Campus was quiet on Tuesday. In KJ, people tensely whispered about the future of our country and about the future of their rights. The normal energy of campus came to a halt.
I received many texts from friends. “How are you?” I looked at them, not yet ready to reply, not yet sure how I was. I replied to people who I knew needed me, giving virtual hugs, desperately clinging to their words and hoping that the results that I had woken up to on my phone weren’t true.
But they were, which means that trans rights are going to change.
Trans people are going to die.
As of Oct. 9, President-Elect Donald Trump spent $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ television ads. This is almost a third of the $66 million spent on ads during that same period, according to ABC News. Much of his campaign was built on hating trans people. This means hating 1% of America. It means hating me, hating my friends, hating people you know, people you love. As a trans person, the weight of each of my steps felt heavier yesterday and feels heavier today. Today and each day forth, I am choosing to walk with intention, for each trans person who can’t.
Trump’s plan includes reversing gender-affirming care policies by preventing children access to puberty blockers, and asking "Congress to pass a bill establishing that: The only genders recognized by the U.S. government are male and female—and they are assigned at birth [and to] protect the rights of parents from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a new gender identity without the parents’ consent.”
Trump plans to delegitimize the experience of transgender and nonbinary people, especially young people, who are most vulnerable. Why is this dangerous? According to The Trevor Project, 52% of transgender and nonbinary youth have considered suicide. However, this number is not static: “Transgender and nonbinary young people who reported having pronouns respected by all or most people in their lives attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not have their pronouns respected.”
Without basic respect for pronouns, suicide rates increase. Trump’s plan does not even respect pronouns. It doesn’t respect the idea that people who are not cis exist. Trump’s administration will kill transgender and non-binary people.
I am promising to not forget how I feel today and I urge you to do the same. Your trans friends are mourning. Check in with them. Lift the weight off of them. Right now, they could use a community. Not everyone has that.
To my fellow trans people, sometimes the strongest thing you can do is live. Be yourself, in whatever way you can. Your existence can be resistance, but it doesn’t have to be. Your body is not inherently political by being trans, and you do not owe anyone anything. Give what you can. Your community will give the rest.
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