LGBTQ+ people and allies learned what they can do in the face of President Donald Trump’s first-day executive order targeting transgender people during a virtual community meeting Jan. 28.
The meeting, hosted by Equality Illinois, gave community members the most up-to-date information about the order and how it might affect people.
The executive order, signed hours after Trump took office Jan. 20, mandates the government use the term “sex” instead of “gender” and takes aim at federally issued identity documents, trans people under incarceration and federally funded services for the transgender community. Trans leaders in Chicago previously denounced the order as “nationally sanctioned violence.”
It was one of several anti-LGBTQ+ moves Trump has made since taking office. He also signed an executive order Jan. 27 banning transgender service members from the military and repealed a number of executive orders signed by former President Joe Biden that combated discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
Additionally, references to LGBTQ+- and HIV-related resources were erased from the White House website. Any content in Spanish was also removed.
“[The anti-trans ordinance] is unlike anything I can remember seeing, in which the president of the United States is using his office to really target the LGBTQ+ community and in particular, trans folks,” said Brian Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois.
The executive order could have a lasting effect on institutions like public schools, medical providers, employers, other accommodations and federal incarceration facilities, Johnson said. But its impact won’t be immediate.
“Very little in the executive order goes into effect immediately, or has gone into effect,” Johnson said. “Much of the executive order—as executive orders are—will have to work its way through the policy and regulatory channels.”
Organizations like Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign have already vowed to mount legal challenges against these changes, according to press releases from both organizations. The two groups are also going to sue to block Trump’s renewed trans military ban.
Additionally, Illinois has already passed a number of state-level protections for transgender people that will not be affected by Trump’s orders, Johnson said.
“But this order does represent a weaponization of—or an attempted weaponization of—the office of the presidency and the federal government against trans and queer folks,” Johnson said.
Among the more immediate effects of Trump’s executive order includes its mandate that federally issued identity documents like passports and visas reflect a person’s sex as it was assigned at birth, said Mony Ruiz-Velasco, deputy director of Equality Illinois. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also sent out guidance to the State Department that they halt all passport applications looking to change a sex marker or requesting an “X” sex marker, according to a report from NBC News.
“We have had confirmation of multiple folks who have gone in to either update their gender markers or names on passports since the inauguration, who have not been allowed to do so,” Ruiz-Velasco said. “Their passports have been at least held or taken until further guidance, which we don’t know when that will be.”
Equality Illinois also knows of at least one situation in which a person’s birth certificate was taken during this process, Ruiz-Velasco said.
But the group has also heard one story of a person who was successful in updating their gender marker and name on their social security card, Ruiz-Velasco said. They also haven’t heard of any issues affecting trans people traveling with existing passports.
“Until there’s clarity about policy, some of it is going to be who you get in that moment and how that office is treating people,” Ruiz-Velasco said.
These changes do not affect state laws, like the ones in Illinois that allow for gender marker changes on birth certificates, driver’s licenses and ID cards, as well as nonbinary gender markers on driver’s licenses, Ruiz-Velasco said. Illinois also allows for gender markers on federal documents to be different from their state documents.
Another more immediate impact of the executive order is its requirement that agencies remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms and communications that acknowledge and promote an “inaccurate” understanding of gender, Ruiz-Velasco said. Under the order, no federal form can ask about gender identity.
Additionally, people who are placed in federal custody are going to be detained based on their sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender, Ruiz-Velasco said.
Illinois does not have any federal detention facilities, but the mandate will harm trans people incarcerated in other states, Ruiz-Velasco said.
“This is deadly for many trans folks, and it is very, very dangerous,” Ruiz-Velasco said.
Some of the more long-term effects of the executive order relate to its mandate that federal funds do not go toward services supporting transgender people, Johnson said.
“We think the Department of Education and related agencies may be empowered to withhold federal funds from school districts that teach inclusive curriculum or accurate sex education,” Johnson said.
Illinois has state laws that require schools to teach medically accurate and LGBTQ+-affirming sex education, Johnson said. Additionally, the state has a law requiring public schools to teach the contributions of LGBTQ+ people in history.
“We anticipate an aggressive Department of Education or related agencies to say that school districts have to prove that no federal funding is being used to supplement teacher time or buy curricular resources that teach LGBTQ+ history,” Johnson said.
It could also affect schools that allow for access to sex-segregated spaces, like bathrooms or locker rooms, to trans and gender-nonbinary people, Johnson said.
Federal funding could also be withheld from medical providers offering life-saving gender-affirming care and federal grantees who support trans and gender-nonbinary people, Johnson said.
“We don’t know what this will look like. We think it will take time, but it’s something this executive order could have laid the ground for,” Johnson said.
For those looking to get involved in the fight against these anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, the best thing to do is stay connected with the larger community, Ruiz-Velasco said. Additionally, people can make sure they’re driving resources to community groups that are most affected by these changes or leading the fight against them.
In Illinois, that includes groups like Brave Space Alliance, Chicago Therapy Collective, Life is Work, TaskForce Prevention & Community Services and the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois.
Equality Illinois is also in regular contact with LGBTQ+ rights groups across the country to make sure they’re sharing the most up-to-date information and everyone is working in coordination, Ruiz-Velasco said.
“I know this is a tough and scary time that is constantly changing,” Johnson said. “But we are so grateful to be in community with you all…and we’re going to do everything we can to galvanize us collectively to make sure that we are not just fighting back against this hateful agenda in Washington, but we continue to advance our agenda here.”
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