OPINION Ugla Stefanía writes about Trump’s attempts to legally erase trans and intersex people – and why it’s only the beginning
Trump becoming President of the United States again unsurprisingly has many people feeling afraid and hopeless for what is to come.
Trump has made it very clear, both when he was president previously and during this campaign, that he aims to strip back hardwon protections and equal rights that human rights organisations and individuals have fought for.
One of his first executive order was targeting trans people, claiming that people should be defined by ‘sex at conception’, which is a pretty weird frame of language. Technically speaking you could say that all fetuses have the same phenology until 6-7 weeks, where they develop in different ways.
So by saying at conception, they are actually saying everyone should be defined as ‘female’ or possibly neither male or female. So in a bizarre attempt to legislate trans and intersex people out of existence, they’ve made all Americans trans and/or intersex instead.
We all know where it leads when one social group becomes persecuted, demonised and targeted in this way. Look it up. It’s called World War II.
The irony here isn’t lost on me, but this is no joke. But it goes to show how completely ridiculous and callous these executive orders are. But while they are stripping away people’s rights to be recognised legally as who they are and the ability to change their legal ID, they can never legislate us out of existence.
We will continue to exist, resist and fight for our rights. Trans people have always existed, and will continue to do so.
The difference will only be that it will be harder for us to live as ourselves, and we will face increased hatred and prejudice in society – and it is a well known fact that hate crimes against the trans community have been on the rise in the recent decade.
This executive order is of course only the start. It won’t only be trans people that will suffer by the Trump administration – but all minorities and human rights protections as we know them.
Trump is already targeting DEI programs across the country, which are about human rights, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the workplace and beyond.
This means that any training or measures to protect women, people of colour, disabled people and people of any other minority background will be stopped, and issues of misogyny, racism, queerphobia and ableism will no longer be addressed.
It is therefore hypocritical to claim the order limiting trans people’s rights has anything to do with ‘protecting women’.
This executive order is of course only the start. It won’t only be trans people that will suffer by the Trump administration – but all minorities and human rights protections as we know them.
This is an attack on human rights and progress, based on ignorance, hatred and fear. Their arguments are not based on fact or common sense at all, as all major health care organisations and scientific knowledge tells us trans people and intersex people do indeed exist – and expert advice, research and case studies show us again and again that supporting trans and intersex people is not only the morally right thing to do, but dramatically increases our quality of life at the cost of no one else.
It’s more important than ever that we wake up and smell the facism that reeks off Trump and his buddies such as Elon Musk – who undeniably made a nazi salute twice at Trump’s inauguration – and stop making excuses for developments that should be a concern for the whole entire world.
We all know where it leads when one social group becomes persecuted, demonised and targeted in this way. Look it up. It’s called World War II.
Are we truly never going to learn from history and our past mistakes? Are we going to let the same things happen again, and again, and again?
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing more than once and expecting a different result.
If that’s anything to go by, it’s obvious that there is no common sense involved with what Trump aims to do – and we all need to stop living in denial that he will make anything better.
Call things for what they are; facism, fear and hatred – and never accept that those are the values in which our government is to be led by.
Because it’s not trans or intersex people that are affecting people’s daily lives. It’s not us who have caused poverty, homelessness and lack of access to health care and life saving services. It’s not us who have caused a major crisis in the US and beyond.
It’s thanks to delusional misogynists and convicted felons like Trump, who continue to derail and deflect, and make us believe that we need to be more worried about trans people than what’s really at stake. It’s our society at large, our democracy and peace.
But there’s still time to stop it, there’s still time to make sure we don’t end up there.
But that starts with stop making excuses, stop looking away and stop denying what is right in front of us. We need to wake up, before it’s too late.
Call things for what they are; facism, fear and hatred – and never accept that those are the values in which our government is to be led by.
Nothing good will come of it, for anyone – least of all the people who voted for it.