There are plenty of things that America needs saving from. Things like fascism, war (currently with Iran, but who knows where the whims of our dear leader will have us bombing next), skyrocketing health care costs, environmental pollutants, gun violence, roving armed gangs kidnapping and killing people on our streets (a.k.a. ICE), voter suppression, racism and its accompanying violence (shout out to ICE), not to mention Trump and his administration of incompetents including, but not limited to, Pete “War Boner” Hegseth, Stephen “Bodies Buried in my Backyard” Miller, Pam “Stephen Miller is My Boss” Bondi, Marco “International Shame is My Kink” Rubio, and RFK “Measles are Actually Good” Jr.
Unfortunately, none of these hazards are addressed in the so-called SAVE Act that Trump is so hell-bent on Congress passing. SAVE, which stands for Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, is aimed squarely at the obsessions of Trump and the Republican party: immigrants, specifically keeping people who are not American citizens from voting, and transgender people, specifically denying them the right to exist.
The initial intention of the bill was to create onerous new identification requirements that have no purpose other than to suppress the vote.
“The election provisions would require Americans to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections, a change to current law,” reports The Advocate. “The proposal would also require photo identification to vote and limit mail voting, requiring most ballots to be cast in person and restricting absentee voting to specific circumstances such as illness, disability, or verified travel.”
Fun fact: It’s already illegal for people who are not citizens to vote. It’s something that hardly ever happens. There is NO REASON for this stupid fucking bill except to make voting harder, which does not make it safer.
At the time of this writing, the SAVE Act has not passed. But it hasn’t been pronounced dead yet, either. Unfortunately, we live in a country where our government makes decisions to intentionally harm its citizens every day. So by the time you’re reading this, who the hell knows where things will stand.
One thing we do know for sure is that Trump’s obsession with hurting transgender people knows no bounds and is now also part of this terrible voter suppression bill.
“One provision would bar transgender women and girls from participating in school sports aligned with their gender identity,” reports The Advocate, “stating that it would be a violation of federal law to allow ‘a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls,’ and defining sex ‘based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.'”
I would love for Trump to name a single women’s sport he follows or is even aware of. He does not care about women’s sports. Hell, he doesn’t care about women, period. This is not about protecting anyone.
“Another section would create federal criminal penalties for gender-affirming care,” The Advocate continues, “or what the bill falsely describes as ‘genital and bodily mutilation of a minor’ and ‘chemical castration of a minor.'”
Again, Trump and his Republican party are obsessed with imaginary child abuse all the while they do not care at all about any of the minors who were sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein and his group of rich friends (which includes Trump). He cannot even conceive of a situation where a parent could love a child as fiercely and fight for them as hard as many parents of transgender kids do. Because he’s never felt that. He’s never loved like that and he’s never been loved like that. He’s a broken and pathetic man.
Trump cannot stop talking about transgender people. He cannot stop fantasizing about children being sex-changed by force or whatever he thinks is happening. And, of course, he blames it on the Democrats.
“They’re fighting for men in women’s sports. They’re fighting for transgender for everybody,” Trump said March 23. “Everybody go out, get your kid a nice operation, and change the sex of your kid.”
“Get your kid a nice operation?” What even the fuck? Trump literally thinks that kids are getting surgery left and right. This is clearly someone who has never had to deal directly with this country’s broken health care system in order to get care of any kind for a child, let alone gender-affirming care.
And now if we’re so lucky, the SAVE Act will make getting registered to vote almost as big a pain in the ass as getting your kid’s elementary school to keep an EpiPen in the office.
To everyone who thinks your vote doesn’t matter, remember that these fascist creeps wouldn’t be trying so hard to steal it from you if it wasn’t worth anything. Also, stand up for transgender rights FFS.