A transgender and nonbinary candidate for U.S. House from Louisiana has posted a campaign ad in which they inject testosterone.
Mel Manuel is a Democrat running against anti-LGBTQ+ Republican incumbent Steve Scalise in the state’s First Congressional District, which includes New Orleans and surrounding areas. In the ad, posted to social media, Manuel wears a T-shirt printed with “My Body My Choice” and makes the point that democracy is at stake in this year’s election.
“The toxic forces of fear and hatred are threatening to consume our nation,” Manuel says. “If we don’t take a stand, the November election could be the last gasp of democratic freedom as we know it. I believe that you, not the government, own your own body.” They then inject the testosterone and say, “LGBTQ rights are human rights.”
Manuel is the director of operations for the Louisiana Abortion Fund and the co-director of Queer Northshore. They were a founding member of the St. Tammany Library Alliance and currently serve on the executive committee of the Louisiana Democratic Party. They also have 15 years of experience teaching in the public schools.
In addition to their advocacy for LGBTQ+ equality and reproductive freedom, Manuel’s key issues include improving public education, raising teacher salaries, and establishing a universal basic income program.
“Not only is pay low here, but conditions in schools are absolutely terrible for the majority of educators. The only way we’re going to attract the best teachers is if we pay competitive salaries,” Manuel recently told The Center Square, a nonprofit news organization.
Louisiana has an unusual election calendar. The November 5 election will be a primary for Manuel, Scalise, two other Republicans, and an unaffiliated candidate. If any candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, they will have won the seat. If no one passes the 50 percent threshold, the two top vote recipients will advance to a general election December 7. Scalise, a seven-term incumbent, is rated likely to win. He and Manuel are the only candidates who’ve received any campaign contributions, according to The Center Square and Ballotpedia.
“Last summer, the calls to ban books started,” Manuel told The Nation in 2023. “I went to a library board meeting and the room was full of LGBTQ supporters. After that meeting, there were plenty of people who couldn’t believe there were so many queer people and allies in St. Tammany Parish [Louisiana’s term for counties]; they thought we didn’t actually exist here. I realized that we’re invisible.” After that, Manuel decided to run for office.
“We don’t have the numbers to win,” they acknowledged to The Nation. “Katie Darling [Scalise’s Democratic opponent in 2022] ran last time and she got about 25 percent of the vote. Even if your candidate doesn’t win, if we can move the needle to 35 percent or 40 percent of the vote, that means the next progressive candidate will get more funding. There’s a very, very small chance at winning, and I understand that, but we can still use the role of candidacy as a platform in and of itself.”
On their campaign website, Manuel says, “I’m not a seasoned politician. In fact, I didn’t consider myself politically minded until Christian nationalists put a target on the backs of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of pro-censorship movements and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. I’m running because I realized that no one is coming to save Louisiana. We, the people of Louisiana, have to be our own saviors and our own heroes. We must take back our state and build a Louisiana for everyone.”
Louisiana is the only state that has never elected an LGBTQ+ state legislator, let alone a member of Congress. Trans woman Rivule Sykes launched a campaign in the state’s Fifth Congressional District this year but withdrew due to personal issues. Davante Lewis, a Black gay man elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2022, was the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to a state governmental body in Louisiana and the first Black LGBTQ+ person to win any public office there. His term runs until 2028.
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