The moderate conservative PAC Lincoln Project released an ad responding to anti-trans attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris. The new ad says that “Trump is for he/him” and that he’s trying to “gaslight” voters by bringing up Harris’ past statements that she would enforce current federal policy by ensuring health care access for transgender inmates.
The Lincoln Project ad responds to a line of attack that Trump used in his debate against Harris as well as in several ads where he accused her of supporting “taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens.”
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Fact Check: Does Kamala Harris support “taxpayer-funded sex changes” for prisoners & immigrants?
This MAGA ad accuses Kamala Harris of supporting gender-affirming care for detainees of all sorts. Is that true?
“Kamala is for they/them,” one of his ads said. “President Trump is for you.”
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The reality is that the government is required to provide health care to inmates because of the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Gender-affirming care is essential health care supported by all major medical associations in the U.S., and such health care was provided in the federal prison system during the Trump administration.
Moreover, such care is rare; only two federal prisoners have received any form of gender-affirming surgery, according to a statement from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
But none of that has stopped Trump from using this line of attack against Harris, claiming that it shows that she is “radical” and supports “insane” policies. His campaign has spent millions on diffusing the ads, and the Lincoln Project ad is an attempt to counter that message.
“Donald Trump is spending millions attacking Kamala Harris on a desperate lie,” a narrator intones as headlines are shown. “Taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens is a Trump administration policy.”
“He’s attacking Kamala Harris for his own record, and he thinks you’re too dumb to get it. He’s gaslighting America because Trump is for he/him. Kamala is for us.”
The use of health care for transgender inmates as a political weapon during the presidential campaign demonstrates how this may be one of the most anti-trans presidential election seasons ever. While precarious and inadequate, providing health care for cisgender inmates hasn’t gotten anywhere near as much attention as the federal provision of health care for transgender inmates.
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