In US, LGBTQ People Race To Claim Rights, Fearing Rollbacks Under Trump

In the week after Donald Trump won the US presidential election, Isla Lima submitted paperwork to change her gender from male to female in official documents, as some LGBTQ people worry their rights could be cut back.

Trump, who won the Nov. 5, 2024 vote and will be inaugurated on Monday, has stated his intention to rescind some LGBTQ rights during his second term in office.

In December, Trump said he will sign an executive order to end "child sexual mutilation," an apparent reference to gender-affirming care, and "get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools."

Trump wants the law to recognize a person's gender only at birth, as male or female. As for transgender athletes, he has told supporters that he will "keep men out of women's sports."

While the Biden administration advanced or protected LGBTQ rights at the federal level, several Republican-run states have curtailed access to gender-affirming care.

Many transgender people say their gender dysphoria began at an early age. The sense of discrepancy between their gender identity and assigned sex at birth can be so intense that it leads to depression, anxiety and for some, suicide.

Following Trump's win, Lima, 26, a transgender woman in Los Angeles, decided to speed up submitting court papers to allow her to formally change her gender on documents.

"Even though it might be safe in California, going across state lines, I don't know the safety net for that. I definitely feel safer knowing that I'm going to have my ID ... and it will say my chosen name and gender marker," she said.

"After Trump, it was like, OK, this is super urgent."

As polls pointed to a close election, 76% of transgender and non-binary people took, or planned to take, at least one protective measure, according to the findings of a survey of over 1,500 people published in August by FOLX, a health and wellness platform that has served over 50,000 LGBTQIA+ people.

Respondents cited measures such as speeding up gender-affirming care, which can include medical, surgical and mental health services; stockpiling medication; updating gender markers on documents; and bringing forward marriage plans.

Lima said she interns at ProjectQ, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, because she feels aligned with its goals of providing resources to queer youth, such as a safe space and haircuts.

ProjectQ founder and Executive Director Madin Lopez, 38, in an interview, cited LGBTQ friends who were speeding up formal adoption of children they had already been raising. 

In 2023, ProjectQ Associate Director Manny Muñoz, who identifies as non-binary, changed their gender marker from male to X. President Joe Biden's administration introduced that option on a federal level.

That change was "really, really exciting because it was a long-time coming," Muñoz, 36, said. "And there's also just, you know, fear that it gets taken away, right?"

However, Lopez, who is also non-binary, has not legally changed their gender.

"I'm not at a place yet where I've decided whether I'm going to make that legal change or not. I think that a lot of it has to do with what will come next."

CULTURE WARS

Transgender and non-binary rights are a major flashpoint in US culture wars.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to essentially ban transgender girls and women from competing in school sports by withholding federal funds from schools that do not comply.

"Republicans have promised to protect women's sports, and under President Trump's leadership, we will fulfill this promise," the bill's author, Representative Greg Steube, has said.

Major pediatric, endocrinology and mental health associations endorse gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy when appropriate, some calling it life-saving for many transgender youths.

However, some conservatives characterize the treatments as dangerous and experimental, calling certain measures chemical castration or child abuse.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump campaigned on promises to end discussions about gender and sex in classrooms and stop taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for inmates in federal prisons. 

"Clearly, the American people agree with President Trump and that's why they voted for him," she said.

In 2024, YouGov survey data showed 36% of Americans believed societal acceptance of transgender people had gone too far while 34% said it had not gone far enough.

One in three said it was morally wrong to identify with a gender different from one's sex assigned at birth, 13% believe it is morally acceptable, and 41% say it is not a moral issue. 

Elektra Aida, 24, who manages frontline services at ProjectQ, faced harassment in Utah, which restricts the bathrooms transgender people can use, before moving to California.

After Trump won, "I had a lot more people reaching out to me, being like, I might move out there," Aida said.

"I think it just solidified to people, you know, that unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's going to get better anytime soon."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)