Advocacy for Transgender Rights in the 2018 Massachusetts Midterms

The Shout-It-Out Award (Conference Travel Award)

Blog Post by Jasmine Chan CAMD’21

A lot more people were interested in our poster than I expected. In retrospect, I think it was really important that we presented our research at this conference because it gave us exposure to a different audience. Our project concerned transgender rights in the 2018 Massachusetts Midterm Elections. Question 3 (whether or not gender identity should be considered a protected class under the public accommodations law) resulted in a resounding “Yes”, which was expected in a socially progressive state like Massachusetts. However, many people approached us from Mid-West states that were interested in our project because they were unaware of the transgender experience and were not familiar with public protections for gender identity (ie. gender-neutral bathrooms). I was happy to be an advocate for transgender rights and open the conversation for people who may not know about this issue otherwise. People said that our tri-color poster reflecting those of the transgender flag caught their attention, then our research made them stay and ask questions. There were also a lot of other political posters concerning gender. I observed another on turn-taking during the 2016 Presidential Election Debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as well as gender bias in the media when it comes to news coverage of elections. It was a reminder that gender and politics is a very timely and important issue, It’s a topic I really enjoy diving deep on, and I will continue to do so throughout the rest of research endeavors throughout my college career.