Opinion: Protecting trans youth: A not-so-humble stepmother’s reason for voting in 2024

I sent my MAGA in-laws a series of postcards recently. Each one ended with, “Please think of this/these fact(s) and your granddaughter when you vote in November. Love, Erica.” Considering their granddaughter/my stepdaughter is a young transgender woman, I thought it was the most delicate way to approach the GOP elephant in the room.

It’s no secret that the Republican Party seems hellbent on being cruel to trans people. GOP state legislatures have introduced hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2024 alone. Thanks to Michigan’s current Democratic trifecta, LBGTQ+ citizens in Michigan now have protections under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

However, those protections can go away if Donald Trump is elected to office and if the GOP gains a majority in the House and Senate. Project 2025, the 920-page blueprint for a second Trump administration, has an insidious plan for my stepdaughter and people like her. On page 37, Project 2025 aligns being trans or having a “transgender ideology” to pornography and later states, “Pornography should be outlawed.” In other words: Project 2025 wants to make trans people nonexistent.

This is a disturbing fact I wrote about in one of those postcards to my in-laws. By now, I know my in-laws have received those postcards. They haven’t contacted me or my husband about them. I don’t know if they’re mad, and I don’t know if they made any impact. What I do know is this: I will never be sorry for supporting my stepdaughter and standing up for her and her community.

Being a stepparent was a role I didn’t expect in life, but it’s a role I cherish. It’s likely the biggest thing I have in common with fellow proud stepmother Vice President Kamala Harris.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a September town hall event in Flint, Mich. that since Harris doesn’t have biological children, she “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.” Not only is that concept backward and outdated, but it’s also completely insulting to every caring stepparent in this country.

This is the first presidential election where my stepdaughter can cast her vote, and she knows what’s at stake. For that reason alone, I look forward to her, my husband, and myself casting our votes for the Harris/Walz ticket. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll help humble Trump and the Republican Party.