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From the Front Lines: The Fight for Transgender Rights Is a Fight for Democracy

Blog by Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Queer and Transgender Rights

With a (tiny) bit of distance from the gloom of my D.C. visit, I have had time to reflect on an intense week of being in and out (and in) Court. Here is what I’ve got. It’s a work in progress as we all take in the enormity of what we are facing. While I remain laser-focused on my area of expertise – defending transgender rights – I’m acutely aware that many other communities are under similar attack. My fervent prayer is that there are fierce and tireless advocates in those trenches too. My lane is and has been transgender advocacy. Here are some reflections from my foxhole.

The systematic targeting of transgender Americans represents far more than isolated acts of discrimination. Last week, during our hearing seeking emergency relief from the military ban, the judge cut through the government’s pretense. She asked the government’s lawyer how she could possibly defend, as rational, a policy that literally declares that being transgender violates the values of honor, truthfulness, discipline, selflessness and humility – even though transgender service members must meet the exact same rigorous standards as their peers.

And then she went further, asking the government to reconcile this blatantly incoherent stance with the administration’s sweeping attacks on transgender people – far beyond the military and in so many disparate contexts. While our side will certainly argue that all these actions reveal the same underlying animus, what struck me most was the judge’s chilling, methodical listing of what this administration has done in less than two weeks. 

It wasn’t my list—it was hers, and what you read here draws from the actual court transcript. I share this list for two reasons: first, to show the breathtaking scope of attacks on transgender Americans, and second, to reveal how targeting this vulnerable minority is being used to systematically undermine core American institutions, paving the way for authoritarian control.

The administration has:

• Rescinded all existing federal policies protecting transgender people from sex and disability discrimination
• Revoked the ability to obtain passports and federal documents reflecting gender identity
• Removed State Department safety information for transgender travelers
• Changed “LGBT” to “LGB” across federal websites
• Deleted CDC public health research and guidance about transgender people
• Denied transition-related healthcare to federal employees
• Announced plans to cut federal funding from organizations that serve or recognize transgender people
• Moved to revoke equal access protections in homeless shelters
• Directed federal prisons to deny medical treatment and house transgender people by birth sex
• Ordered law enforcement to prosecute school officials who recognize transgender students

Each of these actions alone is disconcerting. Together, they reveal a calculated strategy to push institutional boundaries and normalize exclusion.

This playbook is dangerously effective:

• Target a small, vulnerable group most Americans don’t know personally
• Use them to test institutional boundaries
• Create chaos in core institutions (military, healthcare, prisons, schools)
• Establish precedents for broader rights restrictions
• Normalize the weaponization of federal agencies against minorities
• Stun and intimidate people into fear and silence

This is how democracy erodes – not all at once (though this feels like all at once, right about now), but by first establishing that vulnerable minority groups can be systematically stripped of rights and protections. 

But we are not powerless. State and local institutions—our schools, healthcare systems, and civil rights enforcement agencies—must resist federal pressure, and we must stand with them in that fight. In progressive states especially, we must work with our local leaders—pushing them to take meaningful action and providing the public support they need to resist federal pressure. 

There is time to stop this erosion of democracy, but only if we call out these attacks for what they are—test cases for authoritarian control—and build (and rebuild) solidarity across communities to resist the politics of division.

So grateful to be in this struggle with all of you! And seriously grateful for all the ways everyone across GLAD Law has supported the community as best we can over these challenging three (3!) weeks.