Vice President Kamala Harris was asked directly about trans people on Wednesday for the first time this election season when Fox News’ Bret Baier asked her about a 2019 statement in which she said she supported the use of taxpayer dollars for gender-affirming care for incarcerated people. .

“I will follow the law, and it is a law that Donald Trump has indeed followed,” she said. “These surgical procedures are available, on the basis of medical necessity, to individuals incarcerated in the federal prison system.” In mentioning Trump, she was referring to a New York Times article published Wednesday that said former President Donald Trump’s administration provided gender-affirming care to incarcerated people. Trump has aired fear-mongering ads attacking Harris for supporting such a policy.

When Baier pressed her again on the issue, Harris returned to Trump, who she said “spent $20 million on these ads, trying to create a sense of fear in voters because he doesn’t actually has no plan for this election that involves focusing on the needs of the American people. She continued: “Twenty million dollars for this ad, on a subject that, insofar as it concerns the biggest issues affecting the American people, is really quite far away. »

This could end up being the last of Harris’ rare mentions of trans people in this campaign. At this year’s Democratic National Convention, only two speakers used the word “trans,” and Democrats in general have been reluctant to stand up for trans people and their rights, while Republicans have spent millions of dollars on ads stoking anti-trans resentment.

In two tight U.S. Senate races, Democrats Sherrod Brown, running for re-election in Ohio, and Rep. Colin Allred, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Ted Cruz in Texas, have failed to convince trans people that ‘they would support us.

Allred, who was attacked by Cruz for voting against a 2023 Republican bill requiring sports participation to be based on sex at birth, responded with a short ad that begins: “Ted Cruz lies again. But now he’s lying about our children. I’m a dad. I am also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all children are God’s children. So let me be clear: I don’t want boys playing girls sports, or any of those ridiculous things Ted Cruz says. Ted Cruz lies on my record because he can’t defend his own.

With the words “I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports,” does Allred agree with Cruz that transgender girls are boys? Or is the former NFL linebacker trying to have it both ways with wording that allows him to plausibly deny that he opposed trans girls’ participation? Regardless of how he meant it, it’s interpreted by trans people (and probably anti-trans people as well) as him opposing trans girls’ participation in sports.

In Ohio, an ad from the Senate Leadership Fund, the political action committee of Senate Republicans, says: “Brown supported Biden, voting to allow biological transgender men to participate in women’s sports and supported allowing puberty blocking and sex reassignment operations for minors. Brown’s response was to air an ad that, in reference to trans girls in sports, says: “In Ohio, this has already been banned.” The ad says Brown agrees with Republican Gov. Mike Dewine that “these decisions should be made by local sports leagues, not politicians.” Brown’s ad includes a news segment from a fact-checking reporter who claims Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s claim that Brown “voted to allow transgender biological males to participate in women’s sports is false.” .

While Brown’s ad doesn’t take a stance against trans girls participating in sports — as Allred suggests when he says he’s against “boys playing girls’ sports” — his ad suggests he will not fight for trans participation in sports, as he appears to have done. believes that politicians should have no say in this matter. He says transgender girls have “already been banned” from playing girls’ sports in Ohio, but, notably, he doesn’t say it’s wrong that they were banned.

On top of this, the Brown ad’s uncritical use of the language “transgender biological males” in “women’s sports” suggests an acceptance of the principle that trans girls are not girls. This may seem like a sensible political strategy, given the radioactivity of polling about trans athletes; but characterizing trans girls as boys in a sporting context would lead to characterizing them as such in other contexts as well.

After all, if trans girls are actually boys when they play sports, they would also be seen as boys in bathrooms, boys in doctor’s offices, and thus denied access to female hormones. If trans girls are boys when they play sports, then trans women should be considered men in all contexts.

Contrary to conservatives’ claim that their goal is to protect the integrity of athletic competition, their focus on the issue of trans athletes has never really been about fairness. The aim was to set a precedent that leads to the complete marginalization of trans women and girls.

Both Senate candidates have not said what these ads mean for their prior support of the Equality Act. Allred co-sponsored the Equality Act in 2023 and voted for it when it passed the House in 2021. Brown co-sponsored the Senate version of the law in 2023. Neither bill made the cut. subject to a full vote in their respective chambers last year. The Equality Act, as written, would guarantee equal rights for trans people under the federal Civil Rights Act. This includes educational opportunities like school and college sports.

It’s worrying to see Democrats running for Senate turning against trans people. This election is already causing us enough stress. As a community, we understand that Trump’s return to the White House and Republican control of Congress would be a complete disaster for trans progress, but that our rights would be even more threatening if Democrats gave up the fight.

We understand intimately that the only thing separating us from the Republican Party’s desire to “purge gender ideology from society” is Democrats. The prospect that the Liberals are abandoning us has therefore loomed large throughout this election season.

Harris’ response to Baier was milquetoast, but it brought slight relief, as did comments from her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who during an appearance on the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast , pointed out that Republicans tend to attack trans people:

“We see it now; the hatred has shifted to the trans community. They see this as an opportunity. If you watch sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing arguments are aimed at demonizing a group of people for who they are,” Walz said. “We’re trying to make the case that access to health care, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs and keeping the local hospital open are what people really care about. They put out millions of dollars of ads demonizing people who are just trying to live their lives. »

For her part, Harris pledged to uphold the law, which currently requires the government to provide gender-affirming care in a variety of settings, including to people incarcerated in federal prisons. But laws can change, and she did not commit to defending the policy if attempts were made to change it. Will she retaliate if a Trump judge rules that incarcerated people should not receive such care? Will our rights be a legislative priority under a Harris White House?

We just don’t know.

Transphobia has consistently been an election loser for Republicans since 2016, when then-North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who signed the now-infamous trans bathroom bill, lost in a red wave election. In the 2022 midterms, conservative groups spent millions on anti-trans ads, only to be voted out at the polls. But Democrats have inexplicably avoided fighting on trans issues this year.

A few weeks ago, an anonymous Harris adviser speaking to NBC News expressed admiration for the effectiveness of Trump’s anti-trans ad, if not its content, describing it as “a killer ad.” The Washington Examiner reported last month that the Harris campaign had consulted Britain’s Labor Party for strategic help. This is the party responsible for banning puberty blockers for all trans young people in Britain. Neither the Harris advisor’s comment nor the reported consultation with the Labor Party inspire confidence in me as a trans person and a voter who depends on Democrats for my rights in this country.

Compounding the Democrats’ apparent capitulation is that there is little evidence that anti-trans ads are successful in convincing voters. Polls show that trans issues matter little except to a tiny handful of voters. Harris said as much in her Fox News interview, but Brown and Allred (who previously supported the Equality Act) responded to the GOP ad blitz by toning down their public support for trans rights in states where young people trans people have been borderline tortured by GOP politicians. .

I worry that defeat for Democrats or Harris next month will not only result in disastrous Trump policies for trans people, but that Democratic consultants will blame these hypothetical losses on Democratic support for trans issues.

Democratic silence in the face of widespread Republican attacks on trans people is already sending signals of weakening support for our community. Presidential polls have tightened lately, as they have in most of October’s elections, but that’s not the fault of trans people or the result of Trump’s transphobic ads.

Trans people like me await the outcome of this election in dread as we dream of the day when we have a party ready to fight on our behalf and one that will neither remain silent nor give ground while the Conservatives wage their campaign of reckless hatred.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com