Avery Poznanski is excited for a new chapter.
The nonbinary transgender senior at UCLA had decided last month, after years of personal discovery and long discussions with family and doctors, to begin testosterone therapy. The first few weeks felt comfortable, comfortable.
Then Donald Trump, after running a virulently anti-transgender campaign, won Tuesday’s presidential election — which felt “really scary” and “ridiculous,” Poznanski said.
“I’m still shocked at how much expression and trans rights are on Trump’s side, and how he’s campaigning,” Murrietta, 21, said Wednesday. “I just feel scared, to be honest.”
In the US, transgender and other queer people are grappling with the fact that Americans voted in large numbers for candidates who openly mocked them on the campaign trail, and political parties that spend millions on anti-LGBTQ + attack ads.
For many, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump was not only troubling but deeply threatening. They are looking for reasons to be optimistic, such as the election of Sarah McBride in Delaware, who will make her the first transgender member of Congress. But most just feel fed up — in part because they believe Trump will follow through on his promise to eliminate those rights.
Sarah McBride, at an election watch party Tuesday in Wilmington, Del., was sworn in as the first transgender member of Congress in January.
(Pamela Smith/Associated Press)
“It’s a scary time to be a trans person, and to hear the baseless and outrageous rhetoric from that side, and to think that it could be pushed into actual legislation,” Poznanski said.
Trump’s election follows years of increasing political hostility toward transgender people and a wave of state laws aimed at curtailing the rights of this small subset of the American population. But it also marks a new escalation.
Trump has disparaged transgender people since the beginning of the race. In one of his first campaign videos – part of his “Agenda 47” policy platform – he said “left-wing gender madness is (driven by) children” and includes “child abuse.”
He said he would sign an executive order upon taking office “instructing every federal agency to end all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age”; block federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care; guarantees “severe consequences” for teachers who admit transgender children; and push schools to “promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrate rather than erase the things that make men and women different and unique.”
Trump has also routinely disparaged transgender people on the campaign trail. He cast him as a threat to women and girls, including in sports, and told absurd lies to drum up additional fear – including the claim that American children were whisked out of school to have genital surgeries without their parents’ consent.
In September, the Trump campaign began running an attack ad attacking Harris over her policy of providing gender-affirming health care to federal prisoners, using the line, “Kamala is for her. President Trump is for you. And when it seemed to resonate with voters, the campaign doubled down , airing anti-transgender ads during sports games and in swing states.A new estimate puts Republican spending on anti-transgender ads on network television at just $215 million.
Trans rights advocates protested at the Indiana Statehouse last year ahead of a ban on gender-affirming treatment for minors.
(Darron Cummings/Associated Press)
LGBTQ+ rights organizations have challenged the notion that voters find Trump’s anti-transgender message appealing, and polls show that many Americans support transgender rights. Still, the fact that the message was central to Trump’s winning campaign says something about the American electorate, according to transgender people and their family members.
“I think he’s very popular with his base, and with people who spend money,” said Amber Easley, a San Bernardino County mother whose 17-year-old son Milo is transgender. “It’s a direct contributor to (Trump’s) success, which can be devastating.”
Jaymes Black, chief executive of the Trevor Project, which operates a phone, text and chat line for queer youth who are experiencing suicidal thoughts or need to talk, said the group’s services had seen a 125% increase in requests on election day to Wednesday morning, compared to ordinary day.
“The Trevor Project wants young LGBTQ+ people to know that we are here for you, regardless of the outcome of any election, and we will continue to fight so that every young LGBTQ+ person has access to a safe and affirming place – especially in difficult times ,” said Black. “LGBTQ+ youth: your life matters, and you were born to live.”
Erin Reed, a transgender activist and independent journalist who has written extensively about the trans community, said there is “a lot of despair” among queer people.
Trans rights activist and journalist Erin Reed, right, and her fiancé, Rep. Zooey Zephyr of the state of Montana, in 2023.
(Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it: I’ve told three or four people down from death,” Reed said the conversation he had on the night of the election. “That’s the reality people are facing today.”
Many transgender people are already “unsafe” living in Republican-controlled states that have passed anti-trans measures in recent years, Reed said, including bans on gender-affirming health care, for transgender people using appropriate bathrooms. with his identity, in queer. book -affirming, and in the process that allows transgender people to update state documents such as their driver’s license.
Now, Reed said, transgender people across the country — including in blue states — are wondering whether Trump and his newly empowered Republican colleagues in the upcoming Congress will be able to enact similar measures at the federal level.
People in the trans community are also worried that Democrats will abandon them now based on the perception that defending them is too expensive politically, Reed said; they thought, “How to avoid being thrown on the bus?”
Many Democrats are expressing solidarity with the queer community, and queer leaders and organizations are doing outreach to make sure queer people are OK and push back against the Republican narrative that harms transgender people — all of which are important, but not enough, said Honey Mahoni, executive director San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives.
“I want to see solidarity from other communities, guarantee that we are all together and then organize collectively,” he said.
She and Reed say transgender voices are often left out of discussions about transgender lives, and say that needs to stop.
Milo Easley, a senior at Redlands High School, agrees. She wants more people to talk about transgender issues — just not in the way that Trump has, with “a lot of negativity” and “a lot of fear.”
Milo Easley, a transgender high school student, at home in Redlands last year.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Milo said he finds comfort living in California, which has laws protecting transgender people and gender-affirming treatment — but he’s still afraid of Trump’s victory and worried about his queer friends in other states.
“They have dealt with anti-trans policies, and the risk of having more under Trump is a serious problem,” Milo said. “Many have expressed how fearful they are of the future with Trump in office.”
He tries to stay positive — including about the future, where he sees “a lot of room for improvement” — but it’s difficult.
Poznanski also feels fortunate to live in California, and receive gender-affirming health care, but worries about young people in less welcoming states who may not have access to such care.
But Poznanski also has hope and a determination to live.
“Our existence is politicized,” he said. “But just living is an act of resistance.”
