Michigan's transgender community terrified about Trump order rescinding rights
President Donald Trump did what he said he would do on his first day in office: roll back protections for transgender and nonbinary individuals by signing an executive order saying that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and those sexes were assigned at birth.
And members and allies of the transgender and nonbinary community are terrified. "He wants to say we are not real," said psychotherapist Rachel Crandall-Crocker, who is transgender and whose practice specializes in transgender issues.
"How would you feel if someone came up to you and said, 'You're not real?' ... I can say it will have such a negative impact on the mental health of the transgender community. ... A lot of us have gone through hell to become ourselves and he wants to do away with all of that," Crandall-Crocker said Monday soon after Trump declared in his inauguration speech that the federal government's official policy will recognize only two genders.
Meanwhile, Equality Michigan, which works to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and reduce violence against it, will continue to fight for the rights of transgender and nonbinary individuals so they "have an opportunity to lead a healthy and safe and long life," Erin Knott, the organization's executive director, said.
"Transgender and nonbinary people are in all states and communities," Knott said hours before Trump officially signed the widely expected executive order. "They're part of our families. They're part of our neighborhoods, our workplaces. Our leaders should include and protect these individuals with the fundamental freedoms that Americans enjoy."
While Equality Michigan has no power to reverse any executive order Trump signs, Knott said she and her organization "can be at the local level, educating school board officials, making sure that all students feel safe. ... I can be organizing at the community level ... supporting our community centers ... to make sure they have resources."
Knott said her message Monday was this: "For transgender and nonbinary community members, you're not alone. You're loved."
Crandall-Crocker, who is 65, remembers how difficult it was for her to come out as transgender. "I tried to come out to my mother and father when I was 8 and they said that was the dirtiest thing I could possibly say. ... That was in the '60s. I went back in the closet. I internalized it. I thought I was the most awful thing on Earth. And that's pretty heavy for an 8-year-old. No self-esteem. And I thought that I wasn't worth anything."
She finally came out for good when she was in her 30s. "I was married and I was living as a man and when I came out, I lost my marriage, I lost my house, I lost everything," she said. "I don't think that people understand it."
In 1997, she formed Transgender Michigan, an advocacy organization. She said it will work closely with the American Civil Liberties Union to address the impact of any executive order.
While Michigan law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, Trump's order would impact a range of agencies and protocol including federal documents such as passports and visas. People holding passports or visas or other federal documents would be required to identify as male or female, the sex they were assigned at birth. Under the Biden administration, Americans were allowed to use the gender neutral X marker on passports. The State Department, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will be in charge of enforcing the executive order.
Bobbie Hirsch, a 21-year-old transgender man who lives in Detroit, is worried any change in federal documents will open him to discrimination. "I don’t know if they’ll make me change my sex to female, especially since I got my sex legally changed. I'm scared. ... Having my sex on my legal documents, it helps keep me safe on a day-to-day basis. Just like when I'm handing my ID over to someone. I don’t know what their political views are ... but having that on my documents, it matches what I look like ... it’s very, very helpful in keeping me safe.”
"If someone is like 'hey, let me see your papers,' and it says female and I have a beard and I have a deep voice … "
He added: "I'm really scared. I'm really scared. I'm really scared for my future."
Paste BN contributed to this report.
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