There have been few elections as critical to transgender Americans as this year’s midterms. Over the past year, 238 anti-trans bills have reportedly been introduced in dozens of state legislatures. Trans people and allies have undertaken vast efforts to beat back the onslaught of bigoted bills that have dotted the landscape of late. The most straightforward way to combat such acts, of course, is to vote for elected representatives who can best protect our basic human rights.

But hundreds of thousands of trans people could find themselves disenfranchised at the ballot box this year thanks to the strict voter ID laws many red states have passed over the last decade. At the same time, in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections, conservatives have blanketed the airwaves with ads spreading false information about trans people and their rights.

Trans issues have become an obsession in conservative politics since marriage equality became the law of the land. And now trans people seeking to exercise the right as participants in our democratic system by casting ballots on Election Day are being squeezed into an impossible position: demonized by bills that threaten our existence, while enduring violent propaganda that spreads false information to the same effect and being denied the single action that could best protect ourselves.

Add to that a Republican effort to intimidate voters, with armed right-wing groups patrolling early voting drop boxes in some states, and a large effort to recruit so-called poll watchers who want to interfere with the democratic process, and many trans people, who face a rising threat of transphobic violence, may feel too intimidated to even try to exercise their right to vote.