'Fighting spirit': LGBTQ voters see hope in Harris campaign amid attacks from right
CHICAGO – Peter Imhoff draws inspiration from the words of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress who famously advised that if no one gives you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.
“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu,” said Imhoff, an LGBTQ campaign strategist and radio show host from Sarasota, Florida. “We’ve been on the menu in Florida for the last eight years, and I’m really tired of being gnawed on.”
Imhoff, who identifies as nonbinary and is a delegate at this week’s Democratic National Convention, sought the position as a way to fight back against the recent onslaught of attacks against LGBTQ Americans in Florida and other states.
Imhoff and other LGBTQ Americans believe they have a powerful ally in the fight: Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic nominee for president.
Harris, who was a district attorney in San Francisco at the time, was one of the first public officials to officiate at a gay wedding in 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom permitted same-sex couples to obtain a marriage license in defiance of state and federal regulations, which barred such marriages.
Harris remained a reliable ally when she later became California attorney general, one of the state’s U.S. senators and vice president under Joe Biden.
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Biden, too, has been supportive of LGBTQ Americans and is widely regarded as the most LGBTQ-friendly president in history. Even so, delegates at the convention said they are elated at the possibility that Harris would succeed him at the White House.
“She’s a new face – she’s got that fighting spirit,” said Mike Golojuch, a delegate from Oahu, Hawaii. “Joe is definitely a great guy, and I was for him all the way. But I think she’s got that extra push right now that we need to win.”
Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate has been widely applauded by LGBTQ Americans. Walz has a long history of support for the community and, as governor, has taken a multiple steps to protect LGBTQ rights.
He signed an executive order protecting access to health care for transgender people. He also signed laws imposing a statewide ban on conversion therapy and protecting transgender people and their families from legal repercussions if they travel to Minnesota to receive transgender health care. In addition, he has spoken out against discriminatory legislation in other states.
Walz has turned Minnesota into “a gay haven,” said Michael Marcheck, a delegate from Lincoln, Nebraska. “I am hoping that he takes that into the White House and does something nationally with those ideas.”
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The Harris-Walz ticket “gives us all a sense of hope that we can get change, that we can have our rights secure,” said Jessie McGrath, a delegate from Omaha, Nebraska.
McGrath, who is transgender, is a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and worked with Harris on multi-jurisdictional cases when Harris was the San Francisco district attorney. “She has always been very, very supportive of the community,” McGrath said.
A record number of delegates at this year’s convention identify as LGBTQ. With 81% of delegates responding, 17% identified themselves as LGBTQ, convention officials said. That’s up from four years ago, when 11.5% identified of those responding identified as LGBTQ.
The increase comes as gays and lesbians face new threats in state legislatures across the country. More than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced so far this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Florida has been Ground Zero for much of the anti-gay legislation, with Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-led legislature banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms and placing new restrictions on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and transgender access to public restrooms.
One way to fight back is to make sure there are LGBTQ delegates at the convention and voices at the national level, people “who have lived these experiences, that have gone through this,” Imhoff said.
Harris’ Republican opponent, Donald Trump, rolled back protections for transgender people during his first term and has promised to target additional transgender protections if he wins in November.
“The thought of Donald Trump getting back in again scares the living hell out of me,” McGrath said. “Because I know what he's done. I've seen what he's done. I've heard what he said. It’s not good.
Imhoff recognizes that even if Harris is elected, she won’t be able to stop much of the legislation on the state level. But there are some things she could do. Imhoff, for example, would like to see her push a federal ban on conversion therapy for minors and grant federal protections against some of the state legislation that strips rights away from LGBTQ Americans.
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If nothing else, delegates said, Harris’ election could help shift the national tone on LGBTQ issues. Her candidacy has changed the tone of the election.
“The entire time we were running with Biden, there was a sense of malaise,” Marcheck said. “It wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm.”
Now, he said, “More people are coming to me and saying, ‘How can I help? Harris excites me. What can I do to push that across the finish line?’”
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris campaign gives LGBTQ voters hope amid attacks from right
