Transgender Community

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation.

In a closely contested Senate race in Wisconsin, Republican candidate Eric Hovde is heavily investing in ads targeting incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and her longtime partner.

When asked by CNN if she believes Hovde aims to remind voters of her sexual orientation, Baldwin responded, “I think he is.”

The ads feature Baldwin’s partner, Maria Brisbane, who heads a private wealth management division at Morgan Stanley, questioning Baldwin’s ethics while subtly highlighting her sexual orientation.

One ad shows a woman in her kitchen stating, “Baldwin’s in bed with Wall Street,” referencing the senator’s relationship with Brisbane. In other instances, Brisbane is labeled Baldwin’s “girlfriend.”

All these ads convey a similar dual message, funded by a significant influx of cash from Republican sources and Hovde’s own wealth.

While Democrats are expected to outspend Republicans overall in the Senate race, Hovde and his supporters have reserved $51 million for advertising from October 1 through Election Day, compared to $39 million for the Democrats.

Hovde’s latest advertisement twists Baldwin’s previous statements against her, featuring a 2009 Senate hearing where she discussed domestic partner benefits.

“Married members must disclose important information about their spouse’s income, investments, gifts, and debts. Surely the public interest would require that these obligations apply to partners of gay and lesbian officeholders,” Baldwin states in a C-SPAN clip.

The ad’s narrator then contrasts this with a recent debate where Baldwin, addressing Hovde, said, “Stay out of my personal life,” highlighting that she and Brisbane are not married.

Baldwin further asserted, “And I think I speak for most Wisconsin women that he should stay out of all of our personal lives.”

Despite Baldwin’s arguments, she faces challenges regarding financial disclosures related to her partner. She clarified to CNN that, unlike a previous domestic partnership, she is not required to disclose Brisbane’s clients due to a lack of a legally recognized relationship. The couple does own a $1.3 million condominium in Washington together.

Baldwin condemned Hovde’s tactics as a dog whistle, designed to distract from his own financial conflicts tied to owning a $3 billion bank.

“I disclose everything I’m required to,” she stated. “I think he’s trying to divert attention from his own questionable judgments.”

“Imagine him on the Banking Committee, regulating banks,” she added. “This is a serious conflict of interest he wants to deflect from.”

Hovde’s ad campaign also targets the transgender community, linking Baldwin to claims about allowing men to compete in women’s sports and supporting a clinic that allegedly provides transgender therapy to minors without parental consent, which has been proven false.

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This blog originally appeared at THEM.

The memo also stated that gender is a synonym for sex, which is “determined by innate and immutable biological characteristics.”

Florida officials have quietly revoked a policy that allowed transgender residents to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses, coinciding with other efforts to halt the state’s legal recognition of trans people.

A leaked memo dated January 26 from Robert Kynoch, deputy executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV), indicates that the department has immediately ended its policy of reissuing licenses to update gender markers, a practice in place since 2018. Instead, “gender” will once again be considered “a synonym for ‘sex,’” which Kynoch claimed is “determined by innate and immutable biological characteristics.”

Independent journalist and legal analyst Alejandra Caraballo, who posted a screenshot of the memo on X (formerly Twitter) Monday night, was the first to publicize the policy change. Although no DHSMV representative has publicly commented on the memo’s veracity, Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani appeared to confirm its authenticity on Tuesday. Eskamani stated that as of January 30, DHSMV computer systems already appear to disallow changes to a registered driver’s gender.

“This is another gross example of how every state agency has been weaponized to attack trans people,” Eskamani wrote.

Florida Democratic Party (FDP) leaders echoed this sentiment. “Florida Republicans’ obsession with trans people has to stop,” FDP chair Nikki Fried said in a statement on Tuesday. Fried specifically called out Gov. Ron DeSantis and described a pattern of similar, covert rule changes throughout his administration.

“We’ve seen state agencies continually weaponized under Ron DeSantis, and this rule change at DHSMV serves the same purpose as the rest — allowing right-wing extremists to get the wildly unpopular policies they want without having to go on the record as voting for them,” Fried stated.

LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus president Nathan Bruemmer concurred, saying, “Our government agencies must remember that their responsibility is to serve Floridians — not the failed agenda of a power-hungry Governor who is out of touch with the people of Florida.”

Kynoch’s letter also warned of possible civil and criminal fraud charges for “misrepresenting one’s gender” on official identification. This is a concern for trans Floridians needing renewals, but those with valid IDs shouldn’t panic yet, Southern Legal Counsel attorney Simone Chriss told NBC affiliate WTVJ.

“There’s no reason for individuals who currently have a driver’s license or identification card that reflects their gender identity to be concerned,” Chriss explained. “The DHSMV or the police have no authority to suspend or revoke their licenses.”

The new DHSMV policy seems like an overture to new Republican-sponsored bills in the Florida legislature, which, if passed, would effectively end legal recognition of trans identities in the state. These proposals, similar to Kynoch’s letter, define “sex” strictly as a genetic binary and would require Floridians to sign an affidavit declaring their “biological sex” as a driver’s license requirement.

Ironically, because federal law still recognizes “gender” as a lived experience rather than a genetic binary, the DHSMV rule change may place Florida’s ID policies in conflict with the Real ID Act. Florida is also grappling with an actual ID fraud and identity theft crisis, but instead of addressing these issues, the focus seems to be on persecuting queer people.

https://www.them.us/story/trans-floridians-will-no-longer-be-allowed-to-change-their-gender-markers-leaked-memo

Tag: Transgender Community

Tammy Baldwin Denounces GOP Opponent’s Ads as Homophobic

Leaked Memo: Trans Floridians No Longer Allowed to Update Gender on Driver’s Licenses | Them

This blog originally appeared at THEM.

The memo also stated that gender is a synonym for sex, which is “determined by innate and immutable biological characteristics.”