Republicans care more about attacking 1% of Americans than helping any of us | Opinion
Transgender people won't magically cease to exist because of this. Instead, Trump's executive order denies transgender people the humanity they deserve and opens them up to further persecution.
After running a campaign that spent millions on transphobic ads and declaring his desire to rid schools of “transgender insanity," President Donald Trump is acting on the threats he made.
Shortly after being sworn in as president, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” declaring that the United States government would only recognize two sexes, male and female.
With a single measure, Trump and the rest of the Republican Party signaled to transgender people across the country that they are not welcome in the United States.
There are so many other things that the government could focus on right now. They could have started off the administration by implementing a plan to improve the economy. Egg prices hit new highs in December, and there are signs the price will keep going up. Where’s the plan to help Americans with ever rising costs?
Instead, the new Republican administration would rather use time and resources to attack the rights of less than 1% of the U.S. population. They're seemingly more interested in targeting Americans than they are in helping us. So I wanted to figure out what that target means for transgender people.
Trump's executive order is meant to harm trans people
Kevin Jennings is the CEO of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. He told me that calls to the organization’s legal help desk doubled the week after the presidential election – just one indicator of how scared people are.
“They basically want to erase the existence of trans people,” Jennings said, noting that Lambda Legal is preparing several lawsuits against the Trump administration.
He doesn’t believe the Republicans are acting on values but are trying to score political points. Despite this tactic, trans issues are not motivating to voters. In an October Gallup poll, “transgender rights” ranked last in importance among 22 issues voters were polled on.
“Real people are being harmed, and it’s only going to get worse,” Jennings said.
The No. 1 issue in that poll was the economy, which the Trump administration has largely ignored in a tsunami of executive orders.
What impact will executive order have on transgender people?
The executive order itself does several things. It mandates that the government will define people using the terms “biologically male” and “biologically female,” leaving intersex people and those outside the gender binary without accurate labels on government documents. It also stops the government's use of "X" as a gender marker on passports.
“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order reads.
The executive order will change how transgender incarcerated people go through the prison system. It mandates that transgender women will be moved to men’s prisons. It bars federal funding from being spent on gender-affirming care for incarcerated people. There are almost 2,300 transgender people in the federal prison system.
“Let’s be blunt: That is setting up people to be raped or killed,” Jennings said.
There’s also the question of what this executive order could mean further down the line. While it does not mention Medicaid or Medicare, there is a possibility that gender-affirming care could be challenged later on. It will normalize discrimination against trans people.
Even though groups like Lambda Legal are doing the work to fight these measures in the courts, the fact that they're happening is concerning.
Transgender people are here to stay
The truth is that transgender people won’t magically cease to exist because of this executive order.
Instead, Trump’s new mandate denies transgender people the humanity they deserve and opens the community up to further persecution.
This isn’t the only challenge to trans rights in our government right now. The House has passed legislation that bans transgender people from competing in women’s sports at all educational levels.
I also doubt we’ve seen the end of state-level attacks on trans rights. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union tracked more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
Despite Republican hate, trans people aren’t going to stop existing now that the federal government doesn’t recognize their presence in the country. They are, however, going to lead more difficult lives because of this, which I know is the point for Republicans.
Republicans would rather bully a vulnerable community than do anything to improve Americans' lives meaningfully. They are keeping the public in a panic over trans people to distract from the fact that they aren't going to improve people's economic outlook. They aren't fooling anyone.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno