Transgender Americans are bracing for a Trump presidency after the campaign promoted anti-trans rhetoric

Transgender Americans are bracing for attacks from the White House and in their own neighborhoods following Donald Trump's US election victory on Tuesday, following a presidential campaign that promoted anti-trans rhetoric.

Trump repeatedly made false claims about transgender people in speeches as his presidential campaign spent millions on campaign ads with anti-trans messages, despite transgender people making up less than one percent of the U.S. population.

“There is no way to mitigate this. I have called out people who wanted to end it in chats and messages in my inbox,” Erin Reed, a journalist and trans rights activist from Maryland, told CBC News on Wednesday.

'The danger is real. Their feelings are valid, and this is exactly what we are dealing with right now.”

Trump's policy agenda includes a ban on trans participation in women's sports and an end to federal funding for gender-affirming care.

In speeches and interviews, he has repeated false stories about, among other things, children undergoing sex change operations at school without their parents' consent other misleading claims.

PBS reported that the Trump campaign and pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million on ads between October 7 and 20, 41 percent of which targeted transgender people.

Independent journalist collective the Stronghold estimated The Trump campaign and other groups supporting it spent up to $40 million on anti-trans advertising over a five-week period by the end of the campaign.

Bulwark found that the Trump campaign itself spent less than half on ads about immigration, and less than a fifth on ads about the economy.

One such ad claimed that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris supports “biological males” who compete against girls in sports, and placed a photo of Harris next to a photo of a person with a mustache and a bald head wearing a red dress and wore lipstick. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” was the tagline at the end of this and other similar ads.

'Blue states' will no longer be safe: activist

Reed says transgender people living in Democratic-led states have been able to live “relatively peacefully and freely” in recent years, even as anti-trans bills have been passed in Republican state legislatures amid a rise in anti-trans rhetoric.

She does not expect peace to last long.

“Everything I've seen in the reddest state legislature, I expect to see at least all at the federal level,” Reed said. “I expect Trump will likely use his office to target transgender people in blue states.”

The ACLU has been tracking it During this year's legislative session alone, 531 anti-LGBTQ bills were passed in the US, including restrictions on gender-affirming care and pronoun changes in schools. Reed expects Trump will target trans youth in schools, end or hinder access to medical care for trans people of all ages and end changes to gender markers on passports.

Yet the public attacks do not seem to resonate with a large number of voters.

In an October survey by media research group Data for ProgressMost respondents, including 41 percent of Republicans, said Republican candidates who use anti-2SLGBTQ rhetoric as part of their campaigns are “sad and shameful.” A majority of respondents, including 45 percent of Republicans, said they want less government regulation over transgender people's lives, including their health care.

LOOK | Republican spending on attack ads is 'dehumanizing,' author says:

Republican spending on anti-trans ads is 'dehumanizing,' author says

The Republican Party is spending millions on anti-trans advertising in the run-up to the US elections. Chrissy Stroop, a transgender author, says the ads are intended to dehumanize transgender people and are “not a winning strategy.” What questions do you have about the upcoming US elections? Let us know by emailing ask@cbc.ca

A Gallup poll September found that transgender rights ranked last among the top 22 issues influencing voters.

According to LGBTQ research group The Williams Institute, transgender people make up 0.5 percent of the U.S. adult population and 1.4 percent of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17.

“I don't think so [the anti-trans messaging] is organic. I don't think this comes from our colleagues, our neighbors, the people we speak to,” Reed said. “I just think this is a hate campaign and people have been swept up in it.”

Trans Americans already face more discrimination: Advocate

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the New York-based group Advocates for Trans Equality, says he similarly expects the Trump administration to “weaponize every part of the federal executive branch” against the trans community.

He said the rhetoric has already fostered “an environment of hostility” and he has heard from transgender people in the US, especially in swing states where the attack ads have been prominent, who face increased harassment and discrimination in their daily lives. and in their own neighborhood.

Heng-Lehtinen notes that physical attacks tend to increase alongside rhetorical attacks, evidenced by: spike in hate crimes after Trump's election in 2016. Overall, FBI data shows hate crimes motivated by gender identity and sexual orientation emerging in the US since at least 2021.

“It is no coincidence that when a leader of the country sends a signal that some members of our society are not considered valuable, it opens the door for someone who does have hatred in his heart to continue doing so,” he said. he. .

But Heng-Lehtinin said the election of Delaware Democratic Sen. Sarah McBride, as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, offered a glimmer of hope to hold on to after election night.

He said the trans community is ready to fight back against whatever happens in the next four years.

“We will do what we have to do,” he said. “Transgender people, we know how to fight. So we are going to prepare for a new chapter of our resistance.”