Sinema

Sinema

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. refused to vote in favor of changing Senate rules to enact 'voting rights' legislation on Wednesday. The openly bisexual senator underwent unprecedented criticism from her base.

Emily’s List — a women’s rights group that supports female Democratic candidates and was the largest contributor to Sinema’s 2018 Senate campaign — and abortion rights group NARAL pulled their support from her. Living United for Change in Arizona and Stand up America, compared her actions to the likes of staunch segregationist George Wallace. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has suggested that he’d support primary challengers against her.

Major LGBTQ advocacy groups — which are normally united on advancing a progressive agenda — have been divided in their response to the openly bisexual senator’s actions this week.

“I’m saddened, I’m heartbroken, I’m frustrated,” said Kierra Johnson, executive director of advocacy group the National LGBTQ Task Force. “Senator Sinema was someone that we grew to love — and grew to trust and experienced as a champion who walked side by side with us — so it feels extra painful to not see her exercise her full power to ensure that queer people and poor people and Black folks have full access to participating in our democracy through the right to vote.”

Amending the Senate’s filibuster rule would have allowed the Democrats to pass legislation without any Republican support. And although the Arizona senator has voiced support for the new voting rights bill, her refusal to change the Senate filibuster rule, along with that of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., effectively killed it.

Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Sinema’s actions this week “won’t be forgotten.”

“Senator Sinema turned her back on LGBTQ voters and all marginalized people who helped put her in office hoping she’d represent and protect their voices,” she said in an email.

LPAC — a political action group that is dedicated to electing queer women to political office — threatened to follow in the footsteps of Emily’s List and NARAL, stripping Sinema of its endorsement.


The Arizona Democratic Party Saturday formally censured Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-Ariz., for refusing to roll back the Senate filibuster in order to pass major voting rights reforms.
"I want to be clear, the Arizona Democratic Party is a diverse coalition with plenty of room for policy disagreements, however...(nonsense follows)..." Arizona Democratic Party Chair Raquel Terán said in a statement.

Remember by 'voting rights reform,' they mean voting 'rules.' There is no suggestion--even with the confusion of 'rights' with 'rules'--that somewhere in the land there are voting rules aimed at excluding the gay community from voting. Sen. Sinema is being beaten from the fort despite her credentials.

Clearly, the 'identity' component is more narrow than even she thought. There is a deeper nature that the group sees or feels that trumps all those elements she thought were uniting.

So...what does this mean for the future of identity politics? Is lock-step voting actually more integral to the 'identity' than the gender or racial 'identity' is?

Maybe the 'identity' obsession will have as shallow an impact as it is a concept.