The Progress Pride flag waving in front of a blue sky.
Gay and transgender people are anxiously bracing for a second Donald Trump presidency.
The Trevor Project, an advocacy organization that provides crisis services and peer support for LGBTQ+ youth, reported a 700% increase in calls to their crisis hotline on Nov. 6, the day after the 2024 presidential election. The Trevor Project says 90% of LGBTQ+ young people reported their well-being was negatively impacted by recent politics.
While the data reported by the group was national in scope, the election results are extremely concerning to the local queer community as well, according to AJ Hardie, the program director for the Madison-based OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center.
“There’s a lot of stress and anxiety because a lot of rights that people have pretty recently gained are potentially going to get taken away,” Hardie says.
The Human Rights Campaign kept what it called “Trump’s Timeline of Hate,” during the former president’s first term in office. The group says Trump's rhetoric and policies, including opposing the Equality Act, appointing anti-gay judges and having an anti-gay vice president, encouraged a culture of anti-LGBTQ+ hate to grow in the U.S.
Trump vowed during his most recent campaign to “lead the GOP charge on gender identity,” Hannah Knowles wrote in the Washington Post in late September. “He says he wants to kick providers out of Medicare and Medicaid for offering gender transition care to minors, such as hormone therapy and surgery; pull federal funding from schools if officials suggest a child 'could be trapped in the wrong body'; and purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity. The moves would go against the advice of leading medical groups.”
In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled state Legislature has introduced several bills targeting transgender people, including restricting access to health care and team sports. Most of these bills have been vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.
Anti-transgender laws at the state level across the country had a “significant and causal impact on suicide risk” among transgender and nonbinary youth over the past year, according to research from the Trevor Project.
Transgender people are especially vulnerable to attacks and many have been targets of bigotry, says Steve Starkey, executive director of OutReach.
“I think that with (Trump’s) approval and support that’s just going to increase,” he says. “I think the transgender community especially is very nervous and scared. The LGBTQ+ community in general feels under attack.”
Hardie says it is exhausting to fight attacks from the state government, but the LGBTQ+ community in Wisconsin is strong and can learn from experiences in other states.
“I think we're fortunate in Wisconsin that we've got a lot of organizations that are on the ground already doing this work. We've got seven or more LGBTQ+ centers scattered throughout the state, in addition to the ones that are affiliated with different colleges,” they say. “So there's a tremendous amount of nonprofit organizing, and then just a lot of community organizing and community groups as well.”
Steve Starkey executive director of OutReach
Starkey: 'I think the transgender community especially is very nervous and scared.'
Laws that affect LGBTQ+ people also affect their families, loved ones and communities, says Heidi Duss, founder of OPEN Foundation in Madison, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable and inclusive workplaces for LGBTQ+ people.
“The hateful rhetoric we’re hearing affects our rights. It can impact our families, our livelihoods and our day-to-day safety,” she says. “Being able to be visible and accepted in the workplace is something that everyone deserves, but I think going into this administration people are worried about safety in ways we thought were behind us.”
Duss says LGBTQ+ people are looking for assurance from their allies, employers and local leaders that they’re fully supported. She says some of the work OPEN Foundation does is helping LGBTQ+ people find inclusive and safe employers.
“We’ve seen a step back in diversity, equity and inclusion work, and I think that’s going to be rolled back even further,” she says.
Hardie says that at the same time that gay and transgender rights have been under attack, there’s been a huge blossoming of literature, movies and music created by queer and trans people in recent years.
“(We’re) taking lessons from wherever we can about effective forms of resistance. What types of community support can help strengthen us, and help us build up, and reinforce the community mindset that has been helping us get through challenging times for decades?”
Madison-area LGBTQ+ people who are struggling can reach out to OutReach and OPEN foundation if they’re looking for community. People in crisis can call The Trevor Project’s crisis hotline at 1-866-488-7386.
