Since Pres. Donald Trump took office, the federal government and many states have rapidly escalated attacks on the trans community seeking to erode rights, block access to health care, and exclude these Americans from accessing services and fully participating in our society. 

Maine, thankfully, has mostly resisted this wave. Our legislators have defeated numerous efforts by GOP anti-trans legislators to persecute trans people and almost all of our school boards have resisted the efforts by out-of-state far right organizations to hurt the  children they are entrusted to protect.

Unfortunately, this fall, these national forces of hate are trying again to bring Maine into their transphobic fold. They have placed a “citizen” initiative on the ballot forcing us to vote to kick trans kids out of bathrooms and trans girls off of school sports. I put “citizen” in quotes, because this effort was solely funded by one very, very, very rich Wisconsin oligarch – Richard Uihlein, the heir to the company that makes the worst beer on the planet, Schlitz, who attempted to roll back the ERA in New York and has spread conspiracy theories about Sharpies being used to disqualify Trump votes in Arizona.

But while these forces are certainly hateful toward those they see as outside their preferred version of a white, straight, patriarchal America, it’s important to understand that these attacks are not simply a backlash to America’s commitment to equality. It is the result of a well-funded movement that has weaponized hate to distract from issues that might actually improve the conditions of working-class people.

Graham Platner said it best a couple weeks ago in an interview with Slate: 

“The anti-trans campaign in Maine is funded by an out-of-state billionaire to make sure we have this discussion and we don’t talk about raising his taxes. That’s why it exists. I think there are like two trans kids that compete in high school sports in Maine? There are 40K Mainers who are going to lose healthcare because of the lack of the ACA extension.” 

Platner goes on to say, “One of those things seems very important and real to me,” and he’s not talking about the fictional threat of trans kids playing sports. When you think about it, it’s very clear that as well as being morally disgusting, going after trans kids is a showy distraction that Uihlein and his far-right billionaire friends are using to keep us from having bigger conversations about the economic divide.

This is not a new tactic. Today’s attacks on immigrants are the same. Scare everyone into believing that people they have never met are the ones undermining their pursuit of happiness and economic security. When, in fact, those very same people are the ones making their lives better through the work they do, and the community they build.

It is the same with trans kids and adults who are almost always, literally, the ones bullied, ostracized, discriminated against, and/or killed for just being who they are – not the other way around. And if this bill passes, it will just make it worse.

Because this bill is being used to distract, or perhaps to turn out certain voters, is not a reason to ignore this attack on Maine’s values. In fact, it is a reason to double down on our resistance, without losing sight of our bigger purpose. 

We can both tax the rich, provide health care, and beat back transphobic attacks meant to distract. And we will, because we must.

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This story was originally published by The Beacon, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Beacon, sign up for the free Beacon newsletter here.