On his very first day in office, Trump rescinded 78 of Joe Biden’s executive orders and signed 26 of his own which were direct and undeniable in laying out the intentions of this administration to target and criminalise the existence of transgender and non-binary Americans.
Among the many, Trump signed an order establishing that his administration would recognise only two unchangeable sexes; male and female. He specified that this order would be enacted through things such as removing the “X” option on passports which previously accommodated non-gender conforming individuals and the State Department has since stopped granting requests for new or renewed passports with gender markers that don’t align with policy.
Trump has furthered these attacks by calling for the removal of Transgender women in prisons to male facilities, by motioning towards removing Trans people from the military because it “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.” And also by signing an order that would halt gender affirming medical care for transgender youth which a district judge has since blocked because the actions would “violate the Constitution and discriminate on the basis of sex and transgender status”
These provisions have all been enacted in the name of protecting America’s women, a motive so incomprehensible considering that the sitting President was found liable of sexual assault in a civil case in 2023 and has faced similar accusation by numerous other women.
Transgender people are no strangers to being used as political scapegoats and their rights have been publicly up for debate for years, not just in the US. However, such a magnified display of transphobia is concerning considering a 2023 report by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, declared “a State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ people for the first time in our over 40 year history”.
These laws and legislations strip real people of their right to personal identity and reaffirm a living prejudice on a global and confoundable level. Trump’s America seeks to criminalise LGBTQ+ identity, leaving those US citizens unprotected by the law and vulnerable to violence, signalling an alarming and dangerous social regression.