The Fact That No One Has To Ask Kamala Harris If She Sees Them As ‘Human’ Perfectly Describes The Current Political Divide
In the end, it doesn't matter if Donald Trump thinks Queer people are human. It matters if you do.
lev radin, Prashantrajsingh | Shutterstock A clip from journalist Stephanie Ruhle's MSNBC show "The 11th Hour" has gone viral this week following comments from an LGBTQ+ Rutgers University student she spoke to.
The moment shocked many — including Ruhle herself — after the student posed one simple question for Republican candidate Donald Trump that shouldn't even need to be asked.
The nonbinary student said they'd like to ask Donald Trump if he thinks they are human.
The moment came during a segment in which Ruhle asked young people what they would ask Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump if given a chance. For the young nonbinary Rutgers student, the contrast between what they wanted to ask the two candidates was shockingly stark.
"I think I would ask her, 'How soon do you think we can get the Equality Act passed?'" the student said in reference to Vice President Harris. The Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, or sexual orientation, has passed the House multiple times since being reintroduced in 2017, but it has been either ignored or filibustered by the Senate, including during the administration of Donald Trump, who vowed to veto it in 2019.
The student's question for Trump, however, had nothing to do with legislation or policy. Their question for the former president was far simpler. "I would ask him, 'Do you see me as a human?'"
You can practically feel the air get sucked out of the room by the student's question. For her part, Ruhle was reduced to tears as she took in the weight of the question.
And, of course, the moment has become cannon fodder for dimwitted, dehumanizing mockery and anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda on the right-wing internet, as always.
But for most others, the clip landed with a devastating, bracing weight that really says everything about the moment we've been living through over the past near-decade, and perhaps, especially, the upcoming election, which will determine where that moment goes from here.
The fact no American has to ask Kamala Harris if she sees them as 'human' perfectly describes the current divide.
I'll be honest: I'm not a fan of Kamala Harris. She has my vote regardless, but suffice to say, many nuts and bolts of our respective politics do not align, especially with respect to foreign policy.
But as much as I disagree with her, it would never occur to me to even ask whether she views LGBTQ+ people as human. There is no reason to do so. Her record, for the most part, speaks for itself.
lev radin | Shutterstock
As does Donald Trump's, despite how many supporters are attempting to assert otherwise on social media with respect to this student's question. "This is so ridiculous," one such comment read. "What has Trump EVER done to make gay people feel inhuman?"
Well, for starters, he has vowed to criminalize this student's nonbinary identity. But I will not waste my time or yours in listing the myriad ways Trump and the Republican Party have dehumanized LGBTQ+ both rhetorically and legislatively. Google exists. There are myriad links, like this one, and this one, and this one, that lay it all out for you. It's not up for debate.
Whether Donald Trump thinks LGBTQ+ people are human isn't relevant. What matters is whether you do.
As an LGBTQ+ person myself, my heart breaks and bleeds for this nonbinary student and what their question reveals. But I don't think Donald Trump's answer really even matters, because I don't think Donald Trump cares one way or the other.
That's not to let him off the hook. But he is not a man of principles or ideals. His primary concerns are himself and his money. His interest in LGBTQ+ people's rights or humanity rests in one thing and one thing only: He has clocked that dehumanizing LGBTQ+ people (along with other minorities and especially immigrants) has proven to be extremely politically expedient and wildly lucrative.
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and rhetoric have riled up practically everyone in this country with even an inkling of a conservative bent to great effect, including many of you reading this right now. We all see the comments you leave any time an LGBTQ+ issue is mentioned on this site or on our social media.
Trump has also correctly clocked that you are gullible enough to fall hook, line, and sinker for the torrent of baseless lies and conspiracy theories that Republican politicians, pundits, and social media influencers are constantly spewing about us LGBTQ+ people.
Prashantrajsingh | Shutterstock
That we're "indoctrinating" your kids by merely existing, let alone daring to speak about our existence in a public setting. That an LGBTQ+ identity is a mental illness, despite decades of scientific inquiry saying otherwise.
And most especially, that we are somehow bewitching your kids into becoming trans, despite the fact that transgender people account for just .06% of the nearly 336 million people who live in this country.
Do you know how many people that is? It's about 200,000 people, about as many as live in the teeming metropolis of Amarillo, Texas.
None of this makes an ounce of sense, and there's no evidence to back up the uproar. There never has been. Republican politicians, pundits, and social media influencers, Donald Trump included, are fueling the fire all the way to the bank while innocent people simply trying to exist suffer.
So, in the end, it doesn't really matter if Donald Trump considers this nonbinary student human or not. We're years past the point where that is relevant. What matters is that so many Americans have been gullible enough to fall for right-wing rhetoric designed to distract them from the fact that they have not done a single thing to actually help any other citizen in this country who's not part of the 1% in decades.
I'm 45 years old, just old enough to have lived memory of the era of AIDS. As a kid, I was deeply confused and terrified by the horrific things people said about LGBTQ+ people back then. Even my very Christian, extremely homophobic mother was shocked by the narrative at the time.
The attacks, both rhetorical and legislative, against LGBTQ+ people now are every bit as bad, if not worse, as they were then. It is to the point that I am terrified of being seen carrying or holding the hands of my nieces and nephews in public.
Much like the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic, history will remember this era as barbaric and monstrous. And as always, it will be those in Washington and state houses all over the country who will be remembered as the ones who created this era.
But the truth will be, as it has always been, that politicians only ascend power if regular rank-and-file people like you and me and everyone we know willingly hand it over to them in a voting booth. Remember that in the coming weeks. If not for the sake of the country's soul, then for the sake of your own.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.