Few issues have been on the minds—and lips—of legislators since Donald Trump’s re-election as much as trans issues have. Having spent $215 million on anti-trans attack ads, the Trump administration—and the fallout from its recent win—have exposed some long-simmering cracks in Democratic legislators’ support for trans people. Meanwhile, conservative lawmakers have taken their resounding win as a sign that they should go all in on erasing trans people from society.
There has perhaps never been a more necessary time for trans people and their allies to be vocal in expressing support for trans lives. And that support needs to be vocalized to our elected officials. One proponent of this approach is scholar, author and feminist Julia Serano, who is calling for today, Tuesday, Dec. 3, to be a national day of action in which trans people and their friends, families and loved ones call elected officials to let them know that trans lives are important to them.
Later this week, ACLU attorney Chase Strangio will make an oral argument in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first trans lawyer in history to do so. Early next month, the new House of Representatives will be inaugurated, and one of the very first things they will do is vote on a new set of rules, including rules pertaining to the first ever openly trans U.S. representative Sarah McBride, and what barriers will exist for her in her new workplace.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has already decided that McBride—along with any other trans person—cannot use any Capitol Hill bathrooms that align with their gender. McBride and her fellow Democrats have so far avoided a fight, with McBride deciding to comply with the rule. Her acquiescence unilaterally implies that all the trans staffers, journalists and visitors to the Capitol should use the unsafe facilities of our sex assigned at birth.
Republicans could potentially go even further in singling out trans people like McBride. If I had to speculate, they could change the dress code to dictate that McBride would have to have a masculine hair and dress style. Republicans could rewrite their own rules to avoid having to gender McBride correctly in all official communications. These are fights that have already happened in hostile state legislatures that saw the first election of a trans member before.
Beyond the House rules package, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace has already filed a bill that would force trans people into the bathrooms of our assigned sex at birth in all federal government facilities.
I expect to see a national ban on trans women from women’s sports, despite early studies showing no big advantage for trans women in sports compared to cis women. Trump himself has promised to ban gender-affirming care for all minors nationally, and has promised to ban federal funds from funding adult gender-affirming care, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives, drawing off the anti-abortion playbook, could go one step further and ban federal funds from going to any healthcare facility that provides any form of gender-affirming care, which would be a de facto ban on trans healthcare.
There’s much more I expect from the Trump administration in a variety of issues, but should Republicans lean all the way into introducing anti-trans laws, the only things that could stand in the way of the criminalization of trans existence is—ironically—the Senate filibuster and maybe the narrow Republican majority in the House.
The court system is no longer our saviour. We do not have the White House. We don’t have a majority in either half of Congress. We have no choice but to whip votes in the House and Senate. For trans people, Congress is now a matter of life and death. That’s what makes Serano’s call to action so well thought out and timed.
It’s worth calling your rep, even if they are Republicans. Call them and let them know that you care about trans people and you care about their votes on trans people. Republicans are ramping up to nationalize their state-level attacks on trans rights and many Democrats are waffling on whether or not to stand in their way. The legislative branch is supposed to represent we the people, and legislators still respond to constituent phone calls.
Sending a strong message means not just calling now, but calling often, and calling again when our votes are approaching. You can even just write an email. If you are trans or you love a trans person, pick up the phone, write an email. We need you, here and now.
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