Debate over transgender rights grows more fraught in new Trump era
Transgender issues barely registered on voters鈥� lists of top policy priorities in 2024, according to polls. But as a front in America鈥檚 culture wars, the topic has become increasingly contentious. The growing visibility of transgender people in society and pop culture, and the spread of new ideas around sex and gender, particularly among young people, have led to emotional public debates about single-sex spaces and sports 鈥� and prompted a backlash on the right that鈥檚 gone into overdrive since President Donald Trump returned to office.
As part of his 鈥渨ar on woke,鈥� Mr. Trump has enacted a flurry of policies directly impacting various aspects of life for transgender people. The president has issued executive actions barring transgender women from and . He鈥檚 to oust transgender soldiers and stop recruiting others. He鈥檚 banned federal funding for , threatened to that 鈥渋ndoctrinate鈥� children, and prevented transgender individuals from on passports and other official documents.
The barrage of actions has left members of the transgender community reeling, while Democrats have been divided over how to respond. 鈥淚t鈥檚 truly terrifying,鈥� says the Rev. Lazarus Jameson, a transgender pastor in Oregon. 鈥淓very trans person is asking, How are we going to survive?鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Actions by the Trump administration have been pushing back on transgender inclusion, amid sharp public divides and emotional debates over things like women鈥檚 sports and care for children.
The Trump administration casts all these moves as a return to 鈥渃ommon sense,鈥� protecting women and children from the impacts of what they say is a dangerous social contagion. 鈥淚deologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women鈥檚 domestic abuse shelters to women鈥檚 workplace showers. This is wrong,鈥� . 鈥淓fforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.鈥�
Transgender people and their allies reject those characterizations, calling transgender inclusion a matter of human dignity and basic rights. Many of the president鈥檚 directives have already halting their implementation; on Tuesday, a judge temporarily blocked the transgender military ban from taking effect. Some appear to contradict a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that protected transgender people from workplace discrimination. and strengthening legal protections for transgender residents.
Yet the politics surrounding the issue are dicey for both parties. Following November鈥檚 election, some Democrats have grown concerned that their party鈥檚 full-throated support for protecting transgender rights under all circumstances was alienating mainstream voters and ignoring valid concerns about women鈥檚 rights and the unknown effects of transgender youth medicine. The shifting political winds were underscored recently when California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime ally of the transgender community, said on his podcast that he believed allowing transgender athletes to compete in women鈥檚 sports was 鈥渄eeply unfair.鈥�
Other Democrats, however, predict Mr. Trump鈥檚 aggressive policies may soon invite a backlash of their own. While polls suggest the president鈥檚 position on transgender athletes has widespread public support, the sheer scope of his directives, and the open hostility expressed by some of his allies toward transgender individuals, may ultimately strike voters as needlessly punitive toward a vulnerable minority population. One of Mr. Trump鈥檚 , signed Jan. 20, states flatly that there are only 鈥渢wo sexes鈥� and they are 鈥渘ot changeable鈥� 鈥� essentially making it the official position of the United States government that all people must adhere to this binary. Critics say it amounts to denying transgender individuals鈥� very existence.
Most Americans鈥� views tend to be far more nuanced than the political positioning being put forward by either party, experts say. Polling shows that a majority of people support transgender rights when it comes to things like housing and employment. But when accommodations for transgender individuals are in apparent conflict with other people鈥檚 rights, 鈥淪upport is a lot more squishy,鈥� says Donald Haider-Markel, a politics professor at the University of Kansas who studies LGBTQ+ issues and public opinion.
For now, he adds, the greater political dilemma lies with Democrats, who pride themselves on championing minority rights, but are also trying to chart their way back to an electoral majority. They need to win some of the culturally conservative, working-class voters drawn to Mr. Trump鈥檚 masculine imagery and emphasis on traditional gender roles. 鈥淭he party is really in the weeds on how to go forward on this, and nobody has staked out a middle path that everyone can agree on,鈥� says Professor Haider-Markel.
A difficult issue for both sides
To Mr. Trump鈥檚 critics, the administration is scapegoating what amounts to a tiny number of people purely for political gain. According to , 1.3% of all American adults are transgender. The numbers have been , however: Among Generation Z respondents, 4.1% identify as transgender, compared with less than 1% of adults born before 1980. Far more adults identify as gay, lesbian, or bixsexual, a percentage that has been steadily rising since Gallup began counting in 2012. (Nearly 1 in 10 now identify as LGBTQ+.)
While gay rights advocates rapidly gained popular support and then a 2015 Supreme Court victory established a constitutional right for same-sex marriage, the transgender community is facing growing skepticism and even hostility from conservatives.
Mr. Trump鈥檚 biggest ad buy in the 2024 campaign highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris鈥� support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners 鈥� an ad that strategists from both parties described as . Mr. Trump鈥檚 campaign flooded battleground states with versions of the ad, which concluded with the tagline, 鈥淜amala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.鈥� A by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, found that 64% of voters had seen ads that criticized Ms. Harris for supporting transition surgery for prisoners and allowing transgender athletes to play on girls鈥� sports teams.
The president has leaned particularly into the sports issue, where polls show his position has high levels of public support. A from January found that 79% of respondents believed that athletes who were male at birth should not be allowed to compete in women鈥檚 sports. Since recapturing the White House, Mr. Trump has held photo ops with female athletes, and invited a volleyball player who suffered an injury competing against a transgender player to his speech before a joint session of Congress.
鈥淎sking people to pretend that sex isn鈥檛 real or doesn鈥檛 matter, or that it鈥檚 the same thing as gender, has been a huge unforced error鈥� by Democrats, says Doriane Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also been an unnecessary one, as there are different strategies that could have secured protections for trans people that didn鈥檛 go to the core of such a significant aspect of most of our lives,鈥� she adds, referring to the sports question.
When some Democrats have tried to modulate their party鈥檚 position, they鈥檝e often experienced significant pushback. After Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton told The New York Times shortly after the November election that he didn鈥檛 want his daughters 鈥渞un over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,鈥� he was hit with from fellow Democrats, and his campaign manager resigned. The recent comments from Governor Newsom, along with moves from other Democrats to drop pronouns from their bios and , suggest those internal debates are far from over.
Still, others argue that the actions the president has taken have unleashed a wave of hostility toward transgender people that鈥檚 likely to repel swing voters. In the first few days of this congressional session, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina publicly and successfully campaigned to prevent the House鈥檚 first transgender member, Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, from using the women鈥檚 restrooms in the Capitol. More recently, GOP lawmakers have publicly referred to Representative McBride in hearings and elsewhere as 鈥淢r. McBride.鈥�
Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania who worked to elect Sen. John Fetterman in 2022, says 鈥渂eing cruel鈥� toward transgender people will ultimately come back to bite Republicans, even if they reap short-term electoral gains. Voters 鈥渁re going to come around and see what it is, which is a bully picking on a vulnerable community,鈥� he says.
Senator Fetterman has frequently criticized his fellow Democrats for using 鈥渨oke鈥� language and has sharply broken with the pro-Palestinian left. But he鈥檚 remained a staunch defender of transgender rights. Earlier this month, after a GOP bill to bar transgender girls from school athletic competitions failed along party lines, Senator Fetterman , 鈥淭he small handful of trans athletes in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally and I am one.鈥�
Mr. Stern argues that Democrats who distance themselves from transgender issues that seem unpopular right now are making a bad long-term calculation. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 in the interest of Democrats to throw the trans community under the bus. It鈥檚 completely reprehensible morally, and I don鈥檛 think our base will reward us for sacrificing a community,鈥� he says.
Public opinion: not a simple yes/no
Polls point to a mixed picture when it comes to public support for transgender rights. A found that a majority of Americans opposed state laws banning medical treatments for transgender youth, but half also said it was 鈥渕orally wrong鈥� to change one鈥檚 gender. The January New York Times poll found that 71% of Americans believed no one under age 18 should have access to puberty blockers or cross-sex hormone treatments.
Another by The Washington Post/KFF found that 57% of Americans believe it鈥檚 not possible for a person to be a different gender from their sex at birth. But a majority of respondents in that poll also supported laws prohibiting discrimination, including 65% who opposed discriminating against trans people serving in the U.S. military.
Some Democrats argue that Republican targeting of transgender rights echoes the party鈥檚 opposition to same-sex marriage in 2004 under President George W. Bush. The Bush campaign leaned heavily into that issue, using ballot referendums against same-sex marriage to help turn out religious voters in the presidential election, while many Democratic officials tried to strike an uneasy middle ground, supporting civil unions rather than marriage. But in the years that followed, public opinion abruptly shifted, with Democrats and ultimately many Republicans embracing the landmark Supreme Court ruling affirming a right to same-sex marriage in 2015.
Some experts point to key differences between the two issues 鈥� and the ways the campaigns for rights were waged. Advocates for same-sex marriage purposely highlighted traditional values as part of their campaign. 鈥淸People said,] 鈥極h, same-sex couples, they just want to be normal. They want to get married,鈥欌�� says Darel Paul, a politics professor at Williams College and author of 鈥淔rom Tolerance to Equality: How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage.鈥�
While social and religious conservatives argued that allowing same-sex unions would undermine the institution of marriage, they ultimately failed to persuade the majority of Americans, who generally support allowing consenting adults to make their own decisions. But that鈥檚 not the case with gender-transition treatments for children under age 18.
One of Mr. Trump鈥檚 executive orders, which is already being litigated in federal court, prohibits federal funding or support for gender-transition treatments for minors, which he labels 鈥渃hemical and surgical mutilation鈥� procedures that young people may regret later in life. While U.S. medical associations support these treatments and say they are evidence-based, authorities in Europe have begun restricting them and urging greater caution in diagnosing gender dysphoria, the condition of feeling trapped in the wrong gender.
Last month the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case involving a challenge to a Tennessee ban on transition medicine for minors. Tennessee is among more than a dozen Republican-run states that have imposed bans and restrictions on these practices in the past few years. In 2023, Missouri passed a ban on transition care over the opposition of parents of transgender children amid a controversy over alleged malpractice at a leading transgender clinic in St. Louis.
That was when Jameson, a social-care worker who had led a church in St. Louis, decided to leave Missouri, relocating to Oregon.
Jameson has been disappointed by the muted response from Democratic leaders to Mr. Trump鈥檚 executive actions, though welcoming of the support from blue states. 鈥淎 lot of politicians don鈥檛 seem to think trans people are worth the fight,鈥� Jameson says.
A battle over inclusion in the military
Transgender advocates argue that, like same-sex marriage proponents in the early 2000s, they also just want to pursue a normal life 鈥� and the Trump administration is standing in their way.
A group of transgender service members has sued the administration over its ban on transgender troops, arguing that it violates their constitutional rights to equal protection. This week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the ban鈥檚 implementation while the lawsuit works its way through the courts.
issued Jan. 27 makes categorical and unfounded claims about transgender soldiers and why they are unfit to serve, says David Gans, a constitutional attorney.
His organization, the Constitutional Accountability Center, filed an amicus brief in the suit that highlights the parallels between the exclusion of transgender service members and that of other groups once deemed unfit to serve their country 鈥� including Black people, gays and lesbians, and women in combat roles. In all these cases, the argument against integration was essentially the same: that allowing them to serve would endanger military effectiveness and unit cohesion.
鈥淭he lesson of history is that these [arguments] tend to rest on prejudices and discriminatory stereotypes,鈥� says Mr. Gans, who directs his organization鈥檚 Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Program.
The Pentagon says the number of transgender service members is . But one outside study estimates , which would make the Department of Defense the largest employer of transgender adults in the U.S., one that has provided gender-transition treatments for active and reserve service members. On Monday, it would no longer provide hormone therapy to veterans who weren鈥檛 already receiving such treatment.
In his executive action, Mr. Trump states that adopting a transgender identity 鈥渃onflicts with a soldier鈥檚 commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one鈥檚 personal life.鈥�
The action essentially says: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e an outsider to a really basic part of being a citizen, which is defending your country,鈥� says Mr. Gans. This type of language 鈥減uts a brand on you.鈥�
