“City Values, City Problems”

One thing that is apparent to me from the latest election is that neither Republican nor Democrat-leaning individuals have a good understanding of the fears, hopes, or dreams of members of the other side of the aisle. There is quite literally a total lack of understanding of how someone could vote for X, or how they could think X’s or X’s parties’ policies could be good in any way. I was at dinner last night with some people who suggested the following interesting experiment, which might have interesting consequences.

Rather than us expressing anger at the individuals who voted for X, or X themselves, perhaps it makes sense to articulate our fears or excitement regarding particular issues discussed in this election. People voting for both candidates seemed to have a lot of fear and excitement, and those are both emotions people understand rather well, so maybe a collection of these would be an interesting place to start building an understanding of the matters that really drive the people of the country.

I’ll start with an example, that I think is particularly useful because I don’t think there’s much evidence of it in more rural areas, leading to general confusion and distaste for ‘city values’. In urban centers, there are a large number of homeless children, many of whom have been kicked out by their parents from rural areas and have migrated to cities where there are more services available to help them. In fact, roughly 40% of the homeless population in the US is under 18 (https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-teen-issu…/statistics). I personally am horrified that we do not have services to ensure *every* person under the age of 18 has safe housing, and I think most of you would agree that kids should not have to live on the streets.

A flashpoint political issue in the last several years has been transgender bathroom use. The rights of transgender people, and lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, and queer people more broadly, have been called into question and fought over intensely in recent years, including who should be given equal treatment by the government and who should be given equal treatment by private businesses.

Some on the right hand side of the aisle, including our vice-president elect (http://www.politifact.com/…/true-mike-pence-advocated-conv…/), argue that taxpayer dollars should be spent on conversion therapy (‘therapy’ which is supposed to ‘make gay people straight’), many more argue that private businesses should have the right to refuse service to anyone, and are generally dismissive of the idea that being LGBTQ might be anything other than a ‘lifestyle choice’, and in particular, one that should be discouraged or at least not given protection by the government.

Now, going back to the millions of homeless children who people in cities see every day, who make up 40% of the homeless population in the US. Nearly 40% of those homeless children are LGBTQ — while only about 5% of young people generally identify as LGBTQ (https://www.americanprogress.org/…/beyond-4-walls-and-a-ro…/). This suggests, and more nuanced studies show more explicitly, that LGBTQ kids are much more likely to be homeless than their straight peers. Much evidence suggests this is due to parents kicking their children out of the house because of their identities, or because children run away to live on the street rather than be subject to the harassment their families about their identities. Many federal programs and private aid organizations fail to provide help to these kids, who have a harder time finding accepting foster families, group homes, and schools. These kids, more than half of whom will be sexually assaulted, are the ultimate victims of the rhetoric of gender identity and sexual orientation being a ‘choice’ that governments, businesses, and individuals should not be required to protect, serve or tolerate. Do you really think that nearly a million children would make a ‘choice’ to be LGBTQ that led to their homelessness, if it really was a choice?

I personally am horrified that the leaders of our country think it’s ok to mock people who are different than they are, especially when those people are some of the most vulnerable. The rhetoric used by our politicians has real impact: it legitimizes the disowning of people’s children. These kids are then subject to all sorts of terrible violence and danger, and it all begins with the idea that it’s ok to call gay women men (http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Trump-also-mocked-Rosie-O-Donnel…), or force transgender people to use bathrooms of their biological sex (http://www.inquisitr.com/…/mike-pence-confirms-trump-presi…/).

This is one issue that I think has been a divisive one that really doesn’t have to be. There’s something fundamentally human about the right to a safe childhood (and adulthood). There’s also something very American about the ability to be who you want to be, rather than who your parents tell you to be… and yet, politicians are deferring to our worst side as humans, the side that dislikes and fears the unknown, rather than appealing to our best selves, the side that thinks children deserve safe environments to grow up.