The Chilling Line Trump Just Crossed On Transgender People

With the latest trans military executive order, the administration has given up all pretense of "evidence-based care," and has moved to the kind of dehumanization meant to justify atrocity.

Trump signs EO - Public Record

Yesterday, Trump, with the stroke of a pen, issued an executive order targeting transgender people in the military, likely leading to their summary dismissal. While the order itself is nothing new—he signed a similar order in his first term, and many expected its return—the rationale behind this decision marks a chilling escalation and a major line crossed. For the first time directly in a piece of policy to be enacted, the justification for such actions taken against transgender people is not about faulty arguments laundering falsehoods as science—that pretense has been dropped entirely. Instead, Trump justifies his attacks on the transgender community by directly attacking their honor and worth as human beings.

In executive orders and bills passed through legislative bodies, a section known as the “purpose” is often included. This section allows lawmakers to elaborate on why they believe the legislation is necessary. While purpose sections typically carry little to no weight in the actual enforcement of the law, they often serve to justify or frame the legislation’s intent. Many anti-trans bills in recent years have included such purpose sections.

I have had the notable displeasure of witnessing the evolution of anti-trans bills and the relentless attacks on transgender rights over the past five years. For much of that time, Republicans, buoyed by anti-trans organizations funded by billionaires and amplified by media outlets like The New York Times, have operated under the guise that their efforts were not “anti-trans.” Instead, they claimed to be “just asking questions,” “questioning the science,” or “engaging in a debate” about transgender people—as if these debates were somehow divorced from the rampant anti-trans animus that is undeniably pervasive in those circles.

They never truly were, of course, but to gain a foothold in American politics, they maintained a façade of concern for the welfare of transgender people. This is why, when reading the original Arkansas trans care ban, you won’t find overt charges that transgender people are lesser human beings who deserve to be erased in the purpose section. Instead, you’ll encounter pseudo-scientific statements like “the risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefits” and “the majority come to identify with their biological sex.” Both are demonstrably false, but carefully crafted to carry a veneer of scientific credibility—providing a shield against accusations that such bans are rooted in hatred toward transgender people.

That all changed yesterday. President Trump, in justifying his transgender military ban, leaned on a new argument for why such an action restricting the rights of transgender people was necessary: that transgender people are lesser human beings, dishonorable liars, and worse.

See from the executive order:

Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.

This marks a chilling and undeniable shift. The attacks on transgender people are no longer cloaked in the faux respectability of “evidence,” “science,” or “protecting kids.” They never truly were, but now even the pretense has been abandoned. The thin veneer provided by New York Times op-eds, SEGM’s pseudo-scientific “reviews,” and the disingenuous claims of debate is no longer required. Instead, the justification is laid bare in black and white: transgender people are “dishonorable,” “liars,” “false.” The language is stark, deliberate, and unmistakable—it dehumanizes us. This is the very rhetoric historically used to justify atrocity.

I don’t know where we’re heading as a country, nor what further attacks await transgender people. Even as I write this, Trump has issued yet another executive order—this time, attempting to ban transgender care for youth nationwide by executive fiat. The rapid escalation of these assaults on the trans community, in just over a week of his presidency, paints a grim picture of what lies ahead. Many transgender people I know have already fled to safer states, or even left the country entirely. Some have urged me to do the same—a decision I cannot bring myself to make, though I cannot fault anyone who does. What I do know is that a line has been crossed, one that feels impossible to uncross. The question now is not just where we go from here, but how, or if, we can walk back.