thomascwaters.com

The PA Voter ID law will harm LGBTQ Pennsylvanians by the way it will disenfranchise younger voters. …the very direct attack this law has upon our community by the way it impedes trans persons from voting. The person who emailed me didn’t seem to care about trans persons, a position held by too many gays and lesbians. It is difficult to say how many trans men and trans women are effected, as we don’t have any way of counting this part of our community. But this is a real and immediate issue too.

op-ed written by Lucas Michelen, a student at Temple University that I received in an email. It is a clear and straight forward account of the way PA’s Voter ID bill will impact college students who wish to vote in the November 2012 election, and it is a great read, all on its own. Reading it however, prompted me to think about the long range damage this will cause. Many see the importance of the upcoming election as the immediate and short-term impact it will have. What will it mean for our Democracy for the next four years? This is a worthwhile argument, however, the effects go far beyond this election.