Rep. Justin Amash, the Independent congressman from Michigan who is considering running for president, vowed to support the rights of the LGBTQ community, in particular transgender Americans.
“I would protect transgender Americans under the protections that exist for sex,” Amash said in a telephone interview Friday. Amash, the former Tea Party Republican who defected from the GOP in July and voted for impeachment of President Donald Trump in January, announced on Wednesday he is forming a presidential exploratory campaign, as a Libertarian candidate.
Although it might be unusual for a Republican to stake such a claim, his endorsement of trans rights as well as marriage equality are in line with well-established Libertarian platform positions.
“I think that people can take the term ‘sex’ that's in federal law and interpret it to mean things beyond what it traditionally meant,” said Amash. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule any day now on that interpretation, as to whether trans Americans are protected from discrimination on the job by a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment because of sex.
“Sometimes, we have to catch up to the law,” Amash continued. “In other words, the law is written and the law will be fairly broad, and the public and the courts are not actually caught up to what is actually in the text.”
The text is clear on the website of the party whose nomination he seeks, the Libertarian Party, which states matter of factly: “A matter as personal as gender identification should be decided by the person involved, not by the government.”
Transgender Troops
However, the record shows that when it came time to vote whether to condemn the president’s ban on trans troops serving in the U.S. Military, then-Republican Amash voted “present” rather than take a stand. He did not join five of his GOP colleagues who broke rank with the president and aligned with Democrats to pass the non-binding resolution.
Following publication of this post, the Amash campaign reached out to note that the congressman did cast a subsequent vote on an amendment in June 2019, in which the House moved to block the Department of Defense from spending appropriated funds to implement the trans military ban. Rep. Amash was one of nine Republicans to vote in favor of the amendment and it passed, 243-183, with a dozen members of the House not casting a vote.
But a month later — just days after switching parties — the congressman cast a vote against another amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. The amendment by Rep. Jackie Speier (D) Calif., would enshrine into law that any person who meets gender-neutral occupational standards can serve in the military regardless of race, color, national origin, religion or sex, including gender identity or sexual orientation, as The Hill reported in July 2019. Rep. Amash is recorded as opposing this amendment that was aimed at reversing the president’s trans military ban.
Here’s what a campaign spokesperson said in response to a question about his “no” vote:
“The Speier amendment went around the executive order and instead changed the law to add a new standard of "equality of treatment" for everyone in the Armed Forces (not just transgender persons). It's not clear what impact this new standard would have in a military context, or whether it was appropriately drafted for that context given the military's mandate to maximize the nation's defenses with available resources, so the feeling was that it deserved more careful consideration and deliberation than a minimally debated amendment.”
The Speier amendment passed with the support of ten Republicans.
Amash also offered his own amendment to the NDAA, seeking to eliminate indefinite military detention of any person detained under the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution of 2001. It was one of eight of the 58 amendments defeated.
If elected as the first Libertarian president, would Amash seek to change the 2015 Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality? “No, I support gay marriage and I have supported it for a long time,” Amash said, lining up with the Libertarians’ four-decade history of support. “I've always held the view that the government should not be a part of marriage. I think that marriage should be a private contract or a religious ceremony and not something that the government is a part of. But if the government is going to be a part of marriage for straight couples, then it must also allow others to get married.”
Sexual Assault
Asked bluntly about the reports of sexual assault allegations now being weighed against the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the long history of such accusations against President Trump, Amash volunteered that he is skeleton-free.
“I have nothing in my closet,” the congressman said. “As for these individuals, everyone deserves due process and the people making the accusations deserve to be heard. And we should have a fair process for everyone where both sides, both parties, are having their concerns addressed, and have their issues fairly deliberated.”
Amash’s Voting Record
Amash publicly vowed he would not vote for Trump in 2016, and told me he won’t vote for him this November, either. When presented with FiveThirtyEight’s account of his voting record, which shows over the course of his political career he voted in line with the president’s position 63.8% of the time, Amash maintained that showed he was still “fairly independent.”
“I think you have to take those numbers with a grain of salt,” Amash said. “I'm one of the most independent members of Congress. I'm pretty sure, statistically now, I'm the most independent member of Congress. But when I was a Republican, I would be the most independent Republican. So it reflected independence, a willingness to do what I think is right. And I follow the Constitution, represent my constituents, and I don't worry about the party labels.”
Ending The Logjam
It’s that stuck-in-the-mud partisanship that the co-founder of the Freedom Caucus said has prompted him to enter the race, in hopes he can move Washington out of its rut. Politico headlined its report about his potential campaign: “Justin Amash Wants to Destroy the System That Created Trump.”
“The two parties are destroying the system on their own,” Amash said. “But they're destroying it in a way that will leave millions of Americans unrepresented. So, I want to create a new system that restores the way our government is supposed to work, and that means people having actual representation in Congress and executive branch actually executes the law instead of writing laws.”
Amash pointed to the leadership of both parties as carrying the blame for the logjam, and leaving rank and file representatives unable to participate in the process as it was designed. The result, he said, is that “millions of Americans go unrepresented. Our system is not working for them. It's failing them... So members of Congress don't actually debate legislation in the same way they used to. Now, they just debate personalities.”
Family Life
New Congress
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio administers the House oath to Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., during ... [+] ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amash, a married father of three — two girls and a boy — said launching a presidential campaign during a pandemic lockdown is far from ideal.
“We're all at home together, so they have to be a little quieter than normal. I'm doing a lot of interviews, but they're very supportive, very loving,” he said. And his kids apparently are already invested in seeing their dad in the White House.
“My daughters yesterday made a campaign video for me, you know, to show their support. And it was really it was actually really quite funny. So they've been very kind, very loving and very supportive.” Amash wouldn’t say whether he’ll actually add that video to his campaign site.
Amash’s Message
What he is focused on, he said, was getting out the message about why he’s different from Trump, from Biden, and from former wrestler and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, also weighing a potential run as another third-party candidate.
“I think it's important when we think about what we want in a president, we think about honesty and practicality and capability. And too often we're settling for candidates who don't represent those qualities, but are just the candidates who made it through their particular party primaries,” Amash said. “And we need to rethink this. We really should vote for the candidate who is the most qualified and the one we want to represent us. That's the only way this system is going to change. And it's easy to always say wait till the next election. But now is the time and we have a real opportunity. And I'm confident that I will present a strong contrast between myself and the other candidates over the course of this campaign.”
