Black Voices

Members of the Chicago Transgender Community Raise Concerns About Health, Safety After Trump Executive Orders


In his first weeks in office, President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders that included rolling back federal protections for transgender people.

The order states the federal government only recognizes two sexes: male and female. Trump says the change is a way to protect women from “gender extremism.”

For many in Chicago’s transgender community, the order and other policies of the new administration are cause for concern. They say the policy focus on transgender people is a distraction from other national issues. 

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

“This is a continuation of the culture war that we saw permeating throughout the campaign,” said Precious Brady-Davis, a commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago. “This was over the $200 million that the Trump campaign spent targeting trans Americans. It’s distracting from the actual issues President Trump was elected to tackle — the cost of inflation.”

The order rejects the transition from one gender to another or the consideration of someone classifying themselves as nonbinary.

Advocates are pushing back saying the redefinition of genders is incorrect.

“The way in which they particularly define male and female are based on scientifically inaccurate understandings of an embryo and a zygote,” said alithia zamantakis, research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University.

The executive order says that a male is an individual who at conception has the material that determines the development of a “biological male,” and similarly for females.

However the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association acknowledge scientifically that at conception, every single individual has both the chromosomal material of those considered female and those considered male, and that sex assigned to a person at birth may not align with their gender identity.

The order also mandates every agency and all federal employees acting on behalf of their agency to recognize only “male” and “female” on official identification forms.

“Already transgender people have a difficult time having all of their documents correspond with their name and gender as they know themselves, and this will only further increase the web of documentation that transgender people have that do not match, creating difficulties when trying to obtain other legal documents or trying to obtain aid in various forms,” said zamantakis.

In addition to having an impact on legal documents, advocates say there could be a domino effect with widespread consequences.

“We’ll see health care access rollback in terms of federal funding,” said Channyn Parker, CEO of Brave Space Alliance (BSA). “So gender affirming care, which largely affects BSA Research such as community members, many of whom rely on Medicaid and other federally funded programs, they’re going to see some hard hits when it comes to this.”

Parker also predicts additional barriers to accessing health care, which she says will force BSA and other organizations similar to theirs to expand emergency resource referrals and advocacy efforts.

Trump released another executive order banning teens and adolescents from accessing gender-affirming health care.

The trans community is estimated to make up around 1% of the population, however, already vulnerable demographics could see an increase in violence, zamantakis said.

The order will bar transgender women from migrant housing, domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters by rescinding previous memos that allowed trans women to be in women’s shelters, zamantakis said.

“Transgender women are extremely likely to experience intimate partner violence, and that intimate partner violence often results in death, particularly for Black trans women,” said zamantakis. “Now, transgender women will have even fewer places to seek help when fleeing abusive relationships.”

The executive order will likely face some legal push back similar to Trump’s executive order challenging birthright citizenship. Lawyers and advocacy groups are encouraging members of the community to act quickly to protect their rights.

“I definitely think that there will be a battle on this. There is lots of controversy in terms of the interpretation of the Civil Rights Act,” said Brady-Davis. “We saw that President Trump already struck down the executive order, not the law, supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There will be continued litigation in the Supreme Court. This term, they heard a challenge brought by the state of Tennessee for gender affirming care for minors. This is going to continue to be litigated in the courts, and it’s why I am grateful for the system of checks and balances.” 


 

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors