Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Trump’s approach attacks “vulnerable people” who make up about 1 percent of the population “and are already marginalized” by much of society.

“Why are we discussing healthcare for trans people? Because there’s a lack of understanding and a lack of humanization of who trans people are,” Ellis said. “It’s not easy being transgender, waking up every day in a body that might not match who you are, and instead of having empathy, they’re met with hostility. This is the culture that Trump is creating.”

Writer and activist Charlotte Clymer added on social media platform X: “It’s really… gross to watch any sporting event as a trans person right now because of Trump’s ads and I just want everyone to know that : yes, us. you see the ads and it’s demoralizing to know that this whole subset of people see us as subhuman.”

Indeed, the Trump campaign has spent about $35 million since September 1 airing three ads based on statements Harris made in 2019 as a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The clips show Harris affirming her support for federal policies that allow federal inmates access to health care, including sex-affirming hormone treatments and potentially transgender surgery.

”It sounds crazy because it’s crazy,” the announcer said in an announcement that, as of Thursday, had been broadcast nearly 28,000 times on presidential battlegrounds and national television. “Kamala’s agenda is ‘them’, not you,” the ad concludes, referring to non-gendered pronouns.

Harris, in her 2019 presidential campaign, wrote in an ACLU questionnaire: “I support policies that ensure that federal prisoners and inmates can obtain necessary medical care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained.”