“We have to do everything we can to be safe,” said Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatina Coalition. During a recent news briefing held by Ethnic Media Services, members of the transgender community and those who have assisted them, expressed their concern following President Donald Trump’s pronouncement during his inaugural address.
Trump’s announcement was felt as an aggressive blow – he said, “As of today, the official policy of the United States is that there are only two genders – male and female.” His words were met with applause from his supporters.
Following the address, Trump signed an executive order officially proclaiming that there are only two biological sexes. He also halted diversity programs and federal support for gender-affirming healthcare. Trump went so far as to claim his action was “to protect women and their safety.”
However, those in the transgender community believe they are the people who are now less protected, and Trump has turned the clock back to undermine any progress that has been made by their community and has increased fear for their safety.
“We have to understand how institutional violence translates into personal violence when we have a government that says that we are not worthy, that we aren’t supposed to exist, that we shouldn’t participate in schools or [use] bathrooms,” said Salcedo.
“All this rhetoric sends a message to people that it’s OK to be violent against us and to ultimately kill us.”
Salcedo said in the United States there are one to two deaths in the transgender community each month because of acts of violence and worldwide “more than one of us die each day.”
On Tuesday, seven families with transgender or nonbinary children filed a lawsuit over Trump’s executive orders defining the sexes and halting gender-affirming care for those under 19 years old. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and GLMA Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality are also plaintiffs in the court challenge in a Baltimore federal court.
“This executive order and [Trump] administration is going to have very serious impact on progress and whatever progress we were hoping for,” said Llan H. Meyer, Ph.D., a Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute. “There was movement in California to improve conditions for transgender people in prison to place transgender prisoners in jails that align with their gender identity.”
Meyer is concerned that Trump’s declaration can curtail those efforts.
“This is not just a policy shift. It is outright violence. Anti-transgender policies like this influence societal attitudes and contribute to increased hate crimes,” said Meyers.