Dear Senator

A letter to Dems about the Equality Act

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

November 5, 2022

Dear Senator ____,

I have put off voting long enough.  I need to pull out my mail-in ballot and do it today.  I will be voting for you.  It should be a joy and privilege to cast my ballot and vote for public servants I believe are working for me and all Americans.  But although I used to admire you, in 2022 I only feel immense sadness and anger about voting for anyone with a “D” beside her name.  

You need to know my vote does not confer a mandate to the Democratic party platform. 

It is emotionally painful to vote for you.  Why?  It is because you actively and enthusiastically support the institutionalization of gender identity ideology in law.  You have told me as much in responses to my emails, pleading for you to look more deeply into the issue of how legislation such as the deceptively-named “Equality Act” destroys the sex-based rights of women as a class.  You have made your public stance abundantly clear. 

But the Democrats are dead wrong on this issue.  These laws are causing great harm to all Americans, including trans-identified Americans.  You must see at least a hint of that truth by now. 

Because of your party’s policies, women are being raped in prison by trans-identified men.  Here in Washington State, a bill was passed by Democrats to hide information about males in women’s prisons.  I testified publicly against it, along with other lifetime Democrats.  Rapes, sexual assault, and an atmosphere of fear are reported by the women who live there.  Because of a bill passed unambiguously by Democrats, it is now harder than ever to find out the results of a DOC policy change that allows males into the women’s prison.  These are men who simply SAY they are women, whether they have had surgeries or taken hormones or not.   Don’t you see how truly predatory men can exploit this policy pushed by Democrats? Are you really okay with that? 

Because of your party’s policies, children who are far too young to provide fully informed consent are being medicated, sterilized, and subjected to irreversible surgeries.   It is beyond shocking to me that you and all your Democratic colleagues support this medical malpractice.  Yes.  I am well aware that the medical establishment also supports these policies--but that will change, because they support it without solid evidence.  Many doctors and nurses have been sounding the alarm for years while children are being hurt and the pharmaceutical companies and surgeons make money hand over fist.  Some of this damage will take years for us to understand, as these children grow into adulthood.  Did you listen to the testimony in Florida by Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old detransitioner who had her breasts removed at 15 and has been harmed by testosterone use?  There are many more like Chloe.  Are you really okay with that?

Because of your party’s policies, important parental rights are being removed as schools hide information about their children.  In some cases, kids are even taken from their parents if the parents do not “affirm” the child’s announced gender identity.  Don’t you think most parents know their own kids?  How is this morally better than what happened on our Southern border under Trump?  Are you really okay with such aggressive and harmful state interference in families?

You have long been a champion of education.  But because of your party’s education policies, parents are revolting.  Children are being taught dangerous, confusing, and anti-science nonsense in schools about sex and gender.  The well-understood principals of biology have not changed.  Humans are a dimorphic species, nobody is born in the “wrong” body, and a person cannot change his or her sex.  Children don’t know any better because they are children who believe all sorts of fanciful things.  They are deeply confused.  That confusion puts them in danger, as they cannot correctly identify which adults could harm them.  Are you really okay with that? 

You and the other Democratic leaders in the US have handed the moral high ground on a silver platter to what I believe to be a very dangerous political party:  the US Republican party as shaped by Donald Trump.  Conservative Americans who watch Fox News are so fearful of bad Democratic policies such as gender ideology that they support Republican leaders doing whatever they can to keep Democrats from power.  Including destroying elections and the democratic process.  But sadly, not everything that Americans hear on conservative media is “misinformation.”  Some of the policies pushed by Democrats, such as gender ideology, really are that terrible.  People of all political stripes are right to recoil, as I have.  Part of this peril is your fault, not just dangerous and power-hungry Republican leaders. You can screech and moan and blame the Big Bad Republicans all you wish, but you are complicit in the danger our country faces:  that we may lose the precious right of free and fair elections. 

I wish, just for once, you would start by admitting this truth. 

You haven’t listened.  You, who have prided yourselves on being the party of science, have abandoned science.  You, who have long claimed to champion women’s rights, have abandoned women.  Ruth Bader Ginsberg would be turning in her grave.  You, who claim to care about children, are actively promoting the biggest medical scandal of all time against American children.

Do you know about the over 40,000 detransitioners (and growing daily) on Reddit?  Do you know that Sweden, Finland, and the UK have all pulled back from “gender affirming care” (social transition, puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries) because there is no clear evidence that it is helpful and mountains of evidence it is hurting children?    Do you know about the Cass Report that shut down the only gender clinic at the previously renowned Tavistock in the UK because this practice is harming kids? 

Do you know that Reuters reported that it is a LIE that children are not getting surgeries in our country?  It turns out Fox News has been telling the truth.  MSNBC has not.

I first voted for president when I cast my ballot for Jimmy Carter.  I have never voted for a Republican in my life, so I am not even a “swing voter.”  It is not much reported on, but one of the reasons you are likely to lose control of Congress is this issue of gender ideology.  It’s not just a bad economy.  As you no doubt know, polls show that voters no longer trust the Democrats on education.  So many people, women especially, who have been life-long Democrats are voting Republican for the first time in their lives.  I know of many.  One friend of mine in Kirkland who did not vote for Trump will be voting for your opponent. Women will not lay down and continue to support you when their own children and grandchildren are so much at risk.  Because you won’t help them and their families.  You won’t hear the many, many pleas because it is politically impossible for you to hear them. 

I don’t blame them for voting Republican.  But upset as I am, I am even more fearful of what could happen to our country with a Republican takeover.  Not only the destruction of free and fair elections, but further erosion of women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, and further environmental degradation.  And yes, I am also deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of trans-identified people of all ages, who deserve full protection under the law and the basic human rights we all deserve.  They too are at risk from a Republican takeover.   They will take the heat from your terrible instated policies that have resulted in such deserved anger.  Anger always needs a target, and innocent people are at risk. 

You will be partially at fault for that result. 

I have joined the increasing ranks of the politically homeless, people from both “sides” who no longer see any leaders who represent us.  But, yes, although I have deleted all the frenzied texts from Democrats, I am voting for you.  I take the Republican leaders and candidates at their word when they vow to never let Democrats rule again.  I take them at their word as they insist the 2020 election was a fraud, and that they wish to destroy Democrats.  I want sanity and political peace to prevail.  I do not wish to see the further erosion of American democracy, fragile as it is.  Even as I also see authoritarian and anti-democratic trends on the left, I don’t think the threat is as great.  From my best understanding, by voting for you I see a slightly better chance of preserving some semblance of democracy and forestalling a new order where perpetual violence rather than elections determines who has power.

I would be happy to meet with you to talk about these issues so you truly can understand them.  I worked for Democrats in our state for 12 years and met you a few times when I was working for the Senate Majority Leader in the Washington State Senate.  Senator, it would go a very long way for you to stand up to this and admit the Democrats have been wrong, even if it destroys your political career.  Some things are more important than politics.  You first ran as a “mom in tennis shoes.”  Please consider the moms in 2022 trying to protect their children who have been caught up in a faddish and dangerous cult, leading to such dire and irreversible consequences.  This really is a crisis.  Strong leadership is needed. 

Whether you win or not, we need you to seek the truth and stand up for women and kids now more than ever.  It is not too late to save your legacy.  It is not too late to learn. 

Sincerely,

Your name here