Metro Weekly is no stranger to political endorsements. We’ve been reporting about them for years. Human Rights Campaign, Victory Fund, Stein Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans…. Plenty of entities make endorsements, and for years we’ve shared those endorsements with our readers.

Making an endorsement of our own, however, is an exception to the rule. But as an independent publication with no fears of losing government contracts if we don’t bow to a powerful candidate, we’re comfortable making one. As an advocacy publication speaking to and on behalf of the LGBTQ community, we’re little motivated to claim a spurious notion of neutrality, particularly in this election cycle. Today, we are at a colossal crossroads in the American experiment. Metro Weekly wants to make its position at this juncture crystal clear.

Notably, being an LGBTQ-advocacy outlet, that is where we concentrate. Metro Weekly‘s endorsement is informed by, but not focused on, the racism or the misogyny or the climate or the economy or the xenophobia or international conflicts. An argument could be made on any one of these fronts alone, as the differences are so stark.

Metro Weekly‘s endorsement is not primarily a protest against one candidate — though it certainly is, to a degree. Rather, we can’t help but celebrate the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.

Let’s go back to the brief 2004 window when San Francisco, by order of the city’s mayor at the time, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, ordered that marriage equality take effect in his city. On Valentine’s Day that year, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris officiated the wedding of Bradley Witherspoon and Raymond Cabone. She went out of her way to do it.

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In 2013, as California’s attorney general, she issued a statement to the U.S. Supreme Court explaining why she wouldn’t defend Proposition 8, which banned marriage equality in the state: “I declined to defend Proposition 8 because it violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court has described marriage as a fundamental right 14 times since 1888. The time has come for this right to be afforded to every citizen.”

Harris has been a joyful warrior — her term before Moms for Liberty stole it — for the LGBTQ community for years, publicly supporting marriage equality before even former President Barack Obama. Maybe you noticed her husband, Doug Emhoff, marching through D.C. last June as part of the Capital Pride Parade? He didn’t even need to be paid, unlike Melania Trump speaking to Log Cabin Republicans. No presidential candidate has been a greater ally to our community.

That Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate further solidifies her community credentials. Walz is a stellar advocate in his own right, particularly to one of MAGA’s metaphoric punching bags, Transgender youth. While transphobic efforts from right-wing legislators have made some states inexcusably hostile to Trans kids, Walz has lifted them up. Last year, he signed an executive order protecting them.

“We want every Minnesotan to grow up feeling safe, valued, protected, celebrated, and free to exist as their authentic versions of themselves,” Walz said. “Protecting and supporting access to gender affirming health care is essential to being a welcoming and supportive state.”

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Harris and Walz offer the LGBTQ community an unparalleled ticket, presenting meaningful political résumés that shine like stars, particularly in comparison to the competition’s foul black holes.

While we stated Metro Weekly‘s endorsement is primarily affirming, it’s impossible to only celebrate the genuine goodness of the Harris-Walz team. We’re obligated to put on the hip boots and wade into the MAGA muck.

Oddly — arguably perversely — we can’t take a step into the goo without first acknowledging one of our own: Peter Thiel. Long the patron of Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, this gay billionaire has been making his Machiavellian moves behind the scenes to the point of introducing Trump to Vance at Mar-a-Lago.

Thiel is evidence that the LGBTQ community is not monolithic. Still, his position squarely in the MAGA camp is an insult to those who, for example, made his marriage possible. When you’re rich as Midas, possibly the daily trivialities of us mere mediocrities are not a consideration.

Moving to the GOP candidate, Trump, there is an obvious argument aligning him with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 outline for the next right-wing administration. While Trump disavows this book of bigotry — “I have no idea who is behind it” — you’d have to be woefully naïve to believe it won’t play a crucial role in a second Trump administration. Seriously, when all Trump is bringing to the table is a “concept of a plan,” he’s going to have to rely on somebody giving him the answers.

And these particular answers are ugly.

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Take a look at the chapter on the U.S. Agency for International Development. On Page 259, this blueprint advises the agency to erase any sort of mention of “gender,” “gender equality,” “gender equity,” “gender diverse individuals,” “gender aware,” “gender sensitive,” “etc.” If you think those references to gender don’t take aim at the global LGBTQ community, you are willfully ignorant. There’s no ignoring, however, that the chapter was penned by Max Primorac, a political appointee in the Trump administration.

Richard Severino, who also worked in the Trump administration, gave us the chapter on how to bend the Department of Health and Human Services to MAGA’s will. “[The Office for Civil Rights should] issue a proposed rule to restore the Trump regulations under Section 1557 (of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), explicitly interpreting the law not to include sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.”

Project 2025 is the bureaucratic equivalent of a vandal spray painting “GENDER TRAITOR” across the entrance to every LGBTQ community center and similar safe space across the country. A second Trump administration would side with that vandal.

As the campaign season comes to a close, Trump has even adopted a new nickname for CNN’s celebrity gay journalist, Anderson Cooper. “Allison Cooper.” If that doesn’t resonate with you in a way that makes you want to smash glass, you are probably lucky enough to have never been bullied for being Queer.

There is so much more we could pick apart. But why? According to The Economist, via YouGov, Harris has a 61-point lead over Trump among “LGB” voters. Presumably, Trans Americans feel similarly.

Most of us know what time it is. Most of us endorse love and hope over fear and hate. Accordingly, Metro Weekly enthusiastically endorses Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president. A Harris-Walz win will be crucial for our community, both here and abroad.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

To check your voter registration status and make a plan to vote, visit the website of the National Association of Secretaries of State at nass.org/can-I-vote or the League of Women Voters Education Fund’s “Vote 411” website at vote411.org/make-your-plan.

You can also visit www.vote.org and www.iwillvote.com.

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