In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election this month, some in the transgender community are turning to history as a source of hope, comfort, and inspiration. Leaders of the movement are reminding trans people of their long history of resilience and resistance as a reminder that they can persevere once again through the expected attacks of the incoming administration.
“We come from a lineage of resilience,” said Erin Reed, an independent reporter on transgender political issues in Washington, D.C. She pointed to Dora Richter, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Christine Jorgensen as some historical figures she is taking strength from at this moment.
“I don’t think about how horrible the things they overcame were,” she wrote in a message to her subscribers on Nov. 6. “I smile because their stories made it possible for us to be who we are today.”
In his first term, Trump repealed nondiscrimination policies for transgender people in the military, homeless shelters, schools, prisons, and other settings. He has pledged to ban gender-affirming care for minors, remove federal funding for inclusive education and gender-affirming care, and criminalize teachers supporting trans youth, among several other anti-trans measures.
Leaders of more than 80 LGBTQIA+ organizations across the country released a joint statement the day after the election that opened with a reference to history.
“Our LGBTQIA2S+ community has risen again and again to meet moments that have challenged our rights, our humanity, and our freedom. Today is no different,” they wrote.
“Ours is a long history of never backing down from a fight for our rights. United in our strength, during the most difficult of times, we have pushed forward and achieved significant progress across the decades,” the statement read. “From the early days of the [1950’s gay and lesbian rights groups] Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis to the Stonewall Uprising and HIV/AIDS activism, to achieving marriage equality and anti-discrimination protections in the workplace, to the fight for transgender rights, and beyond, we march on.”
Trans people expressed similar sentiments on social media, citing that they know it’s possible to survive the anticipated increase in discriminatory measures next year because the community has done it before. Some pointed out that looking to the community has been a way to persevere and encouraged leaning on them right now. Others said though not all individuals survived past anti-trans campaigns, the community as a whole always does, as trans people will never cease to exist.
“We are a community that, if anything, has shown resilience; resilience not just over the years, but over all of history,” Kristen Browde, an attorney in Miami who is the co-chair of the board of the National Trans Bar Association and president of the Florida Democratic Party LGBTQ+ Caucus, wrote on X. “We have survived all. We will survive this. And once again, we shall rise.”
Trans people are already rising, protesting, and organizing against the hundreds of anti-trans laws proposed in state legislatures in recent years. They’re also forming and growing support groups, turning to community to make it through the mental health effects of the anti-trans measures and the election. LGBTQIA+ community centers across the country, a quarter led by trans executive directors, serve more than three million people per year with mental health care, physical health care, support groups, social programs, educational programs, and legal services, according to a report by LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organizations CenterLink and Movement Advancement Project. Ninety percent of community centers offer programming specific to transgender people, and 29% of centers serve mostly transgender people.
Today, U.S. lawmakers sometimes reference the myth that there is no trans history as a justification for anti-trans laws, using the idea that trans people’s existence is a fad instead of a valid group worthy of protection. Trump used this argument in a 2023 video where he laid out his many anti-trans policies.
“No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender — a concept that was never heard of in all of human history — nobody’s ever heard of this, what’s happening today. It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago.”
Transgender people have existed for all of human history under many different terms. In many Indigenous cultures across six continents, trans people were and are sacred or holy and often served as community leaders and healers. Since colonialism spread over the globe, trans identities have been villainized in many societies, and they were a targeted group in events such as the Holocaust. Trans people have contributed to historic milestones such as Alan L. Hart pioneering the use of X-ray technology in the early 20th century, Lynn Conway contributing to the creation of microprocessors in the 1960s, and Martine Rothblatt leading the invention of satellite radio in the 1980s and 1990s.
Joan Erwin, CEO of the trans health organization Transhealth in western Massachusetts, also referenced trans history in their post-election message to the organization’s email subscribers: “It is in moments like these that we are called upon to remember that we have walked through fire and darkness before and have survived, emerging into the light stronger and more vibrant than ever.”
“If you think back to Stonewall or some of the big demonstrations that have happened, people really felt like they were very likely to lose their lives because of the intolerance,” Erwin said, “but they felt so strongly that we should have the same rights as everybody else, they were willing to risk that.” That’s the kind of strength they say will be needed again.
“I’ve seen a lot of individuals on social media talking about, ‘we’ve done this, we’ve been through a lot,’” they said. “We’ve been reminding people because some of the younger trans and gender diverse individuals didn’t live through the ’80s and the AIDS crisis and don’t understand as much about Stonewall as the people that lived through it.”
Trump’s second term will not be the beginning of trans oppression in the U.S., just an escalation. The community has already lived through the first Trump presidency, and they can turn to strategies from that time to use again.
“I have seen transgender people in preparation mode, not panic mode,” said journalist Erin Reed. “So many of us have lived through this fear campaign that I think a Trump presidency is something we’ve all thought about for a long time now. I doubt any transgender person entered into this election without a plan. Now, many are executing that plan.”
She pointed to trans people taking action by renewing their passports, moving to new states, stockpiling their medication, and forming community groups to be there for each other.
“Everyone is preparing, and everyone is working to keep each other safe.”
Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.
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