I woke up on the morning of Jan. 20 and went about my routine like any other day. I settled down on my couch with a cup of coffee in my hand and a computer on my lap. Nearly three thousand miles away, Donald Trump was taking his oath of office in Washington D.C., marking the beginning of his second presidential term.
Throughout the day, I deliberately avoided the news knowing none of it would be good. I finally caved and checked after crawling into bed that evening: “Trump signs executive orders proclaiming there are only two biological sexes, halting diversity programs.” Upon reading that initial headline, I suffered my first panic attack in over a year, now worried about my future as a trans person.
I soon learned that I wasn’t alone in my emotions.
“I feel like I’ve begun a grieving process I’ve been working through denial the most,” said Juniper, an agender UC Santa Cruz student who chose to be identified by first name only. “I feel like I’m still digesting the direction our country is going and the dangers and risks that are going to become a problem for people I care about.”
While fear amongst queer individuals heightened with Trump’s flurry of anti-trans executive orders on Jan. 20, legislative attacks on trans people are nothing new. In 2023, the amount of anti-trans bills introduced at the state and federal level tripled. Since then, a steady annual increase has culminated in 379 in-progress, anti-trans bills in 2025 at both levels.
One such bill, H.R.28 “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” prohibits federal funding for K-12 schools that allow trans students to participate in women’s sports. The bill, in addition to a newly signed order by Trump on Feb. 5, directly attempts to roll back expansions to Title IX made under the Biden administration that prevents discrimination on the basis of gender identity — not just sex.
Further eroding protections for trans people passed under Biden, President Trump signed an order on Jan. 28 that prevents trans people under the age of 19 from accessing gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care is directly linked with lower suicide risk in trans people.
“There’s just a lot of uncertainty and we don’t know what he, as president, is saying, what’s coming out from Congress, what’s coming from the Supreme Court,” said delfín bautista, director of the Lionel Cantú Queer Center. “Right now, it’s all a huge, messed up puzzle.”
Recently, I have intimately experienced the uncertainty mentioned by delfín.
On Jan. 22, Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the State Department to suspend passport applications seeking a gender marker change.
This followed an executive order entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” signed on Jan. 20, requiring that the federal government only recognize two sexes and that federal documents must classify individuals according to sex assigned at birth.
Kentucky, my legal state of residence, doesn’t allow me to change my gender marker on state documents like my driver’s license without proof of surgical transition. I found solace in being able to change my gender marker on federal documents. Now, I’m worried that it may limit my ability to leave the United States entirely.
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 40 percent of respondents reported experiencing harassment after presenting identification that did not match their gender identity. Of those 40 percent, 3 percent were physically assaulted, and 15 percent were asked to leave the premises of where the ID was presented.
“It’s made me have to completely not consider any type of transitioning, even if it’s social, even if it’s just me cutting my hair short,” Juniper said. “I don’t exist, it’s absurd.”
Despite the uncertainty, delfín reaffirmed that, based on communication they have had with upper administration, the University of California is committed to continuing to offer gender-affirming care services. However, the UC receives over $12 billion in federal funding annually, and it is unclear how beholden it will be to federal laws targeting queer individuals.
“As queer and trans people we can be very gritty,” delfín said. “We have had to navigate a world that has tried to erase us on multiple different occasions and we’ve gotten through. It’s been painful, it’s not been easy. It’s scary and hard, but we’ve made it through.”
