She/her also personally fought against transwomen in prison seeking gender affirmation surgeryâŚ
Hereâs an article that gives more details on the story, and what Harris said about it. The key points:
It was the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation that refused the surgery to the inmates. When the inmates fought the policy in court, as Attorney General of California, it was Harrisâs job to represent the Department. Yes, she did it, but it wasnât something she decided on her own to do. (Also, not for nothing, the inmates won the case.)
Her characterization of the episode:Â Â âOn that issue I will tell you I vehemently disagree and in fact worked behind the scenes to ensure that the Department of Corrections would allow transitioning inmates to receive the medical attention that they required, they needed and deserved,â Harris said.
A policy now exists for inmates to receive transition-related care in California prisons (although apparently the DoC isnât doing a great job of holding up its end of the bargain*âquelle surprise). Â
(*For the record, Harris finished her time as AG and became a Senator shortly after this agreement was reached, so itâs someone elseâs job now to enforce it.)Â
The thing to keep in mind here is that, as Attorney General, Kamala Harris couldnât wave her hand and have everything in the entire California Department of Justice go exactly as she wanted itâand she wonât be able to as Vice President, either. We currently have a president who thinks thatâs how it works, and weâre damned lucky heâs wrong. Â
She had (and will have to) work with large number of people who hold different views. (Another article I read said that the California Department of Justice, which she ran as AG, employs about 4,800 peopleâthatâs a lot of different views.) If she had refused to back the Department of Corrections in their case, she would have alienated people whose cooperation she needed to be able to rely on. (If she even had the option of not backing them and staying AGâIâm not sure how it works, exactly.) Even people who agreed with her about the specific matter might have disapproved of her hanging her subordinates out to dry. (Another thing our current president does constantlyânotice how Harris isnât saying that the person in her office who actually wrote these briefs is a bad guy that she barely knew.)
So hereâs what actually happened when Kamala Harris âfought against transwomen in prison seeking gender affirmation surgeryâ:
The Department of Corrections had a policy denying gender-affirmation surgery to inmates. Â
Two inmates fought that policy in court.
Harris defended that policy in court (or, more accurately, was the supervisor of the person who did soâbut the legal documents went out under her signature, and she takes responsibility for their content).
Harris also worked to change the policy. Â
If youâve had a job, youâve probably been in the position of having to carry out a policy that you donât agree with. Your choices are to quit your job in protest or stay and argue that the policy should change. If you pick option B, you still have to follow the policy while youâre working to change itâagain, just about the only person in the world who doesnât know this is Donald J. Trump, because heâs never had a real job where he answered to anybody. Â
What this incident shows is that Kamala Harris is accustomed to working in a system where she doesnât always get her own way, and that she knows how to lose the battle to win the war. As VP, sheâs going to need those skillsâespecially if the Republicans keep the Senate, but even if the Democrats sweep everything in November, weâre notoriously bad at all pulling in the same direction. Weâve had about enough of the âIâm taking my ball and going homeâ style of leadership. Â
This.
I get it, I really do - but Trump has literally stripped away rights from trans kids and fucked the careers of trans people in the military. Pence believes in conversion therapy.
We can remember and discuss these issues, but at the end of the day, Trump/Pence is the greater evil and we need to vote in a unified way to get them out of office because the second term would be so much worse. Donât vote independent, just suck it up and recognize that weâre not gonna get a perfect candidate ever.
Voting Trump is a face full of glass shards, and a vote for an independent is a vote for Trump. This isnât complicated.
I had not seen this explanation, and Iâm reblogging it because I probably have followers who havenât either.
