Joan Erwin, CEO of Transhealth, says the Northampton-based health care center has joined a national TRANSform the Vote Campaign.

Daily Hampshire Gazette, September 12, 2024
By ALEXA LEWIS

NORTHAMPTON — Election season is quickly approaching, but for some community members, making their voices heard at the polls can come with unexpected challenges.

Among those at Transhealth, increasingly strict voter ID laws and a feeling of burgeoning national anti-trans bias have been cause for unease as November creeps closer.

To help ensure that transgender and gender-diverse community members are registered to vote, prepared to cast their ballots and knowledgeable of their rights in the upcoming election, Transhealth has joined the national TRANSform the Vote Campaign. The campaign, a project of Advocates for Transgender Equality, focuses on not only getting out the vote, but connecting trans and gender-diverse people with the resources and knowledge that will allow them to feel more confident and energized when it comes time to choose the political leaders whose decisions could have real impacts on their lives.

“It’s really important to us that everybody has a voice, and when you think about our community, you know the trans community is really fighting for our lives right now,” said Joan Erwin, CEO of Transhealth. “We need to be able to fight back at the ballot box.”

Trans and gender-diverse individuals sometimes face challenges at polling locations when their identification does not match their gender identity. This challenge, combined with what Erwin describes as “anti-trans legislation” proliferating throughout the country, played a large role in mobilizing Transhealth to join this broader movement.

The Northampton-based nonprofit provides gender-affirming care, including primary care and mental healthcare. Erwin said that Transhealth has seen a growing number of “medical refugees” coming to Massachusetts to get the gender-affirming care they cannot get in their home states. As part of its mission, Transhealth had also already been helping gender-diverse community members make changes to their identification documents so they match individuals’ identities, such as updating their gender or registered name.

“Massachusetts does a great job of protecting voter rights as a whole, but trans and gender-diverse people in western Mass and beyond still need to know what their rights are in case they face any barrier to voting,” said Erwin. “You shouldn’t have to go to a voting booth and present your ID and then have to come out as trans, if that’s not something you’re comfortable doing in that moment, and that’s something we’re worried about for our community.”

By joining TRANSform the Vote, Transhealth hopes to provide even more aid for the trans and gender-diverse community in the lead-up to this year’s election. The organization now has a landing page on its website where anyone in the U.S. can check their voter registration status, register to vote, request an absentee ballot, see what’s on their ballot and set election reminders. They have also embarked on a social media campaign aimed at educating the trans and gender-diverse community on their rights and empowering them to vote this fall.

As a nonprofit, Erwin said that Transhealth is entirely nonpartisan, but can connect those who want to learn more about the upcoming election with resources and partners in the community that do political work. She stated that Transhealth’s goal is simply to “provide as many resources as possible to folks that need care.”

A large part of creating a caring environment involves making trans and gender-diverse people feel welcome within not only their local communities, but within democratic society as well.

“One of the common stories you’ll hear when you talk to anybody at Transhealth is that our first patient we ever saw left here in an ambulance because they deferred care for about a decade. And that is a very common thing and largely that’s because trans folk are concerned about, will they be accepted by their provider?” said Erwin. “Will they feel welcome? Will they feel like they can actually talk about what they need and what they want?”

Erwin noted that a fear of not being welcome is a “common theme” in the trans and gender-diverse community, and not just on the physical side of health. Allowing marginalized people to express their needs and opinions freely at the ballot box plays a major role in making them feel welcome and comfortable in their communities.

By Erwin’s estimation, over 40 organizations have joined the TRANSform the Vote Campaign, and more are signing on every day.

“Other organizations should consider joining this campaign,” she said. “I think we should all be doing whatever we can to make sure that people get their voices heard.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.