“FREEDOM IS AT STAKE” GLAAD AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD IN CONVERSATION ABOUT KEY ISSUES OF THE MIDTERM ELECTION FOR LGBTQ AND ALLY VOTERS

GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is releasing a new video conversation for its “Vote with Pride” video series, featuring GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis and Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson discussing the critically important issues in the midterm elections for LGBTQ voters, including abortion access, healthcare, economic equality, marriage equality, the freedom to read amid efforts to ban LGBTQ-and race-inclusive books, and the freedom to vote.

GLAAD’s “Vote with Pride” video series appears on GLAAD’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels. 

VIEW/EMBED THE VIDEO HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vw6BkeP-9g

KEY BITES:
Alexis McGill Johnson: We’ve seen an increase of young people, millennials, people of color, women, LGBTQ communities registering to vote en masse as unprecedented as the (Dobbs) decision. People will see the polls, they’ll see how tight it is, but we have to give more validity that people are fired up, and enraged, and help channel that into action on Election Day. And make sure that we make the difference in this election cycle, between this cycle and the next we literally have democracy in our hands… all of our things we care about, our identities, how we express ourselves, these freedoms are tied together across communities, we have to make sure those freedoms are realized.

Alexis McGill Johnson: Freedom is at stake, freedom for our ability to control our own bodies, to be our free authentic selves, our ability to participate in our democracy. Since the decision in Dobbs came down I’ve been seeing the impact on women, on trans and nonbinary folks taking incredibly arduous abortion journeys just to seek access they should be able to have in their own states. And some of those states are also coming for the trans community. They’re coming for our voting rights. It’s all intersectional, it’s all together and that is all on the line right now.

Sarah Kate Ellis: What I’m seeing now in the culture is that what people feel, and what they see and support in the culture, is not being represented by the politicians, it’s actually being unwound. They’re trying to create a counter-culture against our communities. And so you’re seeing that at the state level. Even the attack on Pelosi’s husband and that being used to undermine the LGBTQ community and target us out of nowhere. We continue to be used as fodder in the political game of football that’s happening. We thought we had moved past that with marriage equality, that we would be seen as equal, and it’s simply not true. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: A lot of what we are seeing as well in the reproductive rights and freedom space, people are talking about the barriers they’re facing now. They’re talking about the journeys to get access to abortion care out of state. They’re talking about the impact of not being seen if they’re nonbinary or trans in this fight…  It’s really important for us to think about all the ways that we can tell our stories because that also helps us shift culture and you can’t deny when someone shares who they are and how important it is to be seen and recognized. 

Sarah Kate Ellis: I always find it interesting when people say: if your vote didn’t matter, why are they trying to take it away from you?
Alexis McGill Johnson: That is the truth! Vote vote vote vote vote. That’s a method of disinformation, they want you to not participate and to demoralize you. We know we can stand firmly in the power.

GLAAD’s “Vote with Pride” video series includes:

• Actor, director and advocate Billy Porter with Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change, the largest online racial justice organization, about the power of the Black and queer vote. VIEW/EMBED LINK HERE: https://youtu.be/nZ5-aRvxl8M

• Actor, activist and producer Wilson Cruz with Voto Latino’s President and CEO María Teresa Kumar about the power of the LGBTQ and Latine vote. VIEW/EMBED LINK HERE: https://youtu.be/wTa0nBHfVt4 

• GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis with Family Equality CEO Stacey Stevenson about threats to LGBTQ and ally families, why she decided to move her family out of Texas because of the hostile climate to LGBTQ people, and how voters must speak up to protect marriage equality after Roe was overturned and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for landmark LGBTQ rulings like Obergefell to be reconsidered. VIEW/EMBED LINK HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPx9uIRG0cg&t=3s

Additional research:

• 9 million LGBTQ adults are registered to vote

• LGBTQ voters are expected to be 14% of the eligible voting population by 2030, according to a recent analysis of population data. 
• A GLAAD poll of Florida LGBTQ and ally voters shows their top issues include restoring abortion access (47%), gun safety reform (31%), housing costs (22%), inflation (22%), and LGBTQ equality (19%).
• Abortion is an LGBTQ issue: A 2019 study found that bisexual women were three times more likely than heterosexual women to have had an abortion. 
• States with abortion bans are also targeting trans youth healthcare, despite the fact that gender-affirming care is supported by every major medical association.
• Officials in Alabama cited the Dobbs decision to justify the state’s ban making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care.
• President Biden promised to codify Roe into law if two more candidates who support abortion access are elected to the U.S. Senate
• Abortion access and the economy are entwined issues: abortion access and freedom to make decisions about your own body affect families’ financial stability, a parent’s current/future earnings (usually women/gestational parents who are out of the workforce after childbirth). In the 27 states with an abortion ban, none guarantee paid family and medical leave, 18 have gender wage gaps above the national average, 22 have poverty rates for women above the national average, 17 have poverty rates for children above the national average.
• Restricting abortion impacts a company’s ability to recruit top talent in states with restrictive laws (as Eli Lilly warned). And it impacts states’ ability to attract college students to its universities when students can’t access reproductive healthcare.

   

About Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Planned Parenthood was founded over 100 years ago on the revolutionary idea that women have the right to access the information and care they need to live strong, healthy lives. Today, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) fights to protect that right — often in the face of extreme politicians trying to take it away.