Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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As folks get inundated with information, texts and advertisements about the highly contested presidential race in these last days before the Nov. 5 election, it can be easy for local races to get lost. But it’s critical that we pay attention to who’s running for office here in Douglas County and vote with our values.
I’ve been in Lawrence for the past 16 years and appreciate living in a community where the majority of folks value education, science, equity, inclusivity and trans rights.
I’m concerned that people in our community might not know the ultra-conservative, anti-transgender, anti-vaccine politics of Douglas County Commission candidates Pam McDermott (R-District 3) and Rich Lorenzo (R-District 5). These candidates are supported by Kansans for Health Freedom and Morning Star Church (also Kris Kobach’s spiritual home), who work together to oppose gender-affirming care for minors and vaccines in Kansas. McDermott and Lorenzo have been public and explicit about their extreme beliefs.
McDermott is the community life director at Morning Star Church, where her husband, John, is the senior pastor. She’s testified against vaccines before the Kansas Legislature, and her husband has testified on both of their behalf against gender-affirming care for minors.
Lorenzo created and runs the youth ministry Called to Greatness, which is based out of Morning Star Church and shares their extreme ideology. Their KU chapter has brought multiple anti-trans speakers to campus.
These candidates have been careful to downplay their beliefs and affiliations while campaigning because they know being anti-trans and anti-vaccine is disqualifying for holding public office here. Opposing gender-affirming care and vaccines are not matters of personal morality when held by politicians who enact policies that force personal beliefs on others. Electing people who are associated with a church platform with homophobic and anti-science beliefs as doctrine is both extreme and dangerous for queer people and the medically vulnerable.
These values do not align with our county. When the state legislature passed hateful policies that would have forced people into the wrong bathrooms for their gender, we declared ourselves a safe haven for our trans neighbors. We’ve consistently elected people to our county government who’ve promoted access to life-saving vaccines. And it’s not possible to predict the issues our county commissioners may be tasked with deciding in the future. We may be focused on housing and taxes now, but what if another public health crisis reaches our region? Do we really want McDermott and Lorenzo making decisions about vaccinations and masks? Local protections for gender-affirming care if the state succeeds in restricting it?
We have better options. I’m supporting Shannon Reid in my district, who is the current commissioner for District 2. A leader on equity issues, she understands every aspect of our local criminal legal system because of her work at the Willow Domestic Violence Center, and was instrumental in establishing our county’s first public defender’s office. Karen Willey, the District 3 incumbent, has vast expertise as an entrepreneur, volunteer firefighter and farmer. And Erica Anderson, the Democrat running for the newly created District 5 seat, has changed many of her problematic positions from when she ran for, and lost, a house seat as a Republican in 2012. Her vast experience in policy making and health care advocacy, as well as her shifting perspectives on several social issues the majority of our community champions — such as common-sense gun control and reproductive freedom — make her a preferred choice over Lorenzo.
We deserve leaders who don’t hide their regressive, dangerous politics behind talking points on lowering taxes. Douglas County should be led by folks we can trust to protect our neighbors no matter their gender and embrace — not ignore — science. At the end of the day, access to gender-affirming care and vaccines are a matter of life and death. Let’s vote accordingly, and send a message that extremism has no place in our local government.
— Vanessa Sanburn (she/her), Lawrence
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