¨This man who America has voted into office, is the same man who has made repeated claims on how he would “Make America Great Again,” is now the one destroying it.¨
- MOlly Hickey
On Wednesday, October 21st, President Donald Trump followed up on earlier threats, announcing that transgender people could no longer serve in the military, claiming that their medical costs were too high for the government to fully support. A study done earlier in August showed that transgender people minimally (if at all) affect health care costs in the military, leaving the public to doubt the president’s previous campaign claims of supporting LGBTQ people.
Later, the Trump Administration made it clear that there was going to be a bid on whether to exclude transgender people from civil rights protection, contradicting our basic Constitutional rights. Trump has the desire to designate a person’s legal sex at birth as unchangeable, meaning that the gender assigned to a child at birth will legally remain their gender for the rest of their life, period. Ultimately, if one feels as if they were born in the wrong body, or if their gender does not match their sex at birth, they will have no ability to change. Trump’s potential new law would establish two irrevocable genders for people (female and male), despite the common understanding that sex and gender are not biologically linked.
Trump’s memo would establish that sex and gender as the same thing. He wants them linked, when they clearly have two completely different meanings according to the dictionary. Sex, is the biological assignment you receive at birth (female or male). While, gender is based on how one identifies themselves. There are so many different genders: binary, non-binary, agender, bigender, polygender, etc, and only two of them are female and male.
This reinforces Trump’s attempt to undo every law changed or created by President Barack Obama: environmental, legal gay marriage, Obamacare, and more. Now, he’s attempting to change the way people identify themself with their gender. This leads many to ask what happened to the claims in his campaign where he said he was an ally to the LGBTQ community?
In a tweet posted in June, 2016, during his campaign, Trump stated, "Thank you to the LGBTQ community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," Yet, today the American people, specifically the LGBTQ community, can clearly see that Trump is ultimately fighting against them. Why would an ally practically make transgender people illegal? It is simple, an “ally” would not.
Later, the Trump Administration made it clear that there was going to be a bid on whether to exclude transgender people from civil rights protection, contradicting our basic Constitutional rights. Trump has the desire to designate a person’s legal sex at birth as unchangeable, meaning that the gender assigned to a child at birth will legally remain their gender for the rest of their life, period. Ultimately, if one feels as if they were born in the wrong body, or if their gender does not match their sex at birth, they will have no ability to change. Trump’s potential new law would establish two irrevocable genders for people (female and male), despite the common understanding that sex and gender are not biologically linked.
Trump’s memo would establish that sex and gender as the same thing. He wants them linked, when they clearly have two completely different meanings according to the dictionary. Sex, is the biological assignment you receive at birth (female or male). While, gender is based on how one identifies themselves. There are so many different genders: binary, non-binary, agender, bigender, polygender, etc, and only two of them are female and male.
This reinforces Trump’s attempt to undo every law changed or created by President Barack Obama: environmental, legal gay marriage, Obamacare, and more. Now, he’s attempting to change the way people identify themself with their gender. This leads many to ask what happened to the claims in his campaign where he said he was an ally to the LGBTQ community?
In a tweet posted in June, 2016, during his campaign, Trump stated, "Thank you to the LGBTQ community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," Yet, today the American people, specifically the LGBTQ community, can clearly see that Trump is ultimately fighting against them. Why would an ally practically make transgender people illegal? It is simple, an “ally” would not.
This man who America has voted into office, is the same man who has made repeated claims on how he would “Make America Great Again,” is now the one destroying it. Instead of moving our country forward, he has moved us back, attempting to strip us of our Constitutional rights. Trump has abused his power and again, stripped away sexual identity diversity, attempting to convince the American people that it is wrong to identify as someone you were not biologically born as. That is not a president, that's a cynic.
Being transgender is not an option. No one has the ability to fully control their feelings, specifically not around feeling like one gender or another.. It is your brain and body repeatedly telling you that you are not in the right body or state of mind. Of course, people can choose to ignore this feeling; yet, many people choose to act on it instead. Our current president should not have the ability to change a law around identification, that in itself would be unconstitutional.
Putting Trump’s new law into effect would make even more difficult for transgender people to feel comfortable being their true selves. It is hard for trans people to fully express themselves due to the people who are already against the transgender community-imagine the negative effects that would occur if it were to become illegal for people to express themselves - just imagine how it is going to be if all the American people believe it is “wrong.” The transgender community is going to face more persecution than ever before, and more than they're experiencing now.
How is Trump’s new law going to affect the people in American who already identify as transgender? Are all their rights going to just be swept out from under their feet? According to the foundation of this country, the Constitution ensures all American people’s rights. Yet, Trump is not processing that transgender people, are people. He does not understand the ultimate impact of this law nor how it would affect everyone. It seems as if he does not care who his actions affect; he simply wants his personal bias spread across the entire country. Of course, there will always be people who disagree with other being transgender, and that’s okay, but to make a law against a group of people is a violation of their basic rights and is seen as treason. No matter how many people agree with Trump, there are million more who know this law is wrong; it is going to hurt more people than it will help.
This year alone, there have been 25 known documented cases of transgender people getting murdered. That number does not even compare to the number of transgender people who have attempted to take their own lives. Around 46% of transgender women attempt suicide every year; that number just representing the women. The amount of hate the transgender community receives is unspeakable; it drives people to take their own lives and have such a large amount of hatred for themselves. What are we to expect when the whole nation is told to turn against them? What danger does that put them in? Who is going to look out for all these people, when the government no longer is permitted to?
Being transgender is not an option. No one has the ability to fully control their feelings, specifically not around feeling like one gender or another.. It is your brain and body repeatedly telling you that you are not in the right body or state of mind. Of course, people can choose to ignore this feeling; yet, many people choose to act on it instead. Our current president should not have the ability to change a law around identification, that in itself would be unconstitutional.
Putting Trump’s new law into effect would make even more difficult for transgender people to feel comfortable being their true selves. It is hard for trans people to fully express themselves due to the people who are already against the transgender community-imagine the negative effects that would occur if it were to become illegal for people to express themselves - just imagine how it is going to be if all the American people believe it is “wrong.” The transgender community is going to face more persecution than ever before, and more than they're experiencing now.
How is Trump’s new law going to affect the people in American who already identify as transgender? Are all their rights going to just be swept out from under their feet? According to the foundation of this country, the Constitution ensures all American people’s rights. Yet, Trump is not processing that transgender people, are people. He does not understand the ultimate impact of this law nor how it would affect everyone. It seems as if he does not care who his actions affect; he simply wants his personal bias spread across the entire country. Of course, there will always be people who disagree with other being transgender, and that’s okay, but to make a law against a group of people is a violation of their basic rights and is seen as treason. No matter how many people agree with Trump, there are million more who know this law is wrong; it is going to hurt more people than it will help.
This year alone, there have been 25 known documented cases of transgender people getting murdered. That number does not even compare to the number of transgender people who have attempted to take their own lives. Around 46% of transgender women attempt suicide every year; that number just representing the women. The amount of hate the transgender community receives is unspeakable; it drives people to take their own lives and have such a large amount of hatred for themselves. What are we to expect when the whole nation is told to turn against them? What danger does that put them in? Who is going to look out for all these people, when the government no longer is permitted to?
