Transgender advocates brace for antagonistic Trump administration policies
In his inaugural address Monday morning, President Trump laid out his agenda for the country, and it wasn't good news for supporters of transgender rights.
The president said he will remove gender identity policies from the federal government, setting up a battle with Bay Area LGBTQ+ advocates who feel their community is under attack.
As President Trump was sworn into office, it was clear that things had changed a lot in the country. But it was in his speech afterwards that he touched on the specifics of his plans.
"This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life," he said.
And there was one particular group that was aimed at.
"As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female," said the president.
Bay Area activist Chase Overholt was disturbed by the comment.
"It is frightening to me," said Overholt. "We know that that is not a fact, because we exist, and we're here."
Overholt works for Positive Images, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that offers peer support for young people dealing with gender identity issues. Overholt believes the Trump campaign attracted people who were angry about aspects of their lives that they could not control.
"So instead, it's easier to find someone and vilify them in a way that makes you feel like you've got a leg up on somebody, at least," he said. "And in doing that, they feel a little bit more powerful."
Beth Bourne would probably disagree with that. Over the weekend, she traveled from Davis to San Francisco to join a small group of Trump supporters holding vigil at a large anti-Trump rally in the Mission District.
Bourne, who has usually supported Democrats in past elections, said it was the transgender issue that changed her mind.
"So for the first time, I've been voting red," she said. "Because it's actually the Republicans that want to protect girls and women from the idea that anyone could call themselves a transgender woman, which is a man! This should not be a political issue. You know, girls, boys, are being harmed by this ideology."
But it's not just a disagreement over ideology. Noreen Farrell with Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco thinks the president's words will encourage hostile environments for anyone seen as being abnormal in schools or at work.
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that these kinds of orders will institutionalize discrimination in the workplace," said Farrell. "And not just for federal employees or federal contractors. It does provide a green light for other work places and schools and students."
It's still unclear what the executive orders will mean in practice, but opponents like Tom Temprano of Equality California say they're already gearing up for the fight.
"At this point, these are just words," Temprano said. "Donald Trump is not the king. He does not get to dictate what happens in this country from on high. And we'll take all the necessary steps to address it and prevent him from harming LGBTQ+ people once we have more of those details."
The gender rights groups seem confident that California will maintain its own safeguards to protect against discrimination, but there could still be areas where federal policies will have an impact. At Positive Images, they're already planning to get no federal funding for the next four years.
