NEW YORK (AP) - Election victories for Donald Trump and other candidates whose campaigns demeaned transgender people reinforced a widespread backlash against trans rights. For America’s rights movement, it adds up to one of the most sustained setbacks in its history.
For transgender Americans, it’s personal: There is palpable fear of potential Trump administration steps to further marginalize them. But there is also a spirit of resilience – a determination to persevere in seeking acceptance and understanding.
“I just went through an election where I couldn’t watch a sports event on TV without seeing a commercial where trans people were portrayed as monsters,” said Jennifer Finney Boylan, a transgender author who teaches at Barnard College in New York.
“This hurts more than any other moment I can remember. We’ve been knocked down before. We’ll be knocked down again. All we can do is fight.”
Anti-trans momentum has been growing for several years, with Republican-governed states enacting dozens of laws restricting trans people’s options for medical care, sports participation and public restroom access.
Activists fear the movement will grow, with the Trump administration taking power as many Americans question the trans-rights agenda. Overall, 55% of voters — and 85% of Trump backers — said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 people who cast ballots nationwide.
NEW YORK (AP) “There is an urgent need to show the American people the reality of transgender lives — the ordinary people for whom being trans is not the center of their lives,” said Shannon Minter, a transgender civil rights lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“This is a frightening moment for transgender people and their families. There is a very real possibility that the new administration may adopt policies that cause them devastating harm.”
Trump and others have threatened to roll back various trans rights Trump won the presidential contest over Vice President Kamala Harris after a campaign that included pervasive TV advertising mocking her support for trans rights. “Kamala is for they/them,” an ad that ran over 15,000 times asserted. “President Trump is for you.” Other Democratic candidates also were targeted with anti-trans ads.
On an array of issues, Trump — and other Republicans who now hold majorities in both the House and Senate — have threatened to roll back protections and civil liberties for trans people.
— Education: Trump has pledged to impose wide-ranging restrictions on transgender students. His administration could swiftly move to exclude them from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of preferred pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms.
— Health care: At least 26 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for trans minors. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton is filing civil lawsuits against doctors he alleges were prescribing such treatments. Trump says any doctor or hospital providing gender-affirming care should be barred from Medicaid and Medicare.