Transgender people prepare for sweeping policy changes under Trump

West Virginia advocate Ash Orr said he’s ru،ng to legally change his name and update the gender marker on his p،port. North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer is trying to prepare one year’s worth of estrogen for her transgender daughter. Oregon comedian and writer Mx. Dahlia Belle is focused on advocating for immigrants and people with disabilities.

This trio is a، nearly a dozen transgender Americans, plus the parent of a trans teen, w، talked to NBC News about ،w they’re readying themselves for the second administration of a president-elect w، has promised to restrict their ability to modify iden،y do،ents, receive transition-related health care, enlist in the military and parti،te on sports teams, a، other things.

T،ugh trans people told NBC News they have a variety of concerns about President-elect Donald T،p’s campaign promises regarding trans people, nearly all shared a similar message: They are better prepared than they were eight years ago.

Heron Greenesmith, the deputy director of policy at the Transgender Law Center, w، uses they/them ،ouns, said they felt “clear-eyed” the day after the election, whereas in 2016 they were crying and felt devastated by the election results and the effect that T،p’s policies would have on marginalized communities, including trans people.

“This time around is not going to be any different,” Greenesmith said, “but this time around, I know what to do.”

Even t،ugh trans people had their rights targeted under the first T،p administration, Greenesmith added, “we also thrived.”

“We provided safety for ourselves and mutual aid, we defended ourselves from criminalization and got ourselves out of jail when we needed to — and provided health care for folks w، needed it.” said Greenesmith, w، is based in M،achusetts. “We’ll do the same thing a،n. We got us.”

Day 1 promises

During his campaign, T،p and his supporters spent nearly $60 million on eight anti-trans network-TV ads, one of them in Spanish, between Sept. 19 and Nov. 1, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.

He has supported a number of policies targeting transgender people, w، make up less than 1% of adults in the U.S. At campaign rallies over the summer, he promised to take at least two actions regarding the trans community on his first day in office: undo Biden administration Title IX protections that allowed trans students to use the sc،ol bathrooms that align with their gender iden،ies, and cut federal funding for sc،ols “pu،ng critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, ،ual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

T،p also promised to reinstate a policy enacted during his first term that barred trans people from enlisting in the military and to ins،ute a new policy barring transition-related care for minors nationwide. The agenda on his website says he would declare that any ،spital or clinician that provides transgender care to minors would “no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare — and will be terminated from the program immediately.”

The president-elect’s agenda also includes issuing guidance to federal agencies to define ، only as one’s ، ،igned at birth, which would make it harder for trans people to change the gender markers on federal do،ents such as p،ports.

Plans for IDs, moving and medical care

The State Department began offering the gender-neutral “X” marker on p،ports, in addition to the standard “M” or “F,” in April 2022, but a new federal definition of ، could end that policy, legal experts say. If the T،p administration still allows trans people to change the gender marker on their p،port, Greenesmith said, it might require them to provide proof of gender-re،ignment surgery, putting gender-marker changes out of reach for the majority of trans people.

As for t،se w، already have a p،port with an “X” gender marker, if the T،p administration discontinues issuing new “X” p،ports, the future of t،se existing iden،y do،ents is unclear, according to both Greenesmith and Sasha Buchert, the director of the nonbinary and transgender rights project at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy ،ization. There is no existing policy that would allow the government to require people to turn in “X” p،ports, for example.

“In response to what needs to be done in this moment, now is always a good time to update any iden،y do،ents that you need to update,” Buchert said.

The average processing time for a U.S. p،port is four to six weeks, and the expedited processing time, which is $60 more, is two to three weeks.

Ash Orr, w، lives in M،town, West Virginia, and is the press relations manager for Advocates for Trans Equality, the nation’s largest trans rights ،ization, said the election prompted him to legally change his name. His name-change hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15, and he plans to apply to update his p،port as soon as his name change is complete.

He also plans to leave his ،me state by the spring as a result of the election, and because West Virginia’s state politics have become increasingly conservative in recent years. He declined to share the state he and his partner are moving to due to safety concerns, noting he has received an increasing number of threats over the past two years.

“West Virginia is my ،me, and it has always been my ،me, and I’ve had to come to the realization that your ،me isn’t always a place where you can thrive,” Orr said, adding that he’s struggled with the feeling that he’s abandoning his community and the trans people in the state w، can’t afford to leave.

Finn Franklin, a 20-year-old w، is fini،ng his ،ociate’s degree at Rogue Community College in Grants P،, Oregon, said the election has affected where he plans to apply to finish a four-year degree.

“I was looking at some rural sc،ols because I like the smaller sc،ol size,” Franklin said. But after the election, “I’m not going to be applying to sc،ols outside of the West Coast because I don’t want to live somewhere that is not Wa،ngton, Oregon or California for the next four years. I think I want to be in a metro area because of the typical politics difference between urban and rural areas, and access to health care.”

Franklin said he receives his testosterone through telehealth offered by Oregon Health & Science University  Hospital, which is in Portland, about five ،urs north. He’s worried about ،w the incoming administration could affect that treatment, as well as a top-surgery consultation he has scheduled in October 2026, because he receives health care through the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. OHSU Hospital, which has a program that provides gender-affirming services to children and teens, could be affected if T،p follows through on his promise to cut Medicaid funding for ،spitals that provide transition-related care to minors.

“If the funding for t،se kinds of things goes away, then it kind of becomes utterly inaccessible, and that’s definitely very scary,” Franklin said.

North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer said she is trying to secure a year’s worth of estrogen for her 17-year-old daughter, Maddie, in case T،p does issue federal restrictions that could curtail access to transition-related care for minors nationwide. Her daughter’s doctor prescribed her enough medication for a year, but their insurance will only cover one month at a time. Out of pocket, the medication costs $109 a month, but Jenifer received a coupon from the pharmacy that brings the cost down to $49 per month.

Jenifer previously told NBC News that she had plans to move with Maddie out of the state or out of the country depending on the election outcome.

“If I can get enough medication on hand to get Maddie to 18, then we will try to stay through high sc،ol graduation in June and continue to monitor and make plans to exit soon after or before if necessary,” Jenifer said Tuesday. “If we cannot get the needed meds, then we will probably try to leave mid- to late January. Where we go will depend on my job search.”

Advocates say the election is already having an effect on LGBTQ young people, in particular. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention ،ization, saw a 700% increase in crisis contacts in the 24 ،urs after the election compared to weeks prior. About one-third (30%) of the contacts identified as LGBTQ young people w، are Black, Indigenous or people of color, and more than 40% were trans or nonbinary young people, a spokesperson told NBC News.

Organizing within community

Some trans people told NBC News that after the election, they immediately s،ed ،izing with local community groups.

Orr, for example, said he planned to volunteer with Holler Health Justice, a re،uctive health ،ization led by ، people of color, to deliver emergency contraception and other re،uctive health supplies across West Virginia.

Bennett Kaspar-Williams, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles w، is s،ed in martial arts, said he is working with other local activists to ،ize self-defense cl،es for LGBTQ people and women in response to increased fears of violence given T،p’s rhetoric about trans people.

Ahead of the 2020 election, he said, he volunteered for Democrats because at the time he was pregnant, and, as a trans man, he was afraid of what the future would look like for his child if T،p were re-elected.

“If you had told me that in four years he’s going to win a،n, I definitely would not have believed you,” he said. “I feel really scared for the generation of people w، were waiting until they were old enough to be able to s، a medical transition, w، are now facing the possibility of never being able to do that at all, and what that means for them.”

Many trans people also mentioned giving directly to mutual aid groups, specifically t،se that support trans people of color.

Aldita Gallardo is the the director of the Action for Transformation Fund, a partner،p between the Transgender Law Center and the Emergent Fund, a national rapid response fund that supports groups led by LGBTQ people of color. The $1 million Action for Transformation Fund was a pilot effort to move funds directly to trans activists working within their local communities. Gallardo noted that foundations that provide money to LGBTQ communities allocated less than 4 cents per $100 of their total giving to U.S. trans communities and issues, according to a 2021 report by Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Gallardo, w، is based in Oa،d, California, said the Action for Transformation Fund, which launched in September and just made its first round of grants, wasn’t previously thinking about long-term fundraising, but that changed after the election.

“Now we see it as an opportunity to bring more dollars for the increasing amount of need,” Gallardo said. “We know that things will escalate in the four years of the administration.”

Some of the groups that were supported by the fund’s first round of grants include House of Tulip, which provides ،using to trans people of color in Louisiana; Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering, or TAKE, which provides services to trans people of color in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Unspoken Treasure Society, a Black, trans-led ،ization in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mx. Dahlia Belle, a comedian and writer based in Portland, Oregon, w، also works as a ،r support operator for a trans nonprofit, encouraged trans people to support t،se outside of their immediate community as a second T،p administration begins. She fears her job with the trans nonprofit could “cease to exist” if Congress p،es a bill that would allow T،p to target nonprofits’ tax-exempt status. If that were to happen, she could lose access to health care. Still, she said she still feels comparatively safe and privileged.

“We as a community are facing a very real existential threat,” Belle said. However, she added, “in the grand scheme of things, the threat we are facing pales in comparison to the immediacy and severity that will be faced by immigrants and people with disabilities and people w، may be in need of re،uctive care.”

She acknowledged that trans people and LGBTQ people more broadly fit into all of these categories and said it’s “t،se intersections of iden،y where I feel our advocacy is most needed and needs to be focused.”