by Natalie Hanson
posted Feb. 9
LGBTQ advocates from Chico and beyond say that the Trump Administration’s jump to “criminalize and erase” transgender people will worsen an ongoing rise of hate and violence toward a marginalized community.
Stonewall Alliance Chico, a nonprofit that has served LGBTQ people for decades, told ChicoSol in a statement that Trump’s anti-trans campaign — recognizing only “biological men and women” — is the latest in an “ongoing wave” of policies attempting to erase the transgender and gender non-conforming community.
Stonewall Alliance Chico Executive Director Justina Sotelo said: “Trans people have always existed and cannot be legislated out of existence. Executive orders do not override federal or state laws, and in California, strong protections remain in place to defend trans and LGBTQ+ rights, ensuring access to healthcare, education, and legal affirmation.”
Trump has issued executive orders that block gender marker changes on passports and that ban federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people. On inauguration day, he issued an executive order that recognizes only male and female sexes.
“As of this day, it will be the policy of the United States: there are only two sexes – male and female,” Trump said in his inauguration speech.
Medical professionals generally consider biological sex and gender identity to be different.
Chico’s Stonewall Alliance is among groups that are shaken by the Trump Administration’s swift move to criminalize the existence of the trans community or erase acknowledgement of trans people from federal websites.
LGBTQ advocates say that language, and the executive orders, pose dangerous threats to the nation’s 1.6 million transgender people. The orders seek to erase transgender people’s existence in legal matters, healthcare, and education sites, even during a nationwide rise in hate crimes, they say.
In a roundtable discussion hosted by Ethnic Media Services, Jordan Willow Evans of the Executive Committee of MassEquality spoke out about her fear and frustration. Evans was the only openly transgender Republican elected official in the United States until she left the Log Cabin Republicans in 2019 over the party’s endorsement of Trump.
“As someone who is a trans woman and as someone who is an American, this is akin to watching a slow-moving train crash,” Evans said. “It comes purely on the backs of a very small and marginalized people.”
Ilan H. Meyer, a senior public policy scholar at the Williams Institute and professor emeritus of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, called Trump’s passport marker order “brutal.” It would prevent people from safely traveling with passports reflecting their gender and from being housed in shelters or jails aligning with their gender, he said.
Rescinding these rights could increase the likelihood of people committing violence and hate crimes against LGBTQ people – particularly transgender and nonbinary people, Meyer said. He called the use of false rhetoric about trans people — including myths about children receiving gender affirming surgeries — “ludicrous” attempts to stoke public fear of queer people.
“It seems to be all about meanness,” Meyer said. “Transgender and nonbinary people have been under attack for years, and anti-trans rhetoric can lead to increased violence against trans people and LGBTQ people in general.”
Sailor Jones, associate director at Common Cause North Carolina, said he learned of the passport order after having “frantically” succeeded in getting his gender marker changed on his passport before Trump was elected. He called it an attempt to erase transgender people’s existence while blaming them for many unrelated problems.
“These moves are meant to create a climate of fear and try to intimate us into making our lives smaller,” Jones said. “It’s now our charge to make our lives bigger and our voices louder than ever before. The question is, where do folks feel safe to do so in this climate?”
Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatina Coalition, said that trans people anticipated such orders, following hundreds of pieces of anti-trans legislation passing in more than half of the country. She said it’s just another step in a decades-long conservative campaign to reverse hard-won victories for transgender people.
“Trump is the puppet of the broader extreme conservative religious white movement,” Salcedo said. “Things we’re experiencing today are not new to us. They have been planning all of this for several years. There’s a reason why we have a conservative Supreme Court; all of this has been the tactic. We have a government that says we are not worthy, we do not have the right to participate.”
To fight back, the speakers said localized resources for LGBTQ people will be lifesaving.
Gael Mateo Jerez-Urquia, Project TRANS services navigator at the San Diego LGBTQ Center, said that the executive orders have left many clients seeking answers, and his team has performed “endless check-ins” trying to support them. The center is aware of a rise in local hate crimes against nonbinary and transgender people, he said.
“There is this fear and uncertainty because of the executive orders,” Jerez-Urquia said. “We’ve also witnessed an increase in LGBTQ youth utilizing a crisis hotline by 200%. Forty-five percent of transgender youth are considering fleeing to different states, with or without family.”
Those statistics show why local resources like Stonewall are vital to help support people who need safe spaces to gather and find community, said Sotelo in Chico. She said that Stonewall Alliance Chico will continue to be visible and vocal about its resources and support LGBTQ people in the North State.
“We are actively working to keep our community informed about their legal rights, changes to federal policies, and available support,” Sotelo said. “We will continue to offer legal document assistance and provide access to gender-affirming care and offer education and training to local organizations and schools. All our efforts are aimed at helping our community live as their true selves.”
Natalie Hanson is a contributing editor to ChicoSol.