GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis in 2019. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images for ‘BEYOND’ Spirit Day Concert 2019)
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of LGBT+ advocacy organisation GLAAD, is calling for LGBT+ people and their allies to do three crucial things ahead of the US election.
“We have 100 days to impact the course of history and put LGBTQ+ equality and social justice back on the forward-moving path,” Ellis said in a passionate op-ed for The Advocate.
Ellis urged everyone to register to vote, to talk to 10 people they know about how the election impacts them as an LGBT+ person, and, crucially, to get out and vote on November 3.
Exit polls during the 2018 mid-terms suggested that six per cent of voters are LGBT+. Trump won “razor-thin victories in key swing states” that could be flipped, Ellis said, if more LGBT+ people get out and vote.
And on top of this, she pointed out that the “rainbow wave” in 2018 could be repeated: “In 2018, LGBTQ+ voters and our allies helped to create a Rainbow Wave — electing an unprecedented number of LGBTQ+ people to public office at all levels and contributing to the tide that swept in a pro-equality majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
“This year,” Ellis said, “we can do the same in the U.S. Senate.”
We’re ⏰99 days⏰ to the election. Take action by signing up for a #GLAADinstitute Election Media Engagement course. Learn how to use GLAAD tools and media outreach to turn out LGBTQ people and our allies at the ballot box. https://t.co/93ORRX2YKm pic.twitter.com/m7vHQpdlcm
— GLAAD (@glaad) July 27, 2020
Ellis wrote that Donald Trump and his administration have been “disastrous” for the LGBT+ community, pointing to GLAAD’s monitoring of his policies and campaign rhetoric.
“GLAAD has tracked more than 160 attacks in policy and rhetoric from the president and his appointees since he took office in January 2017, and the number continues to grow,” she said.
“It literally started on day one with the removal of all mentions of LGBTQ+ people and policy from the official White House website and has continued nonstop.
“From the egregious ban on transgender service members to the elimination of tracking LGBTQ+ bullying and harassment in our schools to arguing against our equality in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, the attacks have been incessant.
“The president even asserted that businesses should be able to hang signs in their windows that say, ‘Gays Not Allowed’.”
LGBT+ people and their allies must block Donald Trump’s re-election bid, Ellis argued.