Courtesy of Kelsey Graczyk / NPS
By Valeryah Lara-Urrea
A Perspective
Until he decided to run for president, Donald Trump did not seem to have problems with the LGBTQ community. Black Americans, yes, just like his Klansman father, but not so much the gay community of New York he moved around in.
Then he saw LGBTQ folks – especially transgender people – could be useful foils to attract conservative voters. So he turned on them. It was the worst kind of manipulative cowardice.
On his first day in office Trump sold out and villainized the LGBTQ community. He went after the transgender community with special wrath. He took away passports, denied gender-affirming care and ordered the erasure of transgender people who served our country with honor in the military.
MAGA voters are thrilled. Compassionate Americans are sickened. Orion Rummler and Kate Sosin of the gender and politics news organization 19thNews.org said Trump has gone after the LGBTQ community on multiple fronts.
“The Trump White House is using the federal government as a tool to make it harder for trans-Americans to live openly — and safely — without fear of harassment and discrimination,” they wrote. “(Tactics include) restricting access to accurate federal identity documents, withholding federal funding from hospitals and erasing trans history on federal websites and in schools.”
The Trump Administration is currently working to undo Americans rights to self-identify on passport and other federal documents. Trump’s State Department is disallowing new passports with X gender markers and has indicated that it will not replace expired passports with X markers.
Trump has cast scorn upon the queer community since his first term in 2017 and encouraged MAGA voters to join the bash. He has legions of MAGAs convinced that hating members of the LGBTQ community is the right thing to do. He has unleashed a demon and caused LGBTQ people to suffered abuses from verbal assault to murder.
Members of the LGBTQ community at Southwestern College are not having it. The LGBTQ advocacy group PRISM works to keep members of the community safe and feeling supported. Representation matters. PRISM hosts a directory called “Out @ SWC” where out LGBTQ+ staff members and their allies are listed. Ryan Lennon is one.
“I feel the (Southwestern College) administration has our back more than it doesn’t,” he said. “But we’ve got to realize that not everybody (supports us) right now.”
PRISM Secretary Jason Weber said the remaining Trump years will be tough, ut he is optimist about the future beyond MAGA because most Americans support LGBTQ rights.
“I’ve seen how we’ve progressed these last 30 years,” he said. “I think everything is going to come around and we’ll end up winning in the long run. It will hurt for a while, but I think if we persevere we’ll be back. (Maybe back) to where we were before, then maybe even further along. That’s how battles are won.”
