Most mainstream attention to transgender people, when it happens at all, frames us as deeply unknowable. Communicating with us involves abstract discussion of pronouns and grammar rules that some people insist are too complicated. Being allowed to use public restrooms without fear of arrest or harassment becomes a question of whether a facility has specialized “transgender bathrooms.” Our political demands are seen as exotic, specific to our small community, leaving plenty of room for the right wing to ask why a small fraction of the population should be allowed to demand anything at all.

Increasingly, Democrats take pains to acknowledge our struggles — though it often feels like they’re less making a particular effort to win our votes and more signaling to a mostly cisgender audience that they care. It’s an improvement over being a political punching bag, but also leads to baffling outcomes like Warren’s recent promise to let a single unnamed young trans person vet her secretary of education. This vaguely othering exceptionalism creeps into policy proposals as well, where candidates sometimes find room for a niche platform plank targeting us specifically, but rarely discuss how their more sweeping reform plans would affect our lives.

Bernie Sanders’s campaign comes as a breath of fresh air. Bernie has a long history of supporting trans rights. His platform includes a number of excellent policies to fix unique hassles of trans life, such as ensuring nonbinary people can receive proper identity documents. But he also takes pains to include us fully in the sweeping universal programs that are his hallmark. It’s those big ideas that have the most potential to improve our lives, because policy tweaks won’t change much for trans people — or anyone else — without inviolable rights to education, health care, jobs, and housing.