December 4, 2024 marks my sixteenth birthday and the Supreme Court’s historic hearing on my right to life-saving healthcare. United States v. Skrmetti assesses the constitutionality of a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors, and comes amidst a plethora of hostile legislation and the re-election of an administration devoted to the dehumanization of my community. While Republicans have been the driving force behind transphobia, Democrats are enabling cruelty by quietly abandoning trans rights as they become more “controversial.” Americans are embracing wildly inaccurate ideology and scapegoating people like me at unprecedented rates, and I’m terrified for what might lie ahead.
The United States v. Skrmetti case will set a legal precedent for trans, nonbinary, and intersex people’s access to gender-affirming care; with a Republican majority in the Supreme Court, the outlook appears bleak. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the State of Tennessee’s ban on transition-related care (namely puberty blockers and hormone therapy) for minors, on behalf of three families and Susan Lacy, a Memphis-based doctor. In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which could be applied to sex-based discrimination. The 15-year-old trans daughter of a plaintiff said, “I want this law to be struck down so that I can continue to receive the care I need, in conversation with my parents and my doctors, and have the freedom to live my life and do the things I enjoy.” Advocates worry that there are high stakes beyond just trans rights—if the court rules that the state can regulate who gets healthcare with no regard for doctors’ informed opinions, it could open up discrimination towards the entire LGBTQ+ community. This case has many parallels to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion under the 4th Amendment.
The Tennessee law addressed in United States v. Skrmetti is not an isolated incident: According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, 2024 is the “fifth consecutive record-breaking year for total number of anti-trans bills considered in the U.S.,” with over 600 bills (over a quarter passed or still active) across 43 states. These bills first targeted trans youth, but have expanded to all ages. They attack our basic rights to access healthcare, play sports, be represented in school curricula, update legal names and sexes on identification documents, and ultimately exist in public; in an extreme case, the city of Odessa, Texas recently authorized $10,000 bounties on trans people found in bathrooms aligning with their gender identities.
The trans hysteria that’s recently swept the nation is not based in fact, but rather in disinformation and fearmongering. In many ways, it is reminiscent of the anti-gay campaigns of the 1980s, from the alleged protection of family values to the weaponization of religion. Narratives of “child mutilation” and “men invading women’s spaces” have been pushed by wealthy political lobbying groups, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation (the infamous originator of Project 2025). Online echo chambers have also contributed to the spread of extremist ideology, warping many people’s perceptions of reality.
However, the entire mainstream of the medical community supports gender-affirming care: It is proven to be safe and essential to the well-being of many trans people, reducing suicidality rates by 73%. Also, the process of getting hormones or surgery—the latter of which is rarely performed on minors—requires extensive consultation with mental health professionals and doctors. My decision to start testosterone hormone therapy came after years of deliberation, but I’ve never looked back. Testosterone makes me me; I’ve never felt more comfortable in my body and identity. After so much pain and stagnation, I can finally live as the man I am and envision an authentic, fulfilling future for myself. I’m immensely grateful to have access to this care, and my heart breaks for other trans people who don’t.
Over the past few years, the U.S. has become increasingly polarized: The state persecutes trans people in some regions, while we enjoy full legal protections in others. A 2022 survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that roughly half of trans Americans had considered moving out of state due to hostile legislation. On a federal level, the Biden-Harris administration advocated for LGBTQ+ rights—reversing Trump-era policies, signing the Respect for Marriage act, and condemning recent hostile legislation in red states—but its vocal support of trans people in particular seems to have diminished in the leadup to the 2024 presidential election.
Donald Trump’s campaign poured an egregious $215 million into ads specifically targeting trans people, exceeding expenses for ads on housing, immigration, and the economy combined, and touted the slogan, “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.” Meanwhile, for the first time since 2012, the Democratic National Convention didn’t feature a single transgender speaker, and there were no discussions focused on countering Republicans’ vehemently anti-trans agenda. At the same time, countless speakers emphatically defended reproductive rights, which are closely linked to trans healthcare in the struggle for bodily autonomy. Democrats’ silence on trans rights is hypocritical and dangerous, and demonstrates a concerning shift in their commitment to allyship.
When Kamala Harris was asked in an interview whether transgender Americans should have access to gender-affirming care—a simple question with a simple answer (“yes”)—she responded, “I believe we should follow the law … I’m not going to put myself in the position of a doctor.” According to the law that she champions, 39.4% of American trans youth don’t deserve the care that will help them thrive, simply due to the states they reside in.
I’m deeply disappointed that the Democratic Party didn’t come to my community’s defense in the wake of such intense conservative vitriol. Promising the “most lethal fighting force in the world” and a newly restrictive border policy, the Harris-Walz campaign pandered more to people like Dick Cheney (Bush’s former vice president and architect of the Iraq War) than to the trans and immigrant scapegoats of the far right. Democrats had the opportunity to easily debunk dehumanizing rhetoric and embody their allegedly progressive values, but they failed to take it. In a time when our humanity is debated and our rights are attacked, we needed their active support more than ever; instead, they abandoned and alienated us, setting the stage for a revamped Trump administration to inflict unfathomable harm.
Several Democrats even had the audacity to blame Harris’s loss on not catering enough to the right, such as Tom Suozzi, a New York congressman who echoed Republican talking points of “biological boys playing in girls’ sports” and an “attack on traditional values.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who brands herself as a staunch progressive, quietly removed pronouns from her bio on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year. I hate that my identity has become the divisive political topic of the moment, with few lawmakers being principled enough to stand with me. Allyship is not burdensome; being a well-rounded person requires compassion for those with different experiences. Trans people are human beings with legitimate stories and struggles—bipartisan doubt of this fact fuels even more transphobia in a time when we’re hypervisible and vulnerable.
Trump’s first term was already catastrophic for the queer community. Among over 200 anti-LGBTQ+ policies, he revoked civil rights protections against workplace, housing, and healthcare discrimination against queer and HIV-positive people, banned trans people from the military, and nominated homophobic justices to the Supreme Court. He is now targeting trans people with unprecedented fervor. His plans include: investigating and defunding schools supportive of trans students; targeting trans women and girls in sports; rolling back healthcare access, especially for trans youth; restricting the federal definition of gender to only recognize cisgender people; abusing and deporting LGBTQ+ immigrants; and reinstating his prior ban on trans people in the military. It’s difficult to determine exactly if or how these threats can become reality, as each presents a different set of legal intricacies, but Trump will undoubtedly make it less safe to be openly LGBTQ+ (or any marginalized identity) everywhere. To make matters worse, he will be supported by Republican majorities in all three branches of government. However, grassroots organizations will resist these attacks to the best of their ability, and the filibuster could be a helpful tactic as well.
Needless to say, trans and queer people across the nation are in a state of crisis. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization, reported a 700% increase in calls, texts, and chats following the election. In the days immediately after November 5, I locked myself in my room and spiraled about losing the physical and emotional progress I’ve achieved on testosterone: this sacred weekly ritual of becoming. I hadn’t grappled with so much existential dread since the beginning of my transition. The U.S. government has failed trans people from both sides, and I felt utterly neglected. But ultimately, I realized that I needed to get out into the world and find my people; all we have is each other.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is annually observed on November 20 to commemorate the trans lives tragically lost to violence and hatred. My friends and I attended a vigil hosted by NYC Youth 4 Trans Rights in Washington Square Park, in which we listened to speeches and poetry and lit candles in honor of the 350-plus trans people murdered in the past year. The mood was especially heavy given the current political climate, but physically coming together reminded me of our history of resilience. As a speaker representing Left Voice declared, “Now is not the time for demoralization; it’s the time for organization.” On the train ride home, deeper voice raw from chanting, I felt reinvigorated by my community’s commitment to authenticity and justice. The future is rife with uncertainty, but no matter what, trans people will keep resisting, connecting, and living. We will never be legislated out of existence.