That worst-case scenario would be harmful for the trans community, which has experienced a record number of attacks at the state level this year. More anti-trans bills were introduced in 2021 than any year in history, and at least seven states passed laws limiting access to school athletics and life-saving care for transgender youth.
Westbrook, who currently serves as the organizing director of Progressive Democrats of America, says that passing the Equality Act “be the recipe to cure” what she says are “attacks on human lives.” Were the bill to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has urged its enactment within his first 100 days in office, transgender people would be guaranteed equal access to health care and educational opportunities under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“We need to end the filibuster in order to get that path so we can protect our community and every corner of this country,” she says. “The Republican Party is not going to bend. So 50 plus one votes, that’s what it should take to pass any legislation.”
But unfortunately, Sinema has signaled that she is unlikely to yield to demands from her LGBTQ+ constituents. In June, the senator doubled down on her opposition to nixing the filibuster, which she claimed serves to “create comity and to encourage senators to find bipartisanship and work together.”
“To those who say that we must make a choice between the filibuster and ‘X,’ I say, this is a false choice,” Sinema said in comments originally reported by The Hill. “The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively, and I would think that most would agree that the Senate is not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? The way to fix that is to fix your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior.”
Critics say conservatives are unlikely to walk a new path, however. Just days before Sinema made those remarks, Republicans blocked a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The GOP has also signaled using the filibuster to block the “For the People Act,” which is intended to curb voter suppression.
Arrow says the fate of the filibuster is particularly personal for her, as she moved from Arizona to Canada after starting her transition. She is currently studying at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Ontario and worries that she won’t have the opportunity to come back if Republicans keep impeding the Equality Act’s passage.
“When I was going to school in Flagstaff, I didn’t feel safe to even explore the kinds of questions that now have eventually led to me really coming into myself and feeling so much more at home inside my own body,” she says. “I only really felt safe to do that when I got to Canada, in a country that has the kinds of legal protections that the Equality Act is trying to establish in the United States.”
“If the filibuster is not substantially or ended, that’s going to require 10 Republicans to sign on to protect LGBTQ people and trans rights,” Arrows adds. “Frankly, I don’t see that happening.”
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