Your Queer Guide to Kamala Harris’ Policies

We all know Kamala Harris is our best option to beat Trump in the upcoming election, but where does she stand on queer issues and issues important to queer people?

Trans Rights

Harris has been a champion of trans rights throughout her career, even in the early 2000s, when transphobia and homophobia were running even more rampant through politics. She spoke at her city’s third-annual Trans March and has been consistently against the “trans panic” defense since 2006, leading California to be the first state to ban panic defenses in court.

As a senator, she co-sponsored a bill to ban the panic defense nationally. In 2016, Harris worked behind the scenes in the California legislative branch to change the policy that required gender-affirming surgery for imprisoned trans people to be denied, allowing trans people to have a real chance to access surgery while in prison. She has also been endorsed by many trans rights groups, such as Advocates for Trans Equality. 

Housing

Queer people, as a minority group, are more likely to experience economic struggles, which includes homelessness. While this is a massive issue in the U.S. right now, it is even more applicable to queer people, as there is no consistent federal law that protects queer people from housing discrimination. However, the Equality Act, which Harris co-sponsored as a Senator, would amend the Civil Rights Act to include protections against discrimination based on sexuality and gender identity. 

LGBTQ+ in Schools

Harris recently spoke to the American Federation of Teachers, where she publicly spoke in favor of LGBTQ+ teachers and their ability to discuss queer topics and be out in the classroom. She has spoken out against book bans, specifically against those bans based on LGBTQ+ content or authorship, and says: “It is incumbent on us who believe in the strength of diversity and the importance of unity to build coalition … including on the issue of what is happening in terms of attacks against trans folks, attacks against the LGBTQ community as a whole.”

As a part of the Biden-Harris administration, she has helped introduce Title IX updates that include the right of trans students to use bathrooms that correctly align with their gender identity. The administration also announced protections for LGBTQ+ youths in school such as strengthening mental health care access.  

Sex Work

Harris’s approach to sex work throughout the years has had significant negative impacts on sex workers. Many trans and queer people participate in sex work, meaning that these policies attacking sex work also often attack queer people and their livelihood.

As California Attorney General, Harris was instrumental in taking down the website Backpage, a classified ad website that allowed sex workers to vet their clients and advertise their services safely. Studies showed that sex workers felt less safe and had less financial stability after the website was shut down.

As a senator, she was a key component in the passing of the 2018 FOSTA-SESTA law, which WAS meant to stop anyone from sex trafficking or helping sex traffickers, actively made it difficult for sex workers and forced them to move to more dangerous websites. 

She has more recently stated that she is in favor of decriminalizing sex work, but her previous actions and the harm she has done to sex workers prove that might be unlikely.

Reproductive Rights

One of Harris’s major campaign points is her support of the freedom of reproductive rights and the right to abortion. As a senator, she proposed a plan to protect abortion where states would need to get federal approval before changing their abortion laws. She has said that if Congress introduced a law that would restore reproductive freedoms on a federal level, she would sign it. Harris was the spokesperson for abortion rights during the Biden-Harris campaign and will continue to advocate for federal abortion access. 

Israel and Palestine

The Biden-Harris administration has supported Israel in the current conflict, continuing to host Netanyahu and send funds to Israel. Harris, as an individual, also has a staunch pro-Israel background. She co-sponsored a measure as a senator that would condemn a UN Security Council resolution that denounced Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and spoke at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in 2017. 

However, she has seemed more empathetic towards Palestinians than other politicians in this election. She was one of the first high-ranking officials to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. She told Netanyahu it was time to end the war when he spoke in D.C. and emphasized the humanitarian crisis and devastation currently occurring in Palestine. This could precede a positive policy change of Harris’, but sympathy is no good without any actions to back it up.

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Throughout her career, Harris has continuously been an LGBTQ+ ally. In 2004, as San Francisco District Attorney, she created a hate crimes unit to attack anti-LGBTQ+ violence. In 2006, she organized a conference with over 100 U.S. officials to end the use of the gay and transgender panic offense. Her campaign for California Attorney General in 2010 was based on her refusal to defend Proposition 8, and when she was elected based on this campaign, she refused to defend the act and even officiated some of the first same-gender marriages in the state of California.

As a senator, she frequently spoke out against violence towards trans women of color. This allyship continued through the Biden-Harris administration, which was called the “most pro-equality (administration) in history” by the Human Rights Campaign.

It is safe to say that Harris will continue her allyship if she is elected President, and her possible election could mark a drastic positive change for queer people and their protections in this country.

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