaign.
This is a huge undertaking, but the potential benefits for communities
across the country are staggering: expanding Medicaid, ensuring everyone
has access to good-quality health care, protecting access to abortion,
fighting against police violence and corruption, and so much more.
Will you chip in $5 a month to power this game-changing
program?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
John, we are at a turning point in our nation. Just as the
Biden administration works to undo the transphobic and homophobic policies
of the Trump administration, and as we watch Dr. Rachel Levine be
confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, becoming the first out
transgender official ever confirmed by the Senate, the backlash in
Republican-controlled states is stark and terrifying.
Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU,
called the rise in anti-trans bills across the states "uniquely dangerous"
and an attempt to "establish governmental policy that it's harmful to be
trans."^6
We cannot keep letting hateful bigots run the table in state and local
government. It's time to fight back and make real change at the local,
state, and national levels.
Will you help us support hundreds of progressive candidates by chipping
in just $5 a month?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Chris, Allison, Arvin, Amy, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Arkansas governor signs bill allowing medical workers to refuse
treatment to LGBTQ people," PBS NewsHour, March 26, 2021
[link removed]
2. "Arkansas General Assembly," Wikipedia, accessed March 30, 2021
[link removed]
3. "BREAKING: First Anti-Trans Bill of 2021 Signed Into Law By Mississippi
Governor Tate Reeves," Human Rights Campaign, March 11, 2021
[link removed]
4. "2020 State Equality Index," Human Rights Campaign, accessed March 30,
2021
[link removed]
5. "520,000 elected offices—and Democrats aren’t competing in up to 75% of
them." Contest Every Race, accessed March 30, 2021
[link removed]
6. "Transgender rights in the spotlight as Arkansas and Tennessee become
latest states to pass anti-trans legislation," CNN, March 29, 2021
[link removed]
Want to support MoveOn's work? Together, our diverse and vibrant coalition
elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We have an opportunity to make
progress, but only if we give it our all to call for bold progressive
legislation to expand health care, solve the climate crisis, address
systemic racism, and more.
Will you chip in to power the fight for bold, progressive change?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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