For transgender Americans, Trump's victory is terrifying

Avery Poznanski was excited about the new chapter.

A nonbinary transgender senior at UCLA decided last month, after years of self-discovery and long discussions with their family and doctors, to begin testosterone therapy. The first few weeks feel exciting, fulfilling.

Then Donald Trump, after running an anti-transgender campaign, won the presidential election on Tuesday — which sounds “really scary” and “disappointing,” Poznanski said.

“I'm still amazed at how big the transfer of rights issue was on Trump's side, and how hard they campaigned,” said the 21-year-old Murrieta native on Wednesday. “I just feel nervous, really.”

Across the US, transgender and other queer people are grappling with the fact that Americans overwhelmingly voted for a candidate who will mock them on the campaign trail, and a political party that spent millions on anti-LGBTQ+ ads.

For many, the loss of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to Trump is not only upsetting but very threatening. They look for reasons to be optimistic, such as Sarah McBride's election in Delaware, which will make her the first member of Congress. But most are feeling frustrated — in part because they believe Trump will follow through on his promises to take away their rights.

“It's a scary time to be a trans person, and to hear the baseless and shocking rhetoric coming from that side, and to think that that could be carried over into real law,” Poznanski said.

Trump's election follows years of growing political hostility toward transgender people and a wave of state laws aimed at curtailing the rights of this minority group of Americans. But it also marked a new rise.

Trump has disparaged transgender people since the beginning of the race. In one of his first campaign videos – part of his “Agenda 47” policy platform – he said “the sexism of the left [was] pushing our children” and “it was child abuse.”

He said he will sign an executive order when he takes office “ordering all government agencies to stop all programs that promote the concept of sexuality and gender change at any age”; withhold government funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care; ensure “negative consequences” for teachers who accept transgender children; and force schools to “promote constructive education about the nuclear family, the role of mothers and fathers, and celebrating instead of erasing the things that make men and women unique and different.”

Trump also disparaged transgender people on the campaign trail. He positioned them as a threat to women and girls, including in sports, and told absurd lies to incite more fear — including his claim that American children were being pulled from schools for genital mutilation without their parents' consent.

In September, the Trump campaign began running an attack ad targeting Harris for a policy of providing gender-affirming health care to federal prisoners, using the line, “Kamala is theirs. President Trump is yours. ” And when that seemed to resonate with voters, the campaign doubled down, airing sexist ads during sports games and at regional swim meets. One recent estimate put Republican spending on sexist ads on network television alone at $215 million.

Trans rights supporters protested at the Indiana Statehouse last year before the passage of a ban on child sexual exploitation.

(Darron Cummings/Associated Press)

LGBTQ+ rights groups have challenged the notion that voters find Trump's anti-sexist message appealing, and polls have shown that most Americans support transgender rights. Still, the fact that such a message was so central to Trump's victory campaign says something about the American electorate, according to transgender people and their family members.

“I think it was very popular with his background, and with people throwing money at him,” said Amber Easley, a San Bernardino County mother whose 17-year-old son, Milo, is transgender. “There was a direct contribution [Trump’s] success, which is harmful.”

Jaymes Black, chief executive of the Trevor Project, which uses phone calls, text and chats with young people who are having suicidal thoughts or need to talk, said the group's resources saw demand increase by about 125% on election day through Wednesday morning, compared to normal days.

“The Trevor Project wants young LGBTQ+ people to know that we are here for you, regardless of the outcome of any election, and we will continue to fight for every young LGBTQ+ person to have access to safe, affirming spaces – especially during difficult times,” Mnyamana said. “LGBTQ+ young people: your life is important, and you were born to live it.”

Erin Reed, a transgender activist and freelance journalist who has written extensively about the trans community, said there is “a lot of hopelessness” among queer people.

Trans rights activist and journalist Erin Reed, right, and her fiancé, Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, 2023.

(Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

“I'm not going to sugarcoat it: I had to talk to three or four people to reduce suicide,” Reed said of the conversations he had on election night. “This is the reality that people are facing right now.”

Many transgender people are already “very unsafe” living in Republican-controlled states that have passed anti-transgender measures in recent years, Reed said, including bans on gender-affirming health care, for transgender people who use bathrooms that match their identity, in queer. -certificates, and procedures that allow transgender people to update national documents such as driver's licenses.

Now, Reed said, transgender people across the country — including in blue states — are wondering whether Trump and his newly empowered Republican colleagues in the next Congress will be able to pass similar measures at the federal level.

Those in the trans community are worried that Democrats will abandon them now based on the idea that protecting them is too expensive politically, Reed said; they ask themselves, “How do we manage not to be thrown under the bus?”

Many Democrats have expressed solidarity with the queer community, and queer leaders and organizations are reaching out to affirm that blind people are fair and reverse the Republican narrative that dehumanizes transgender people — all important, but not enough, said Honey Mahogany, San Francisco's executive director. Office of Transgender Initiatives.

“I would like to see unity in other communities, it makes sure that we are together in this and come together,” he said.

Both she and Reed say that transgender voices are often left out of the conversation about transgender people's lives, and they say that needs to stop.

Milo Easley, a senior at Redlands High School, agrees. He wants more people to talk about transgender issues — not just the way Trump does, with “so much negativity” and “so much fear.”

Milo Easley, a transgender high school student, at home in Redlands last year.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Milo said he finds comfort in living in California, which has laws that protect transgender people and gender-affirming care — but he's still horrified by Trump's victory and worried about stupid friends in other states.

“They're already dealing with anti-trans policies, and the risk of having more under Trump is a big problem,” Milo said. “Most of them tell me how they fear the future with Trump in office.”

He tries to stay positive – including for the future, where he sees “huge room for improvement” – but it's hard.

Poznanski also feels fortunate to live in California, and to have access to gender-affirming health care, but worries about young people in unfriendly states who don't get such treatment.

But Poznanski is also optimistic and determined to live.

“Our life is political,” they said. “But just living is an act of resistance.”