It is with great honor that I say: What a Pride month this past June has been. One day that will go down in history is June 15, 2020. This is the day that the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration and provided LGBTQ+ individuals with protections against losing their job due to their sexual orientation. The Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. happened only five years ago. To say the fight for our rights is over is a heinous understatement.
Something that irks me the most is seeing LGBTQ+ people rally for Donald Trump, a man who has done nothing but try to infringe on our rights. This movement is coined as the Gays For Trump campaign, and it honestly frightens me. From the transgender military ban to blocking health care for transgender individuals to allowing some adoption agencies to prohibit gay couples from adopting, the Trump administration has done nothing for LGBTQ+ individuals. In fact, I would say he has definitively made being gay in America worse.
President Trump, despite claiming he advocates for LGBTQ+ individuals, has actively taken rights away from transgender individuals in our community. That doesn’t seem like protecting LGBTQ+ individuals to me, Gays for Trump campaigners. It is hypocritical to claim yourself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community if there are some letters of the community that you’d prefer to leave out, especially when it was those same individuals that fought so courageously for our rights during the Stonewall riots.
Transgender individuals continue to face hardships and systemic violence in the modern era. According to the Human Rights Campaign, in 2018, they tracked at least 26 deaths of transgender and non-conforming individuals in the U.S., all of which were hate-based, and a majority of the victims were Black transgender women. While the statistical life expectancy of transgender individuals has risen in America, there is still work to do.
Unfortunately, these numbers continue to rise and transgender women of color fear for their life. I follow the NC State GLBT center on Instagram, and they shared a post earlier today, captioned “The GLBT Center honors the life of Brayla Stone, the 8th trans person taken from us in 7 days. #blacktranslivesmatter #translivesmatter.”
As a cisgender woman, I have the privilege of not having to fear for my life over my gender expression. I’ve never once left my house fearing that I wouldn’t come home. If being gay in America is like a target, being trans in America is something unimaginable. Imagine being criminalized for just trying to be yourself, and while being yourself, you may suffer a hate crime because it bothers other people so much that they can’t allow you to be who you are.
I ask conservatives and LGBTQ+ individuals who support Trump, why are you so worried about someone else’s life? Why does the pure existence of transgender individuals make you uncomfortable? There should not be a discourse about this when you could simply mind your own business, even if you don’t support transgender individuals. The same applies to conservatives who never wanted same-sex marriage legalized even though it didn’t apply to them at all. It isn’t your body, so it isn’t your choice.
Also, the fact that gay marriage was only legalized five years ago and that it is still illegal to be gay in many countries around the world, shows that the gay rights movement has a long way to go. While I agree that progress is progress, I will not stand by and say that this is enough.
As Pride Month ends, it is important to recognize our beginnings and our future as election time rolls around. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I condemn any other member who supports Donald Trump being reelected in the fall. Since the beginning of his campaign, Trump has faked his support for the queer community. He made false promises that he would protect LGBTQ+ individuals. Instead, he reversed almost all legal protections for transgender people and other members of the community.
This isn’t just a difference of opinion at this point. This is about human rights, rights that LGBTQ+ individuals wouldn’t have if Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera hadn’t spoken up at the Stonewall riots of 1969. These two transgender activists risked everything for the rights we have now, and it is shameful that LGBTQ+ individuals continue to support Trump.
We must do better.
Editor’s Note: Updated for accuracy.
