People gather on National Mall to celebrate transgender people, raise awareness about discrimination
The annual Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) was very different this year coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s flurry of actions restricting the rights of transgender people.
TDOV annually celebrates transgender people and raises awareness on discrimination internationally.
President Donald Trump’s actions to restrict the rights of transgender people started in his first term and picked up again on day one of his new term. On Trump’s first day back in office, he issued a sweeping order that set the tone for how his administration would deal with transgender people and their rights.
The order questioned the existence of transgender people by saying the government would only recognize two unchangeable sexes — the government’s words — female and male.
This order included some specific instances in which policy should be changed. The State Department stopped granting requests for new or updated passports with gender markers that don’t conform with Trump’s definition.
Trump called for halting the use of federal money to support gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth under 19 years old. That care includes puberty blocking drugs, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery, which is rare for minors.
The mother of a transgender middle school student in Maryland told News4 there’s little to celebrate this year.
“Really, a trans day of visibility for my family means another day of hiding. We are not comfortable with our son identifying as transgender,” Camille Rey said. “He passes as male, so we just let him do that and let him be a kid, because he’s in sixth grade and it’s just too dangerous right now.”
