Why Your Vote In November Matters More Than Ever to The Cancer Survivor in Your Life
Are you a cancer survivor? Do you know a cancer survivor? This post is for you!
As a cancer survivor of one of the most prevalent and deadly to people of all ages - yet most underfunded cancers (colorectal cancer) - and as an LGBTQ person, I am asking you to get out and vote this November! I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but full transparency, in this article I make a case for one side and for democracy. Because for the first time in my voting life, I'm endorsing a candidate. Why? Because it's the first time I felt like I wasn't choosing the lesser of evils, and the first time I believe that a candidate has at least some of my main concerns top of mind.
This post will not likely convert anyone who has already made up their minds. But my desired outcome is to give people more than mainstream topics to consider; to make an impression on those who are on the fence and to those who love cancer survivors, as well as moderates, those who may not always vote, and to those who are willing to evaluate from a different lens.
As a creator on social media - except in times of great prompting, or the urge to lose followers - Doc and I generally avoid discussing politics online and in our posts, as well as with many of our friends and family. Sometimes the don't ask, don't tell policy works best when you are trying to continue to love the people you love - despite their inability to see the longer-term consequences of their votes and how it may effect the people they love.
Sadly, the world we live in today is just too polarizing for open and honest discussions that are truly productive - they to produce an us vs. them mentality that goes nowhere. These discussions have the power to destroy friendships and family relationships. 😔 Gone are the days of reasonable debate where we listened to others views (political or otherwise) with tolerance. Gone too are the days when we didn't know how our neighbors voted and didn't really care as long as they were a good neighbor. And no wonder! There's too much at stake, especially in 2024.
Level-Headed Lesbians
As LGBTQ folks, we are more moderate on many issues than many of our peers - left of center, to be completely fair. So while we have always had strong opinions about the things that effect us and others like us, especially where our rights are concerned, we like many others have often felt as if few candidates on the polarized political spectrum truly represent our particular interests. Which is why I feel qualified to have this conversation.
I'm breaking the Rules!
Desperate times call for desperate measures. This election year I'm breaking the rules and making a heartfelt plea to anyone in my audience who knows, is, or loves a cancer survivor (of any type of cancer) and/or who is, knows or loves an LGBTQ+ person in their lives - to read this and vote if not for the best candidate, for the lesser of evils. Not the candidate your favorite news organization has fed you propaganda about. Rather, I'm asking you to dig deep, do your homework and evaluate from multiple sources and multiple angles. We have.
In a rare display, I am speaking out publicly because as a lesbian cancer survivor, it has never been more important to do so. One person can make a difference! That person is you!
At this point in my life - because I am infinitely thankful for my life and a second chance at life - and because I want to continue living and being a full-fledged American citizen, I am risking my neutral-ish online reputation and putting this out there. I understand that the consequences of this are that people who thought we were like-minded, may change their minds about me - I can live with that. Because in this day and age, it's of paramount importance that those of us who will truly face the consequences of poor electoral decisions first-hand, put a face on what could become reality. This goes for more than just lesbians and cancer survivors.
Have You Read It?
Project 2025 (P25) has finally become a hot button in this election, and it should be. With one side denying their participation in any way - yet, a vast array of proof to the contrary - and the other side speaking of the plan's extremism to embrace what amounts to at the very least turning the US into a theocracy, and at most an authoritarian dictatorship the likes of which we have never seen in America. But which we have seen in other parts of the world. Who should you believe? Many Americans think it could never happen here. Some Americans want it to happen here. The rest of us are sadly, preparing just in case.
I read it. Well, most of it. The document is a daunting 900 pages. So basically just a little light bathroom reading and since I'm in there much of the day, anyway... 💩 I didn't read every word, but rather conducted a word search for a list of relevant terms and read the context around each, sometimes getting sucked in and reading far more. See for yourself. Someone finally did for everyone, exactly what I did, which is to break down the manifesto by categories of interest. You can also read the whole enchilada from this site. I encourage you to also read the "Other Proposals" section from the former link, so you don't miss anything. Oh, and if you're still questioning DJT's involvement in its creation, please click on the link at the bottom of the site where it says, "Donald Trump & Project 2025." I found the hidden video link especially compelling.
To give credit where credit is due, on the surface, P25 talks a good game. It can be very convincing especially if you are healthy, white, young-ish and male or a member of a traditional nuclear family and very traditionally christian/religious. But, if you are female (in your child-bearing years), elderly, have cancer or are chronically ill, a veteran, a POC or LGBTQ+, and/or practice any type of religion outside of traditional christianity, look the F out! It's all there in black and white. It also doesn't hurt to do a bit of reading between the lines with a good magnifying glass. 🔎
Something else you should know. The foundational concepts for P25 have been around since 1979. This tells us two things: 1) There have always been radical religious conservatives in America trying to gain a foothold and 2) It's outdated "mandates" are older than dirt and have no place in a modern democratic society. I also want to be clear that today's GOP is not the GOP of 1979, rather, 1979's radical right (RR) is today's GOP. So if you aren't that far right, please keep reading! 🙏🏻
Frankly it doesn't much matter if the GOP's candidate disavows the project, though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, because P25 is in line with the current GOP agenda as a whole - one that wants to do away with separation of church and state and homogenize us all into the Stepford wives. The next paragraphs outline what could happen If today's GOP/RR//ultra conservatives get elected in November.
Why You Should Care?
Access to Healthcare & Insurance
The ACA & Patient Protection
You might say, yes, but how does that impact cancer survivors? For starters, if enacted, it sets up a perfect scenario to do away with the ACA (Affordable Care Act). This is the primary way that most Americans, including small business owners and entrepreneurs, now get insurance when they do not get employer-paid coverage. Or if they are like Amy and me, are in the gap years between retirement and medicare. The ACA has it's problems, I agree! But the one thing it does do is protect those with pre-existing conditions and allows us to be insured despite them - it also did away with lifetime maximums (the max an insurance company would pay in the lifetime of a patient). Without these, we would have no insurance and have to pay out of pocket for cancer treatment or go without. Did you know that no private pay insurance company allows pre-existing conditions? Nor will they ever. And, this goes beyond the ACA because employer plans could also easily roll back to a model that doesn't support pre-existing conditions and reinstate lifetime maximums - Those were not the good old days.
Once the landscape changes, it's a slippery slope to NO healthcare for cancer survivors and anyone else with pre-existing conditions. This could lead to a couple of scenarios: 1) More death for cancer patients is a certainty 2) More cost to tax payers as many cancer patients have to take advantage of indigent care (we all pay for that with our taxes) - but according to P25, indigent care is not likely to exist anymore either, so we're back to scenario 1. Just think about that for a moment. If you've ever watched someone die a slow and painful death, this is what you would be sentencing your loved ones with cancer and a variety of other incurable diseases to. There is also language in P25 that can restrict the type of care that can be received in America based on who you are. People of color, elderly, vets, women and LGBTQ+ individuals could all be restricted in their access to critical care or simply denied. It's already happening in some cases. This is especially important for young female cancer survivors - of which by 2023 will be the majority in colorectal cancer diagnoses. There will be no more freezing of eggs and no IVF after remission. This would be devastating to young women with cancer who want families once they are well. The restrictive laws, including the demise of Roe v. Wade can also be devastating to young women who are pregnant when diagnosed with cancer, because it becomes a choice of who deserves to live more, Mom or child?
Sidenote: You may not know this but ACA plans are not fabulous or cheap. There is little choice of plans and providers - in my area, only one plan and provider are available and frankly, the coverage isn't all that great. Most plans amount to major medical insurance with very high deductibles and no prescription coverage. Medicare and Medicaid gets more coverage in some areas than we do. For instance my Guardant Reveal test at $5000 out of pocket, per pop, several times a year is not covered by my insurance, but I am told is covered by medicare - at least for now.
Speaking of Medicare & Medicaid
Are you over 65? Again, P25 sets the stage for the dissolution of medicaid and potentially axing or significantly restructuring medicare. First there would be privatization of medicare - which brings it's own pandora's box of perilous possibilities. It also does away with caps on the costs of drugs - Have you seen the cost of chemo drugs? Remember when insulin costs were through the roof? I'm not saying that I agree wholeheartedly with big government, but I am saying that some things should not be privatized for a plethora of reasons. While some might argue that the government is already corrupt, just imagine how much corruption, greed and self-dealing could happen when medicare becomes a privatized free for all! And Medicaid? similar to the ACA - just kiss it goodbye!
Cancer Funding & Research
The DOH (department of health and human services) will be completely revamped under P25 as will the CDC and most other major federal agencies - and that means funding for things like cancer research will be cut to the quick - which is the shittiest news ever for colorectal cancer survivors (pun intended) - because we already get one of the tiniest pieces of that pie. There have been great strides made in securing more funding for CRC in the last 3 years, but that will likely all go away. Why is this so critical to a cancer survivor's survival? You may say that most of cancer research is conducted privately anyway. That's true, but consider how it works: Currently about 80% of cancer research is conducted by private companies (mostly big pharma, biotechs and startups - who all have something to gain - yes, mostly money but there is still benefit to the research), but private research is still largely funded by public dollars like the US government's National Cancer Institute. Without that funding or a guarantee of pay off in the end, there will be little incentive to control or cure cancer. In fact, in this scenario, from a bio-ethics perspective, cancer patients become an expensive national liability. Especially those in stage 4. Unless a political candidate or a family member of a candidate has your cancer, you can pretty much kiss effective cancer research, treatment and cures goodbye if the wrong candidate is elected.
Currently, it's battle enough to get certain types of cancer research funded:
"Colon, endometrial, liver and bile duct, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancers were all poorly funded compared to how common they are and how many deaths they cause, the study found. In contrast, breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma and pediatric cancers were all well-funded, respective to their impact on society."
Access To Healthcare
Because I am a lesbian member of the LGBTQ+ community AND a cancer survivor, I am going to address the question and issue of access to healthcare. Amy, my spouse and I, have been together since 2002. That's over 22 years. A lot has happened since then in the political, healthcare and acceptance landscape. A lot of good, followed by a lot of bad. Especially since 2016, and even worse since 2020. If you need proof, 2021, 2022 and 2023 were record-setting years for Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in America and 2024 is on target to exceed them.
According to GLAAD, in one month - February 2023 - 300 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in the US. That's one month out of one year:
“Regardless of whether these bills advance or not, they will have a detrimental effect particularly on LGBTQ youth who are watching and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in the places they call home. As our community’s dignity and safety are under attack, we need every lawmaker and voter to speak up in support of LGBTQ people and in support of ensuring protections against discrimination so we can all feel safe and free.” Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD
Our experience during the cancer journey as an LGBTQ+ married couple thankfully was overwhelmingly positive, due in part I believe to how we approached care and care providers. (Message me if you want to have that conversation.) We know however, that is not the case for many LGBTQ+ patients. Had I been diagnosed before 2011 (yes, that's only 13 years ago), it would likely have looked very different for us. P25 and it's supporters hope to send us back to a time when my spouse wasn't allowed to be my spouse and couldn't even visit me in the hospital, or be a part of my care in any way - without a mountain of legal paperwork (which we had) - but still could have been refused.
Many people seem to comfortably jump on the anti-trans band wagon (due to misinformation and misplaced fear), and mistakenly believe that in doing so they are restricting access to one (very small) group of people. They may be "fine with the "gays" but not those trans folks..." That's what the RR wants you to think. But what you need to understand is, if you marginalize one group of people, you marginalize us all. FACT: All of these laws can be twisted and molded to include a broad spectrum of people - maybe even you some day, just by a tweak of definition. And any anti LGBTQ+ law, aimed at trans people is also going to affect all of us in the LGBTQ+ bucket. But believe me, the trans community is not alone in being targeted, we all are, it's just happening under the radar because the anti-trans rhetoric is so loud. Case in point, P25 mentions "sexual orientation" many times in terms of what will become discriminatory and exclusionary law - that's not trans folks, that's me and Amy. If P25 gets "elected", we're F****D!
Sidenote: Do you know how much of your tax dollars are being spent on anti-trans legislation that applies to only about 1% of the US population? A LOT! Now I'm not super mathletic, but that doesn't seem very small government, less spending, traditional-republicanesque to me. 🤔
BOTTOM LINE: All of this means that our access to healthcare would likely be heavily restricted. Not only would the pre-existing condition clause go away, but what kind of healthcare will providers be allowed to give to an LGBTQ+ person? What kind of access will an LGBTQ+ parter/spouse/caregiver be given? Not to mention, we could easily go back to the days where healthcare providers and practitioners could simply refuse treatment (even emergency treatment) for religious reasons, if not legal ones. In addition to what I already shared, it means that access to care and even our access to one another during care, could go away (again). Can you imagine not being next to your loved one's bedside? This is what our future could look like with P25/RR/GOP's idea of healthcare...
That's why queer folks often say, "If you've never had a supreme court case decide if you have the same rights as others, you have privilege."
Sidenote: BTW - Anti-trans laws that apply to healthcare can easily restrict access for more straight/cisgender (m/f) people than trans people - especially minors: Boys who get circumcised, kids who are born intersex (having physical sexual characteristics of both genders), girls who need breast reductions to reduce back issues, boys who are late bloomers and need testosterone to jump start puberty, or young women who opt for mastectomy to prevent breast cancer if they have the BRCA gene. RR lawmakers do not think these things through!
It's Getting Personal
This is where things get really personal. For years some of our very accepting (of us) family and friends either avoid discussing the impact of anti-LGBTQ+ politics (and now cancer politics) all together, or say things like "These are your (hot button) issues." Unspoken: "Not mine." I know they honestly don't realize why it should be their issue, too, and maybe that's part of the problem. I guess we've never directly told them WHY it should be.
And, maybe this happened because since our respective adulthoods, Amy and I have mostly lived geographically apart from most of our family - so they don't SEE how being LGBTQ+ or a cancer survivor for that matter, impacts us every day. We of course don't always share - except in these kinds of situations - what our hardships have been, how and when our safety has felt threatened or the micro-aggressions that occur. We didn't want to worry them! But, maybe we should have. 🤔
This Is Not a Drill
If the GOP as it currently stands, wins in November, even if P25 doesn't go into effect - though it very likely will - eventually, lack of healthcare will be just one of our concerns as an LGBTQ+ couple in America. To the extreme, we may eventually not be wanted in or allowed to live in our own country of birth. That is if we are given the option to leave. I have an older sister and an 80 year old parent. Between us (Amy and me) we have five elderly parents and two older siblings. We'd like to be here (in the USA) with them as we all age so we can help each other. This is not a drill. LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations have been preparing us and warning us of what is and could be coming in the very near future if the wrong person gets elected president in 2024.
I get it though. Even as early as four years ago this would have sounded like batshit crazy talk, and even I would have said, "That can never happen here." But after keen observation, research and now reading P25 as well as educating myself in other ways, I see the writing on the wall - and so do the cancer advocacy groups, and the LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, and so many others. With P25 and the new RR-GOP, we have been placed on notice. So, to say that this election is life or death for me, for other cancer survivors, for LGBTQ+ cancer survivors and so many more, is not an understatement. It's a literal threat to our democracy and our personal survival.
Sidenote: By now you have probably figured out that we are voting confidently for Harris/Walz in this election and we invite you to do the same. Truthfully, being a member of a marginalized group in America, things haven't always felt all that democratic. But I know it's better than a theocracy or a dictatorship! And that's why I have to vote for policy, democracy and freedom.
A Note to Old-School Republicans
Historically one of the main tenets of the old GOP was less governmental control and spending. If you still think that way, there is something you should be aware of in regard to P25. Aside from creating a government with almost total control of its people, and despite all of the "defunding" of programs and spending, the government under this plan will grow and spend exponentially more. While there will be mass firing of government employees (most of whom will be non-GOP), there will be a mass hiring of new employees to replace them - the only difference will be in their allegiance to the new regime and possibly their increased pay checks. In point of fact, when asked in a USA today article (that I can't find at the time of this writing), how they can justify the excessive cost of this new world order; I'm paraphrasing here, one of P25's key people said that spending more money to make this shift is necessary, and will be worth it. Do you agree? Because it seems counterintuitive to this left of center, moderate. 🤔
There's more where this came from! Badasses for Harris/Walz!
The Choice is Yours
Prior to Biden dropping out of the race, many of us were voting for policy, healthcare, some for democracy itself, federal protections, women's rights, a more balanced supreme court, and for others, doctrine. We (Amy and I) have never in all of our years been so invested in the outcome of an election. We have never before felt so threatened so as to not be.
To be honest, we didn't know enough about Kamala Harris or her running mate, Tim Walz before Biden dropped out. But now we do. We've done our homework and I encourage you to do yours. But do it with more than one source, and ideally NOT on TV. For the first time I can remember, I am whole heartedly endorsing a candidate, and have some real hope for our futures.
If you believe in true democracy. You only have one choice. Go Vote! 🇺🇸
To paraphrase the words of several "Republicans for Harris": In 2024, Voting for Harris/Walz doesn't make you a traitor to the republican party, nor does it make you a democrat, it makes you a patriot who wants to preserve democracy in America. Please listen to their words...
Voter Deadlines by State from Fight CRC
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