Protection of LGBTQ community on ballot in 2024
While Americans anxiously anticipate the 2024 elections and what the results will mean for our country, members of the LGBTQ community are in a distinctly vulnerable position.
Hate, discrimination and policies targeting our community make it impossible to feel safe, even in a state like New Mexico where our movement has organized for generations alongside supportive lawmakers to build the political environment that protects us. We have the best LGBTQ protections in the United States, and yet we’ve seen school boards and city councils taking dramatic turns to the right over the past four years: attempted book bans in Rio Rancho, attempted curriculum changes for schools in Las Cruces, and the critical race theory-fueled ouster of an Alamogordo superintendent.
The rising conservative opposition in New Mexico is part of a broader trend with respect to issues around gender, sexuality, safety and public health. More than 20 states have banned abortion care since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned rights previously protected by Roe v. Wade, and more than 20 states have banned gender-affirming care. Our opponents never stop fighting. They worked for decades to undermine reproductive health. Their victories didn’t happen overnight. They keep fighting for it. They will do the same until they win on LGBTQ issues, unless we beat them back repeatedly.
Politicians have not hesitated historically to leverage issues impacting the LGBTQ community to stoke so-called controversy and manipulate the electorate. In the 2004 presidential campaign, for example, George W. Bush and Republicans put gay marriage front and center in an effort to mobilize their most extreme voters to the polls. It worked. These days, the attacks are directed at transgender and nonbinary people, especially our youth, coming for our rights to use correct pronouns and bathrooms, play sports or access medical care.
Here in New Mexico, this divisive narrative is being framed as a battle between urban progressives and rural areas, specifically in areas like San Miguel, Cibola and McKinley counties. What we know from our work and polling data is that there is no urban-rural-values divide when it comes to protecting the LGBTQ community. I can speak to this personally as a gay Latino raised Roman Catholic in Alamogordo. Even among my rural, religious friends and family, I was received with love and protection when I came out. New Mexican values of caring for one another are statewide.
This, I believe, bodes well for the openly queer candidate running in Western New Mexico, Christopher Hudson. As a champion of health care access and working family struggles, many think his sexual orientation will hurt his chances, but I’m certain his community will look to his platform and ideas while embracing his identities.
There are LGBTQ champions across the state who have worked passionately to defend us and help us thrive. We recently released our endorsements in anticipation of New Mexico’s June 4 primary election, with early voting beginning May 7. This will be the first time in 20 years that our community’s strongest proponent, Rep. Gail Chasey of Albuquerque, is not on the ballot, leaving a major vacancy to be filled in the House. Equality New Mexico’s former lobbyist, Marianna Anaya, is running for the seat. She is one of the reasons we are the safest state for LGBTQ rights. We have a duty to support candidates like Christopher, Marianna and others who have truly shown up for our communities because the struggle to protect LGBTQ
New Mexicans is far from over.
Right now, in New Mexico and across America, the public narrative is one of “othering.” Folks who look or act differently are being attacked, including immigrants, people with mental health conditions, and especially the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community such as trans women of color. These and other demographics are among the first to be scapegoated when issues of crime, housing and behavioral health care are legislated. It is crucial that while we come together to negotiate real pathways forward around these problems, we can’t allow people to get elected who will simply let our communities suffer in pursuit of politically expedient solutions.
We can’t afford to let our foot off the gas; doing so essentially puts on the brakes during this critical election. The threat to our rights is real and immediate. We must vote now to protect them.