Why Hillary Is the Only Choice for LGBTQ Americans

Roberts has been advocating for trans rights for years. According to GLAAD, she has "lobbied at federal, state, and local levels," devoting her life and career to the mobilization of people of color and transgender people in America "to empower themselves." Roberts' blog, TransGriot, is a portmanteau of the shorthand for transgender and the word griot, which refers to a keeper of oral history in Africa. TransGriot is a lighting rod among politically active transgender people, who often turn to Roberts' expert understanding of politics and inequality. In 2015, Roberts was awarded the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award, and she's received numerous other accolades for her dedicated activism.

In an interview with Broadly, Roberts makes her case for Clinton's presidency. She discusses the role of government in shaping the lives of the American people, why third party candidates never win, and how hatred and bigotry are no longer politically viable.

BROADLY: You've been a vocal proponent of Hillary Clinton on social media. Why is it so important that Hillary Clinton becomes the next president of the United States?
Monica Roberts: Because Donald Trump is massively unqualified to be president. As a child who grew up during the Cold War, the thought of Donald Trump having his fingers on the nuclear launch codes for this country scares me, literally. And the fact that now it's coming out that Rudy Giuliani is being considered as one of his nominees for Attorney General just adds to the urgency for me as a trans person, and as an African American.

Why would it be so dangerous to have Giuliani as Attorney General—or for any of the people that Trump said he would nominate the Supreme Court to gain power? What would that mean for people who are black, people who are trans, queer—people who are not straight white men?
Rudy Giuliani supports stop and frisk, which is a policy that disproportionately affects the poor. [It's] not only [biased] against non-white New Yorkers but also disproportionately applies to trans folks, especially trans women of color and the African community, period. He would be hostile to our interests. I don't see a Rudy Giuliani-run Justice Department sticking up for black folks like Loretta Lynch is doing right now. Especially with me being Texan and having the disgusting spectacle of my indicted attorney general [Ken Paxton] leading the charge to try to oppress trans people. That's a problem. I don't want to see that oppression coming up. And I'm calling it what it is: oppression at the federal level. Hillary must become president tomorrow.

Ruth Bader-Ginsberg is in her early 80s. Stephen Breyer is in his 70s. Clarence Thomas is in his late 60s… So you're looking at [several] potential Supreme Court Justice selections that will set the course for the Supreme Court for the next 20 to 30 years. In addition to that, you also have the federal judiciary. Right now, I live in the Fifth Circuit, which is Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi. We have ten judges right now that are being held up by the [Republican-controlled] Senate.

When you have right wing-controlled legislatures, sometimes the only defense against some of their crazy legislation is being able to file federal lawsuits. And when you have a judiciary that is so polarized, I can literally guess how the chase is going to go, whether they are appointed. If you get a progressive ruling, it's usually an Obama or Clinton judge. Or an adverse ruling, nine times out of ten, it is a George W. or George H. W. or Reagan appointee. That is why having Hillary Clinton being declared president elect tomorrow is vital to those of us who live in areas in red states.

It's so important—
Exactly. It's that critical. We had a chance in 2000 to set this country in a positive direction. One of the reasons I got behind Hillary and stayed behind her, despite all the rhetoric about Bernie Sanders, was it reminded me far too much of 2000.

Do you think it's problematic that Hillary Clinton hasn't always supported LGBT rights and has sometimes been a lot more centrist or conservative than she claims she is now?
There's no such thing as a perfect candidate. People need to get that out of their heads right now. We also need to—in liberal, progressive political world—take a page out of our right wing opponents' playbook; they think long-term. They basically have a long-term strategy and they will stay the course on it. They will not be disappointed if they lose tomorrow. They will just go back to focusing on the next election cycle. We need to start thinking in decades, increments of 10 to 20 years. In 2020, that election will not only be critical… It will also probably be an election cycle in which the census will happen, and we have to make sure that we get control of enough state legislatures so that we progressives can draw the district lines to set the political framework for 2020.

The one thing about Hillary Clinton: She does listen and she has the ability to evolve. I don't see that ability with Donald Trump… A lot of his comments about various groups, you know African Americans, Latinos, women—the bottom line is, [his supporters] wouldn't have made him the nominee if he wasn't saying what many of the folks who are voting for him think.

Right. It's clear that Trump has not even considered politically evolving the way that Hilary Clinton has.
And probably won't. At 70, he is set in his ways. It speaks volumes that white supremacists and the KKK have endorsed him. That speaks volumes.

It's so scary.
Trump supporters: If you're going to vote for a guy who has said racist and misogynist and sexist stuff, you're enabling him by voting for him. So don't try to sugarcoat the fact that you are basically supporting a racist and supporting misogyny and sexism and racism by voting for Trump, and voting for Republicans in general. This is not just a Trump problem. This has been a problem in the Republican party for decades…

We can't afford to wait to see if a third party will get their act together in the hope that they will be able to enact their platforms. We don't have time for that right now. The house is on fire right now. What we're going to have to do—the revolution that Bernie Sanders is talking about is not going to be through some third party. It's going to be by electing Democrats across the board in every government position, from president to dog catcher, and keeping the Republicans out of policy. For 15 to 20 years until we can clean up the mess, that's the revolution.

What would you say to someone who is voting for a third party candidate?
Third parties—I have seen it time and time again in my 54 years on this planet. It was the Reform Party in the 90s, and what ended up happening is that by 2000, the third party had broken up because of internal disagreement… Instead of focusing on the presidency, they need to focus on getting enough people elected to actually control a state legislature or to control some kind of city council, then enact policy and then show by example that they can be trusted.

But you have a Jill Stein, who is an anti-vaxxer, and she is even more WTF than Donald Trump is. She has never held public office, either. And Gary Johnson hasn't even cracked a geography book or looked at a globe. I'm sorry—third parties. The one thing about me and other people of color is that we are pragmatic voters. We don't have time, when we are fighting systemic issues, for pie-in-the-sky politics, and that's what third parties are, until they can get enough people elected to office where they can actually have a chance at pushing and getting their platforms enacted. You will not see third parties grow beyond just the little boutique status, or vanity status with far-left votes.

What would you say to someone who says they're not going to vote at all this year?
That attitude is why we have the system that we have now. Voting is the most powerful tool in an activist's toolbox. Why else do you think that one of the thing African American civil rights pushed was voting rights? Why has the Republican party spent millions to not only get Republican legislatures, but also to pass voter suppression laws? Before John Roberts became a Supreme Court justice, one of the things that he made his money on was trying to figure out ways to kill the Voting Rights Act.

So for you to sit now on election day and say, 'I'm not going to vote,' that makes the Republican party and the conservative movement smile; they don't have to spend money to suppress the vote. They've already accomplished their mission by you just opting out of the system. Is voting perfect? No. But it's the best and fastest way for you to impact how your world goes. Because local politicians impact your life far faster than at the federal level. There are a lot of qualified people at the local level that need your votes, especially if you are a marginalized person—and in Texas we have a situation where judges are elected.

If… you're trying to get your name changed as a trans person and you have a Republican judge who basically believes the same thing that Ken Paxton does, what are you chances of getting that name change done and getting a positive conclusion? Or if you have an issue with your marriage, is a Republican judge going to be amenable with the issues if they have problems with the marriage equality? Or social or police justice? What happens when you get a DA that is basically pro-police and you have a situation where someone is shot and killed or a woman was sexually assaulted by a police officer? They're going to look the other way.

Your vote matters on a whole lot of issues, and those offices matter… In terms of voting policy, voting policy and procedures are enforced by Secretaries of State, and at a county level, by a county clerk. Our county clerk here—shadily, the early voting time changed from 8 AM to 4 PM during their first week.

Many people couldn't go vote?
If you're working from 8:00 to 4:00, you're not able to early vote. Republicans know that they can only win if they have low-turnout election. One of the reasons Wendy Davis lost was because we had a voter turnout of about 27 percent in 2014. For progressive candidates to win, we need voter turnout above 50 percent. And we're going to have to do that on a consistent level over the next election cycle if we want to change the course of this country to a more progressive one. Here in Houston, when we had that HERO repeal fight, the millennial turnout was something about 5 percent. Millennial voters matter, too, and I'm so happy to see these long lines of Latino voters because it looks like what we have been waiting for, for the longest time, in terms of Latino voters kicking the Republican party to the curb, may finally be happening.

Donald Trump's hateful rhetoric and policies may have mobilized Latino communities.
Bottom line is you cannot, as a party, continue to kick people, to disrespect [them], and think that they're not going to to vote against you.

I hope we get good news tomorrow.
Well, we will probably have the first clues early: Florida gets called for Clinton and also Virginia gets called early. We're going probably to have a good night. We'll probably have a very good night.

Gabby Bess contributed reporting to this interview.