Trumping the Queer Fear
In the days following the election, I would ride the subway to work and silently count the people who were about to be affected by the coming administration. A young black man sat across from me, silently reading a book, and I wondered what the Trump administration would mean for police brutality. My gaze follows the floor, to the woman in the corner wearing her hijab. I quickly recount the recommended ways to intervene during verbal or physical harassment, should she encounter it. At last, my mind wanders to another community, the LGBTQIA+.
At first I would think of the worst, then entertained the idea that maybe nothing bad would happen, and the administration would surprise us. I played around with the concept of checks and balances, the power of social justice and activism, and of course our democracy. However, what I once thought was a reach, is slowly becoming reality. Though this article will explore the Trump Administration's effects on the Queer/LGBTQIA+ community, it should be noted that this article doesn't mean to neglect other minorities and institutionally oppressed communities. Additionally, as I will be addressing the general queer community, there are minority groups within that are even more vulnerable due to their inter-sectional identities. An attack on one is an attack on all, and the importance of solidarity and inter-sectionality is never ending.
With that, here are a couple of less publicized reasons to prove the Trump Administration is the actual worst:
In early January of 2017, Trump picked John M. Gore to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Gore previously was an attorney at the Jones Day firm but is now one of the most under qualified individuals within a government agency. In addition to having little experience in defending individual’s rights, he also famously defended the University of North Carolina in a suit enforcing House Bill 2. The House Bill is more commonly refereed to as North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law. This was the bill that requires trans individuals in schools and government buildings to use the restrooms that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not their gender identity. This has direct relevance to the important cases affecting the LGBTQIA+ community the Department of Justice will oversee. Within the year they will hear from a trans student in Virginia who was denied access to the bathroom of their gender identity, the federal government’s definition of Title IX, and another relating to Obamacare.
Speaking of Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the bill banned sex discrimination in health care settings that have a connection to federal funds (Section 1557). The law has been federally interpreted to protect trans individuals from discrimination in health care settings and insurance companies. The healthcare act also means that nationwide almost all insurance companies cannot exclude transition-related care from coverage. If Obamacare would be dismantled and replaced with the GOP’s health care, over 40% of trans individuals, as well as those with HIV, will lose health care coverage. Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said “the repeal bill would make it so much harder for trans people to get insurance through the continuous coverage requirement, the gutting of Medicaid and several other aspects, that protecting from discrimination would move to a lesser concern,” Keisling said. “Trans people would be among those most hurt.”
It’s not just Trump’s proposed bills, policies, and executive orders that hurt the LGBTQIA+ community, it’s the whole cabinet. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for Attorney General of the United States is just one example of the lack of support the LGBTQIA+ community has in the administration. Sessions previously supported a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, voted against adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the definition of hate crimes, and voted against repealing the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy. He’s not the only one either.
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s pick for the director the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is vocally against same-sex marriage. In addition to voting to protect anti-same-sex marriage opinions as free speech, he also supported a bill stating a state’s definition of marriage should supersede the federal one. To quote him, “I think as you look back at civilization, look back at history, you find the strength of these families having a father and a mother is the ideal condition for childbearing.”
Through all of this, the wave of resistance grows stronger. Communities work in ripples and with the right encouragement we grow resilient and loud. The power of change has always been in the people, and things can only bend so far before they break and they begin to fix a new.
Solutions come in a variety of forms and all are equally important. There is always something to be done, and more ways to help. To conclude I implore anyone with a little fight in them to share stories, march at rallies, make art, educate themselves, and listen to those who have voices, join a movement, or start an organization. Just be a part of the change you want to see. In short, resist.
