I'll admit, you likely don't need me to tell you how scary these times are. That goes double if you are trans.
The United States government, now largely an authoritarian body, has set its sights on, among many others, transgender people. The Department of Defense under Secretary Pete Hegseth, in part thwarted by the judiciary, continues to find new, creative ways to purge trans people from the ranks. Likewise, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is making bold moves to halt transgender health care.
Not to be outdone, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in addition to attempting to demolish the whole department, has also reversed earlier guidance on Title IX, seeking to prevent trans students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity and using facilities such as locker rooms. This is leading to a showdown in Maine, where schools in the Pine Tree State may lose all federal funding due to a single transgender girl on the Greely High School track team.
Likewise, the Trump administration has pulled funding from Maine prisons as well, and has said that the state will not be the last to lose such funding if it doesn't start housing trans women in men’s prisons. In February, a judge blocked the administration's attempt to transfer four other trans women to men’s facilities.
That sinking feeling in my tummy tells me that this is far from the worst transgender people will see from this administration.
Meanwhile, the states themselves continue to attack transgender people, with 851 bills filed in 49 states. Sixty-four of those have already passed. This compares to 674 bills over all of 2024, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker at translegislation.com.
All of this is having ripples throughout the culture, as some people step away from supporting transgender people, preferring a safer route that allows them to retain funding and avoid other negative actions from the administration.
Perhaps, we're also seeing true colors appear as some feel they can now stop having to be vocally supportive of transgender people, among other minority groups. Certainly, many are emboldened to lash out at trans rights in part due to this administration.
Yet, in the midst of this, transgender people are still coming out.
I'm not going to tell you that we're thriving out here. This is most likely the hardest road the community has been down in a long while. Every transgender person I know is, at best, hunkered down, keeping a weather eye on the horizon.
For example, I know that many trans folks – myself very much included – are stockpiling our hormone prescriptions, even cutting back on our dosages to try and build a supply of medications we can tap into in times of need. Others are sharing methods to gain such illicitly, or home brewing their own as needed.
We're being cautious about travel, out of fear of precious identity documents being voided by this administration. Meanwhile, many others have uprooted their lives, moving to states that may be safer in the short term, or migrating out of the country altogether.
I would also be lying if I didn't say that some have not made it. Dark times can cause dark thoughts, and some have succumbed to the same.
Yet many more of us, even in these bleak times, continue to survive as best we can.
There's one supposed option I haven't mentioned, and that is simply not transitioning or, if one already has, halting a transitioning. Certainly, in these times, why would one want to be transgender?
I feel that many non-transgender people, across the political spectrum, see that as an obvious response to such a dangerous time. It probably seems deceptively easy.
Yet, for a vast majority of the trans community – those just starting out and others who have been here for a long, long time – this is no option. If anything, it speaks to the obvious error in how many view transgender people.
I've written about this before. I firmly believe that when a non-transgender person ponders why someone who is trans might transition, it's because they are somehow forced to do so, or they might be doing this to illicitly gain something. It's viewed through the framing of a disguise. This permeates pop culture – we've all seen movies like “Mrs. Doubtfire” or “Some Like It Hot” – but that remains the notion of why a trans person might exist.
The arguments of this administration are that we are deceptive and dishonest, that we are only to be viewed as our birth gender and – in the case of trans women – that we are a clear threat against other women and girls.
The thing is, the framing placed upon transgender people from those who are not transgender is wholly incorrect. We are not our birth gender, and spent a lot of time reaching that realization. Our transition is not deceptive. If anything, it is a pure truth far beyond what many may ever experience. We are showing you exactly who we are.
Those of us who are transgender today have no more ability not to be transgender than Dora Richter and others who navigated their transitions in the shadow of nascent Nazi Germany. We stand in the shadows of those who navigated a time before modern care, such as Michael Dillon, who had the first phalloplasty, or Christine Jorgensen, who pushed the atomic bomb off the front page with her transition in 1952.
Like them, our time is now, and we can't choose the optimal moment any more than we could choose to continue to live in the wrong gender. No amount of repression and animus stops us from being ourselves.
Gwen Smith simply is herself. You'll find her at www.gwensmith.com
Never miss a story! Keep up to date on the latest news, arts, politics, entertainment, and nightlife.
Sign up for the Bay Area Reporter's free weekday email newsletter. You'll receive our newsletters and special offers from our community partners.
Support California's largest LGBTQ newsroom. Your one-time, monthly, or annual contribution advocates for LGBTQ communities. Amplify a trusted voice providing news, information, and cultural coverage to all members of our community, regardless of their ability to pay. Donate today!