“A stab”: trans-Americans react to Trump’s decree | LGBTQ+ rights

A.Right after Donald Trump won the election, Max Kuzma got to work. As a trans man living just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, he knew he needed to get his paperwork in order. He counts himself lucky to have already changed his name legally, but he rushed to make sure his passport and other documents reflected it. Like so many other trans Americans, Kuzma feared that Trump would not follow through on his promise to roll back LGBTQ+ rights and threaten trans healthcare and the overall safety of the queer community.

“I expected an attack,” Kuzma said. Yet seeing Trump sign an executive order that repealed the rights of trans and non-binary people felt like “a stab.”

During his inaugural address, Trump said: “Effective today, it shall be the official policy of the Government of the United States that there be only two genders, male and female. »

The administration’s order calls on the federal government to ensure that passports and other documents reflect only both sexes. (Under President Joe Biden, the State Department issued an “X” gender marker option for people who identify as nonbinary, intersex, or gender nonconforming.) The executive order also prevents the use taxpayer dollars for gender-affirming health care. , and requires that prisons be designated based on sex assigned at birth, not gender identity — meaning trans women could be housed in men’s prisons.

To Kuzma, the order reads like a dark first step in what he sees as the administration’s attempts to erase trans and non-binary identities from public life.

“As I read each additional point of this executive order, I began to feel sicker and sicker,” he said.

Kuzma began his transition in 2019. He feels lucky to have had a few years to live his identity openly. But he worries about young trans and non-binary people coming of age in a hostile era. “I had the opportunity to experience many milestones,” he said. “I’m on testosterone and I’ve had my major surgery. There is a feeling of survivor’s guilt that I got over in no time.

Only 1.6 million people over the age of 13 identify as trans in the United States, but the community faces relentless attacks from Republican politicians as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ culture war led by Trump. Republicans spent nearly $215 million on anti-trans ads this election.

Some Democrats also scapegoated young trans people when they did their post-mortem on Kamala Harris’s electoral failure. Seth Moulton, a U.S. representative from Massachusetts, told the New York Times: “Democrats spend far too much time trying not to offend anyone instead of being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls, I don’t want them to get run over on the playground by an athlete or a former athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

Despite their fears, trans and non-binary people remain rebellious. Before the inauguration, the ACLU said it planned to sue Trump “every time we can” to fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Chase Strangio, attorney and director of the nonprofit LGBTQ & HIV Project, posted on Instagram that the executive orders “do not and cannot change (existing) laws” protecting LGBTQ+ rights.

Many trans and non-binary people are unsure how Trump’s executive order will affect their daily lives. Zaya Perysian, for example, is a trans woman living in Los Angeles. She has an appointment to renew her passport this week and she’s not sure if she can use the correct gender marker. “I have a lot of anxiety about it,” she said. “Yesterday I felt like it was the end of the world. But my mother reminded me that I am still here, that I still have the right to protest and that is what I will do.

Hunter Gromala, a 28-year-old nonbinary man who lives in Kansas, didn’t watch the inauguration or follow too closely on social media. “Apparently I don’t deserve their time, their energy or their empathy, so I wasn’t going to give them mine,” Gromala said. “But I know my community feels heavy about this, so I’ve been trying to share information and remind people that just because this is happening doesn’t mean queer people will disappear instantly.”

Trump’s first term was marked by significant LGBTQ+ resistance. But much of the post-election news cycle this time describes a general weariness, with some people saying they are too tired or exhausted to protest again. (Not to mention, Trump amassed more supporters in 2024, winning the popular vote for the first time.)

Trans and non-binary Americans also report disconnecting at times, but many note that resistance movements are still alive. “Silence is not an option right now,” Gromala said. “I know it’s very easy to be sad and isolate yourself because you feel like everyone is against you, but now is the time to do the exact opposite. Trans people, queer people, and minorities have survived centuries, and we have done it with each other.

As executive director of the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, Corinne Goodwin spent most of inauguration day working the phone lines, speaking to affected trans people and their family members about their rights.

“I just got off the phone with a mother who was in tears because she was afraid for the mental health of her transgender child,” Goodwin said.

“We made a post on social media about someone who had their legal name successfully changed, and overnight I woke up to over 100 people sending horrible responses. I imagine this will continue for a while,” she added.

Javannah J Davis runs Wave Women Inc, a nonprofit supporting underserved trans Bipoc and gender non-conforming people, based in Rochester, New York. She says the decree “makes life three times more difficult” for her community.

“But even in the face of policies designed to erase us, our resilience and our community will endure,” Davis said. “Today is painful, but it also reminds us how essential it is to continue to organize, vote and celebrate our visibility.

Goodwin often uses the same speech to comfort his community. “I often talk about how trans people are like sharks: if we don’t keep swimming, we die, so we have to move forward,” she said. “Sometimes progress looks like big leaps, and other times it feels like holding on by your fingernails. »