For many years, civil associations, activists and people in general have fought for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community, achieving progress in freedom of expression and its guarantees in the United States; but with the arrival of Donald Trump as president, an increase in hate crimes, as well as mental disorders and discrimination is expected.
“From today on, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said during his inaugural address.
Titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the order says that “the sexes are not changeable, and are based on fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The president’s executive order has profound and adverse impacts on the nation’s more than 1.6 million transgender people, essentially erasing the existence of transgender people in legal, healthcare, and educational settings. The move comes amid a rise in hate crimes against LGBTIQ+ people.
During a briefing held by Ethnic Media ServicesJordan Willow Evans, executive director of the Outsider Media Foundation, expressed her uncertainty about the upcoming changes to the rights of this community, assuring that they should not fear or stop the fight, on the contrary, it is necessary to be strong and firm, now more than ever.
For his part, Ilan H. Meyer, PhD in Philosophy at the Williams Institute, stated that it is estimated that there are around 6 million people over 13 years of age who identify as transgender and 1.2 million adults who identify as non-binary and 5 million as intersex, so a large part of the community is affected.
Meyer commented that anti-transgender rhetoric will basically generate acts of hate against the LGBTIQ+ community.
“The rhetoric that we are seeing now, which we are witnessing and which has a very strong implication that incites violence, where the analysis shows that there is a fivefold increase in attacks against transgender people and this increases even more with black and Hispanic people,” said the professor.
Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatina Coalition, commented that his organization provides policy, research, culture, and narrative services for the LGBTQI+ community, which is why they have found that over the years there have been attempts to eliminate this sector of the population. It is not something new, but rather a constant struggle over time and it will have to be faced again.
Gael Mateo Jerez-Urquia, from Project TRANS Services Navigator in San Diego, said that due to Donald Trump's speech, there has been an increase in mental disorders, self-harm and hate crimes, in addition to dealing with between 4 to 6 gender changes a week, while calls to the emergency line due to fear and uncertainty have skyrocketed.
Sailor Jones, associate director of Common Cause of North Carolina, said that the federal government is trying to erase the existence of transgender people, but not only that, as she expressed her anger at the mass deportations that are taking place among immigrant friends and neighbors in order to create fear and make their voices smaller in the communities.
She also commented that, in terms of medical services, there is an impact, since any gender surgery or service in this regard is not available, so any effort that tries to impact medical services will end up affecting everyone at some point.
Experts agree that President Donald Trump's rhetoric has created discrimination between communities, but it also puts people's well-being at risk, as medical services are reduced, as are opportunities, which can lead to suicide or mental illness.
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