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After a seemingly never-ending election cycle that left many Democrats frustrated, President Joe Biden bowing out of the race and Kamala Harris tossing her hat in the ring have reinvigorated liberal voters. But what does Harris actually think about the issues that are important to us?
If Harris wins in November, she will make history many times over. She will be the first woman president, the first Black woman president, and the first president of South Asian heritage. All of this would land her in the history books, but it’s her stance on issues that impact everyone’s daily lives that will make or break her presidency.
While we can’t know exactly how she’ll approach issues once she steps foot into the Oval Office, her long career as a district attorney, attorney general, senator, and vice president gives us a window into how Harris feels about the issues that are most important to the LGBTQ+ community.
LGBTQ+ rights
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Harris has a decades-long track record of supporting LGBTQ+ rights, which is why on July 26, 1,100 queer celebrities, politicians, and leaders signed a letter endorsing her presidential run, NBC News reports.
While she was San Francisco’s district attorney, she helped California become the first state in the country to ban the gay/trans panic defense, and she officiated some of the country’s first same-sex marriages way back in 2004. When she was an attorney general, she refused to defend Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, and once it was overturned, she officiated the first same-sex wedding in the state.
As a senator, she introduced a bill to force insurance companies to cover PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention), and while vice president she spoke out against the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that has been sweeping the nation, hosted Pride Month receptions, and even visited New York City’s historically significant Stonewall Inn, The Advocate reports.
Gender affirming care for trans kids
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During her tenure as vice president, Harris has spoken out against conservative states that have banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and the Advocates for Trans Equality recently endorsed her run for president.
In 2023, while talking about the crossover between politicians who attack the LGBTQ+ community and those who try to curtail reproductive freedoms, Harris told The Advocate that she hates “bullies.”
"The intersection on the issue of reproductive care and trans care, and the ability of families to be able to have care for their children and their families, is really, again, an intersection around attacks that are on an identity,” she said.
Gaza
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Although Harris has yet to detail her stance on Gaza and what her policy positions might be if she becomes president, there is evidence that she doesn’t share President Joe Biden’s unwavering support of Israel.
On July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress, but Harris was notably absent. While Harris’s role as vice president dictates that she would typically preside over the event, she missed it to give a keynote speech at a conference of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta.
Vox reports that she was also the first person in the Biden administration to call for an immediate temporary ceasefire and said she understood the “emotion behind” the student protests on college campuses.
On the other hand, Harris has repeatedly said Israel has a “right to defend itself,” and on July 25, she released a statement condemning those who gathered outside of Union Station in Washington D.C. to protest Netanyahu’s visit.
“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews,” Harris said, according to The Hill. “Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.”
Harris is set to have a one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu later today, but it’s unclear what position she will take.
Reproductive rights
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Harris has been a reproductive rights supporter throughout her long career in politics, including when she was in the U.S. Senate, where she cosponsored a bill that would have banned states from enacting restrictions on abortion rights.
During her time as vice president, Harris was an outspoken supporter of Roe v. Wade before it was overturned and now supports legislation that would codify reproductive rights into law nationally. It is also believed that she became the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion provider when she made a stop at a Minnesota Planned Parenthood earlier this year, Time Magazine reports.
The environment
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Harris has a long history of fighting to protect the environment. While she was California’s attorney general, she prosecuted polluters. As a U.S. senator, she sponsored the Green New Deal. Then, as vice president, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which will reduce emissions and provide hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies for everything from electric cars to new clean energy technology.
Last year, she also attended the United Nations global climate summit and told the world leaders in attendance that “the urgency of this moment is clear. The clock is no longer just ticking, it is banging. And we must make up for lost time,” the New York Times reports.
| 07/25/24
