Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican and the state’s current lieutenant governor, released a new ad Tuesday attacking her Democratic opponent Rep. Abigail Spanberger for asserting that the LGBTQ+ community deserves human rights.
The entire ad focuses on Spanberger’s past support for transgender rights and falsely accuses the Democrat of wanting men—including sex offenders—to use women’s bathrooms. The ad goes on to quote Spanberger saying that “our LGBTQ neighbors have the same legal rights as anyone else,” casting the statement as part of the left’s “insane” belief system.
But Spanberger’s statement is a bedrock foundation of U.S. law and tradition.
The Declaration of Independence clearly notes in its preamble that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Similarly, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution states, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
To follow Earle-Sears line of argument would involve stripping rights away from millions of Americans, echoing the belief system of groups like the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis, who did not believe in equality.
The ad ends with the tagline, “Spanberger is for they/them not us.”
This is the same construction used in 2024 ads by President Donald Trump attacking Kamala Harris for supporting LGBTQ+ rights, accusing her of being “for they/them while President Trump is for you.”
Earle-Sears’ ad, along with Trump’s, is part of an ongoing right-wing trend of attacking the basic humanity of LGBTQ+ people. These attacks are meant to whip up support among conservative voters who oppose equality, leading to Republican electoral wins.
For her part, Spanberger recently released an ad highlighting how Earle-Sears has “been in lockstep” with Trump. Virginia is one of the few swing states that Trump lost in the 2024 election to Harris.
In her ad, Spanberger notes the negative effect that Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce have had on Virginia, where federal workers compose much of the population.
Republicans currently hold the governorship in Virginia, but Spanberger has led in recent polling. And election forecaster Larry Sabato recently shifted the state from “lean Democratic” to “likely Democratic,” perhaps highlighting why Earle-Sears felt desperate enough to release her bigoted ad.