Letter to PA Rep Chrissy Houlahan, (D) PA 6th District

Today I received an email from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, (D: PA6) who represents my former home of Phoenixville (where Wife and Daughter still live.)  It was all about Pride and Juneteenth and how happy she was to celebrate both. 

Me with then newly elected Congresswoman Houlahan, Nov 2018.

In reply, I sent the following letter:

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Dear Congresswoman Houlahan,  

In an email sent 6/21/2024, you wrote:

This month, we've been able to celebrate that diversity in so many ways, and I want to highlight it here for you all! 

And yet, transgender people (especially transgender women) are still being targeted by bigoted laws and violence.  Remember the T part of that acronym?  Well, we need help- desperately.

 

The GOP made clear its plans "Eradication" (see Project 2025, also CPAC march 2023),  Trump said "On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children" (TPUSA speech, June 15, 2024)  

Anti- trans bills skyrocketed from 143 in 2021 (18 passed) to 600 (87 passed) in 2023. In 2024, there have already been 602 bills (42 passed) and we’re only 1/2 through the year. (https://translegislation.com/)

 

The night you were first elected, I met you at the victory party, as I worked on Rep. Shusterman's campaign.  I said "Transgender people need help.  Can you help us?"  And you said you would.  You may not remember this, but I do.  So I ask: what have YOU done?  Specifically.  (I already know the answer.)  In fact, the one picture I've attached shows me saying that to you (by coincidence.)  

 

I know I am just one person from a small minority of voters, but we NEED help.  NOW.  A careful reading of Project 2025 states intent: 

 Project 2025 wants to label our very existence as ‘pornographic’ and threatening to children, which to them is punishable by execution.

 “Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.  Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders [emphasis mine]. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.” (Project 2025, p.5)

 “[The next conservative Administration] should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children [emphasis mine]—until Congress says otherwise through legislation. [footnote referenced]”. (p. 554).

Oh, what does the footnote say? “This could require seeking the Supreme Court to overrule Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), in applicable cases, but the department should place a priority on doing so.” (p. 576)

554 U.S. 407 reads “Sentencing a defendant to death for any crime other than homicide or crimes against the state is unconstitutional per se under the Eighth Amendment.” (“Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008)”)

 

Congresswoman Houlahan, I'm studying anti-transgender hate for my PhD dissertation at Penn State.  I follow what the GOP and associated hate groups (Heritage Foundation, Focus on the Family, etc) have done and are doing.  I'm terrified.  

 

I ask again:  PLEASE HELP US!

 

Yours, 

 (sign off)

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I don't expect an answer, or, if one comes, it'll be a form letter or a letter asking for donations.  If anything else comes, I'll let you know, dear reader.

As Maddow says: "Watch this space."

(Note: the Representative for State College is GT Thompson who is MAGA to the core, and attended his gay son’s wedding THREE DAYS after opposing protections for same-sex marriage.  Writing to him would be a waste of time.)

Be well.