Statement on House District 18, Primary Elections, and EQNM Messaging
Recently, Equality New Mexico sent out text messages related to the 2024 election, and we have received feedback from folks who are taking issue with our stance. This blog post provides additional context for our statements. It further underscores why the race in House District 18 is of enormous significance to the future of the LGBTQ movement in New Mexico.
HD18 has played an important role in New Mexico’s LGBTQ history and will soon be vacated by one of our biggest champions, Rep. Gail Chasey. Queer and Trans New Mexicans have been able to rely on this district for 25 years, and it is essential that whoever wins this seat has our backs so that we can maintain the protections we’ve won and expand on them. That is why we endorsed Marianna Anaya so quickly. We know her work, we know her values, and we trust her to be the fierce fighter that we need for our LGBTQ communities.
Our organization, acting independently of the candidates we support and as an independent expenditure, recently sent text messages that drew a contrast between the candidates running to represent HD18. The messages referred to one candidate, Dr. Anjali Taneja, as being “deeply involved with the corporate medical establishment.” We hear those of you who have told us that this statement feels like an attack, and not an honest conversation about what is at stake in this election. We apologize for over-simplifying this crucial message. We understand that a single phrase in a text cannot sufficiently substantiate such a claim, so it is our intention that this statement will serve as better background.
One of the hardest parts of participating in a primary election is that folks who are typically values-aligned have to draw distinctions between each other. That means we sometimes wind up hurting or upsetting people we would, in other circumstances, be uplifting. However, just because something makes some people uncomfortable doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be said—we just should have said it differently.
In HD18, four candidates are running in the Democratic Primary: Marianna Anaya, Dr. Anjali Taneja, Gloria Doherty, and Juan Larranaga. EQNM Endorsed Marianna Anaya before the filing deadline because of her long history of working to protect LGBTQ people.
Dr. Taneja is a board-certified family physician with almost 20 years of experience. She provides healthcare to low-income patients and their families, and has also been providing gender-affirming healthcare for trans and non-binary New Mexicans for quite some time.
When we sent out messages referring to a corporate medicine connection, we intended to draw attention to Dr. Taneja’s donors and supporters, who we believe are supporting her because of their interest in protecting corporate medicine. For those of us who have been in the fight a long time, we know that we have had to work against these establishment institutions to advance people- and patient-centered public policy in New Mexico.
We don’t know whether these corporate donations and support will impact Dr. Taneja’s votes if she wins, but the voters in HD18 deserve to know about the connections.
Attacks on LGBTQ people are at a peak, more dangerous and harmful than they have been in decades. While the fight is often about nondiscrimination laws or gender-affirming care, we know our work is intersectional, and we know that LGBTQ people are workers. We are parents and families. We fight daily to protect ourselves and our communities. This is not the time for us to sit back and watch a race of this significance be boiled down to “a doctor vs. a lobbyist” without a deeper understanding of our communities and the types of champions we need in the NM legislature.
We understand that supporters of other candidates are drawing distinctions around Marianna Ayana’s role in reforming the Medical Malpractice Law. This law was archaic and outdated; reform was critical to changing a system that benefitted corporate hospitals and out-of-state players over patients. We created a more patient-centered healthcare system in New Mexico, and we believe Marianna helped protect patients from the profit-focused, big-business healthcare providers. The medical establishment in New Mexico hasn't been shy about its feelings about this, and we will not be shy in affirming Marianna’s and others’ efforts.
Equality New Mexico endorsed Marianna Anaya for this position because we have worked with her and know her values. We also know her ability to get things done. Marianna led alongside us to create a strategy that made New Mexico one of the most legally protected states in the nation for LGBTQ people.
Let’s be clear; we endorsed Marianna Anaya, a Queer woman of color who has worked tirelessly for the causes and community-driven, values-based organizations like EQNM.
There is no doubt that there is a healthcare crisis in New Mexico, and it impacts LGBTQ people in unique ways because of the layers of systemic discrimination we face every day of our lives. We are grateful to Dr Taneja for her work in providing healthcare to folks who otherwise would not have this access.
However, we can’t ignore the fact that attempts to make healthcare more accessible in New Mexico, ranging from making prescription drugs more affordable to creating a healthcare infrastructure that benefits everyone, have often been stymied by these corporate healthcare industries.
This race for House District 18 is critical to the movement for LGBTQ Liberation in New Mexico. We will continue to fight to elect legislators we can trust to represent the voices of LGBTQ New Mexicans across New Mexico. Fighting for liberation in systems that were created for oppression never feels as good as it should, and the work is always challenging. We will continue to take this work seriously and aspire to do it in the best interests of Queer and Trans New Mexicans everywhere, even if we fall short at times. Moving forward, we will only uplift the reasons we have endorsed and are supporting Marianna Anaya, and are making a commitment not to attack or draw distinctions about other candidates in this race.
More about our reasons for supporting Marianna:
Marianna Anaya is a queer woman of color with a track record of working to uplift our communities, from being an organizer with a local Teachers’ Union and marching on picket lines with nurses to being the leader as our Legislative Advocate working to protect access to Gender-Affirming Care and Reproductive healthcare and strengthening our non-discriminatory laws. Marianna led the fight to pass our Affirmative Consent Law in New Mexico to help prevent sexual violence on campuses across New Mexico and teach a whole new generation about what consent is and what it is not when it comes to physical relationships. She was the lead lobbyist on the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, working to protect democracy when New Mexico was the first state to propose and seriously consider this bold step to enfranchise voters across the state in meaningful ways.
Marianna is also the voice of everyday New Mexicans, as evidenced by her endorsements ranging from Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico and Voices for Children Action Fund to Organizers in the Land of Enchantment. Even NM Native Vote and leaders in the LGBTQ movement like Bunnie Cruse, a Trans Latina who has advocated for the statewide LGBTQ community for decades.
Marianna was born and raised in the North Valley of Albuquerque and was the first in her family to attend college. She knocked on doors and made phone calls, talked to Legislators, and wrote Op-Eds to support our movement and all of our intersections. Marianna isn’t running to represent the voices of the disenfranchised in the Roundhouse. She is the voice of the disenfranchised in our communities.