Was the DNC’s silence on trans rights an omen for Kamala Harris’ presidency?

The Democratic convention was, by any measure, a huge success. The party faithful were bursting with energy when it was over, which will translate into help getting out the vote. Fundraising went through the roof; the campaign raised $82 million last week, with the single best hour for fundraising the hour immediately after Vice President Kamala Harris finished her acceptance speech. And the television ratings far outstripped the GOP convention’s, much to the annoyance of Nielsen-obsessed Donald Trump.

From the pundits’ perspective, what made the convention such a hit was that Democrats used their weeklong jamboree to aim for the political middle. That effort started with the campaign’s decision to embrace “weird” as the description of MAGA. But the convention amplified that message a thousandfold. Democrats were suddenly the party of freedom and patriotism. In her acceptance speech, Harris promised the U.S. military would be the “most lethal fight force in the world,” language typically associated with Republican hawks.

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As much as Democrats were ecstatic during the convention, Harris’ speech made it clear that she wasn’t there to cater to the base. She was aiming for the relatively small number of swing voters that she needs to win. And nowhere was the focus on that group sharper than when it came to the silence on trans issues.

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Unlike the past two Democratic conventions, this year’s convention did not feature a trans speaker. That’s shocking, considering how much the right has made the trans community a focus of attack in the past four years. The Republican National Convention made attacking trans people a theme, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) getting applause for declaring, “There are only two genders.”

In their effort to tack to the center, Democrats were a lot more subdued than in the past. Yes, lesbian Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wowed the convention by telling the Supreme Court, “You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand!”

But a lot of rhetoric in support of trans rights was a little less straightforward. For example, Michelle Obama talked about “demonizing our children for being who they are.” If you are sufficiently tuned in, you’ll know what she’s talking about. If not, well…

Melissa Michelson, a professor of political science at California’s Menlo College who studies LGBTQ+ politics, said the DNC’s avoidance of mentioning trans rights was part of a wider strategy to seek out independent voters.

Avoiding trans issues was seemingly a conscious strategy by the Democrats. “If you look at who was featured in the prime-time slots, it’s middle-of-the-road people,” Michelson told NBC News. “It’s people who are going to appeal to that chunk of swing voters in the Sunbelt, in the Rustbelt, those swing states, and transgender rights are not a high-priority issue for those voters and not the way they’re going to decide their vote.”

Instead, Democratic leaders apparently believe that those voters are motivated by appearing a lot less woke and a lot more centrist. Harris has been able to benefit from this because of the bizarre circumstances of her ascent. Typically, in a primary, candidates have to appeal to the base and then try to move to the center for the general election. Harris didn’t have to do that. So she’s a blank slate for most people, who barely (if at all) remember her failed presidential campaign four years ago.

Harris has gotten an assist from Trump in this regard. Because Trump has been so rattled that he’s not running against Joe Biden anymore, he has wasted critical time he could have used to attack Harris on substance, instead complaining about her laugh, mispronouncing her name, and declaring she’s not Black. In his ineptitude, Trump has found the perfect sidekick in his vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, who can’t even order doughnuts without embarrassing himself.

The big question is whether the Democrats’ leeriness about talking about trans issues will translate into timidity in policy. On the surface at least, the answer would appear to be no. Harris isn’t exactly shy when it comes to going out on a limb for LGBTQ+ issues; when California briefly issued marriage licenses for same-sex couples twenty years ago, Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, performed some of the marriages. Even more specifically, she was advocating for victims of anti-trans violence back then, at a time when such an approach was groundbreaking.

The Democrats’ platform has pledged to address anti-trans hatred and protect trans rights. There’s no reason to think that is a false promise. But it wouldn’t have hurt any to have had a trans speaker at the convention as well. There were plenty of slots outside of prime time where the simple nod would have been acknowledgment enough.

It’s more than a little worrisome that in their effort to capture the center of the electorate, Democrats are willing to toss aside the trans community – the very type of people that Harris was once at the forefront of protecting.

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