A cardboard cutout of Donald Trump beside a pharmacist denying birth control and abortion medications to a customer in HRC’s new ad Photo: Screenshot
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has released a quirky new ad featuring a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump invading the privacy of LGBTQ+ Americans.
“Enjoy your privacy?” the voiceover asks as someone takes a shower. “Donald Trump and J.D. Vance do too.” The Trump cutout then appears in the shower, and the person in it screams.
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The cutout then appears beside a pharmacist as he denies birth control pills to a customer and then beside a barista to intimidate them into denying service to a queer customer.
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And finally, the Trump cutout knocks an engagement ring out of the hand of a person on one knee proposing to their partner.
“MAGA Republicans want to know all about us so they can ban access to abortion and birth control, let businesses deny you service or fire you for being who you are, and undermine our freedom to love who we love,” the voiceover says. “Kamala Harris knows our rights and freedoms should stay ours. Keep MAGA weirdos out of your business.”
“As Gov. Walz says, voters want politicians to ‘Mind your own damn business,’” Sam Lau, HRC Equality Votes PAC spokesperson, told The Advocate. “But Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians know their plans to interfere in our personal lives are deeply unpopular with voters of all demographics, which is why they are relying on a closing message of hate and division. Our new ad, ‘Cut It Out,’ uses humor to shine a light on these deeply weird and deeply harmful policies — reminding voters that they have the power to protect their own rights and freedoms.”
The ad is part of the HRC Equality Votes PAC’s seven-figure digital ad campaign aimed at mobilizing pro-LGBTQ+ voters in four key battleground states. Combined with separate campaigns aimed at getting out the vote generally and supporting Democratic Senate candidates, Equality Votes PAC is spending $2 million to safeguard LGBTQ+ rights in the upcoming election.
The goal, according to HRC, is to reach the 1.5 million “Equality Voters” in these four states who are not habitual voters in each election cycle.
“Equality Voters,” according to the organization, include members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies who prioritize LGBTQ+ equality when voting. These voters are younger, more racially diverse, and include more women than the general voting population. Equality Voters played a key role in electing President Joe Biden in 2020 and in preventing the projected “red wave” that would have given Republicans control of the U.S. Senate and a larger majority in the House of Representatives during the 2022 midterms.
But, the organization says, one-third of these Equality Voters are “at risk of not voting in 2024 or at risk of voting for a third-party candidate for president.”
The campaign’s battleground state ads are aimed at getting them to show up to vote for Harris instead.
“This election is going to come down to the smallest of margins, but the difference between an equality champion like Kamala Harris in the White House or another reign of terror from Donald Trump couldn’t be greater,” HRC’s Equality Votes PAC chief strategist Guy Cecil said in a statement.
Cecil said that Equality Voters “will once again make the difference in battleground states across the country.”
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