Trump targets transgender community

With the Trump administration in office, a wave of anti-transgender executive orders has accompanied the presidency. However, these policies did not emerge unexpectedly; Trump openly targeted the transgender as a part of his platform. His campaign spent millions producing ads aimed directly at transgender people and, to some extent, the broader LGBTQ+ community. It was no surprise, then, that once in office, Trump began signing executive orders that reflected these campaign promises. 

CVUSD board member Michael Kusiak condemned the executive orders, stating, “President Trump’s Executive Order, denying gender-affirming care for children, is profoundly cruel and causing distress for many. As a school board trustee, I support creating a safe and inclusive environment for all students, particularly for our trans youth.”

On his first day in office, Trump signed an order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Among its provisions, the order established that the federal government would recognize only two binary genders–male and female–and that these genders were fixed and unchangeable. 

This order directly targeted transgender individuals, setting a potentially harmful precedent for the community in the years to come, alongside questioning their existence altogether on a federal level. The order also declared that “male” and “female” are determined at conception, ignoring scientific and medical understanding that gender is distinct from biological sex. In fact, all fetuses initially develop with female characteristics before differentiating with sexual organs in the seventh to ninth week of pregnancy.

Beyond this, the order dictated that “gender ideology”– a term widely accepted by medical professionals to describe the understanding that gender exists on a spectrum and is not synonymous with sex–was no longer a valid concept in federal policy. Trump further stated that “each agency and all federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.” 

In response, federal agencies began aligning their policies accordingly. Passports removed references to changing gender markers, and agencies scrubbed the term “gender ideology” from their websites. The executive order also prohibited federal funding for initiatives that promoted gender ideology.

This position was reinforced by another executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which banned transgender health care for minors under 19, including surgeries, hormone replacement therapy, and puberty blockers, all of which are also used for cisgendered individuals. The order used inflammatory language, describing gender-affirming care as “chemical and surgical mutilation,” despite widespread approval of these treatments by major medical organizations. Trump’s claims that transgender health care lacks scientific validity stand in stark contrast to the consensus among health care professionals.

When asked about California’s response to these policies, Natalie Pita, the legislative aide to Assemblymember Mialisa Bonta, emphasized the state’s commitment to inclusivity: “It’s kind of just ensuring that our state is a place where people feel welcome and accepted, and people know that they can still go to the hospital and get the care that they need. They can go to school and feel welcome.” 

Of course, these executive actions are just one facet of the Trump administration’s broader policies targeting transgender individuals. Transgender women have been banned from participating in women’s sports, transgender soldiers have faced uncertainty about their place in the military, and additional restrictions continue to be proposed at both state and federal levels.