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Hey kids, it's your extremely tired gay internet uncle Ori here today to talk about
VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT
Buckle in, this thread is just getting started and will likely continue until the election.
VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENTBuckle in, this thread is just getting started and will likely continue until the election.
Now if you're like me, you probably have a lot of progressive friends complaining about voter apathy. Hey, I get it. It's frustrating as hell when someone who can easily vote chooses to stay home on election day instead. But what about everyone who wants to vote, and can't?
Today I saw a friend throwing around a stat claiming that 80,000 votes could have changed the result of the 2016 election. That's fewer people than live in a lot of moderately-sized cities. I understand why that's agonizing.
(Source for that stat, btw: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/01/donald-trump-will-be-president-thanks-to-80000-people-in-three-states/)
But hey! "Fun" fact - if you're really upset about those 80,000 people staying home, wait until you find out about the 80,000 trans people living in states with strictest voter ID laws who may not be able to cast a ballot this election.
Here's an article I wrote about it for @prismreports back in March. All told, around 378,000 trans folks across the US lack current and accurate IDs, which could prevent them from voting: https://www.prismreports.org/article/2020/3/16/how-state-id-laws-harm-trans-voters
There are a lot of reasons why we, as trans folks, might not have access to accurate or up-to-date ID. None of them involve not trying hard enough. Here's the quick summary if you don't have time to read an 1800-word article.
The first and most obvious factor: we tend to be poor, particularly trans people of color. This is a direct effect of employment discrimination. Simply put, if you're out, it's harder to get hired and it's harder to keep a job. Because people are terrible.
But don't take my word for it! Here's a bunch of other trans people talking about their experiences: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/laughed-out-interviews-trans-workers-discuss-job-discrimination-n1063041
Anyway, it turns out legal name changes cost money. Sometimes a lot. If you need to pay $600 to update your ID so you can vote, that's a pretty steep poll tax.
And that's if you live in a state where you can update your ID without surgical intervention. Some states require proof of surgery.
An elective mastectomy can cost around $10,000. Genital reconstructive surgery typically costs about $25,000.
An elective mastectomy can cost around $10,000. Genital reconstructive surgery typically costs about $25,000.
It can be much higher without insurance, but even if your plan covers this, your deductible might be thousands of dollars.
(This is, incidentally, why only about a third of the trans population has had any kind of surgery. It's expensive. It's also not necessary to transition socially, and not everyone wants or needs it to deal with dysphoria.)
So, in some states, earning your right to vote can put a trans person out potentially tens of thousands of dollars! Trust me, most trans people are not staying home from the polls because we're apathetic. We have more riding on this than election almost anyone else.
Matters get even more complicated than this, however. In some states, you aren't allowed to update the gender marker on your birth certificate at all, making it legally impossible to update your other identification documents.
And if you've transitioned hormonally and your appearance doesn't match the gender or name on your photo ID? You'll be turned away at the polls for potential fraud. It happens all the time.
Even if you do everything right, being trans can still impact your right to vote. A friend of mine found out today that even though they'd updated all their documentation, their mail-in ballot was issued in the wrong name.
Not just their former name, but a completely wrong name. When they called to ask for it to be reissued, the elections office hung up on them. They're still exploring their options to see if they can update their voter registration in time.
This happened to me in the 2018 midterm election too - my ballot was issued under my former name, even though I updated my voter registration two months in advance. I was lucky they counted my vote at all.
Anyway, if you're really upset about people not voting this election, there's something you can do to help ensure more people have access to the polls.
And it's probably more useful than yelling at people who've already decided to stay home!
And it's probably more useful than yelling at people who've already decided to stay home!
You can donate to @TransLifeline and help them fund legal name changes and ID document updates for trans folks who can't afford it.
Not only will you be helping a trans person vote, you'll also be making their daily life a lot less painful: https://translifeline.org/
Not only will you be helping a trans person vote, you'll also be making their daily life a lot less painful: https://translifeline.org/
Tune in tomorrow for more Fun Voting Facts*!
(*Disclaimer: facts will not be fun, they will fill you with rage.)
(*Disclaimer: facts will not be fun, they will fill you with rage.)
