GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — President Donald Trump continues to make strides toward fulfilling his campaign promises.
Since taking office nine days ago, he's now taken several actions focusing on transgender people.
One executive order defines sex in a federal matter as only male or female, while not recognizing transgender, nonbinary, intersex people, or the idea that gender can be fluid.
Another order bans transgender military members. Trump enacted this ban before in 2017, but President Biden later repealed it in 2021.
A third order cuts federal support for gender transitions for anyone under the age of 19.
It also directs federally run insurance programs to exclude coverage from medical care.
The order says that the U.S. will not "fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures."
It argues that kids are too impressionable to make this kind of decision, so it's one they would later regret and cannot reverse.
FOX 17 spoke with multiple trans advocates on Wednesday who argue against this narrative.
They explained gender-affirming care, and how targeted they feel under the Trump administration.
“It feels very heavy although we knew this was coming,” Ximón Kittok, executive director of the Grand Rapids Trans Foundation, said.
“It’s dangerous,” Roz Keith, founder of Stand With Trans, said.
“It’s hard. It’s really scary,” Ollie Robison with the Grand Rapids Pride Center said.
“It’s disturbing,” said Erin Brefka, a trans advocate.
Members and allies of the trans community are concerned.
“The name of the executive order is inflammatory on purpose. It’s a scare tactic meant to rile up a lot of feelings in the country,” Kittok said.
Their concern comes after multiple executive orders, including one titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation."
“It’s a gross mischaracteristic of what gender-affirming care is for children,” Kittok said.
Take it from Roz Keith, a parent of a trans son, and founder of the nonprofit Stand With Trans.
“Let’s say it was a child who was assigned female at birth, and that child declares, 'I’m a boy.' There are a lot of things that you’re going to take into consideration. If it’s a 5-year-old that makes that declaration, there’s probably nothing that’s going to happen other than letting this child explore,” Keith said.
“There are no medical changes that are going to happen at that age,” Roz elaborated.
“Once a child hits perhaps 10, 11, 12, if they have been insistent, persistent and consistent with that gender declaration, then probably what comes next is a consultation with a pediatric endocrinologist. An endocrinologist prescribes hormones. But you don’t walk into a doctor’s office and get a prescription,” Keith said.
Ollie Robison, a trans employee at the Grand Rapids Pride Center, says these are dark times.
“I think we’re just in for a lot more," Robison said.
Erin Brefka, a trans woman who just celebrated officially changing her name, worries what the future holds.
“It has been extremely distressing. I know that even though I am fortunate at the moment being a trans woman, like an adult trans woman, this isn’t directly hurting me... but I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to be a queer child who doesn’t understand themselves, let alone what’s going on around them,” Brefka said.
This order, which centers around children, is cause for pause for all the adults FOX 17 spoke with.
“I think the main takeaway for me is that losing healthcare coverage for trans minors is going to be devastating. This care is life saving and life affirming. We see a large percentage of depression and suicide-ality largely due to societal transphobia. Taking away care will result in premature preventable deaths of kids,” Kittok said.
All agree this appears to only be the beginning, but not all hope is lost.
“We’ve been getting a lot of outreach from the community, in terms of, like, volunteers, and, like, this is coming from allies of the community, from members of the community. People really want to stick together and kind of build [a] more robust community together. And that gives me some hope, that people are going to have each other’s backs in all of this. But it’s kind of grim. It’s getting pretty dark out here, not going to lie,” Robison said.
“This story will be on the internet. People will see this. So many people get upset or annoyed that the trans experience keeps getting ‘shoved in their face,’ or that we’re being loud. If we just quieted down, they wouldn’t be bothered so much. But I feel like most trans people including myself also kind of want that. I don’t want to constantly be talking to people about my gender or what it means to be a transgender person. I want to talk to people about how much I love eating waffles and drinking wine and doing fun things. I’m just as tired of the conversation as everybody else. But I can’t not have this conversation if my rights are going to keep being threatened like this,” Brefka said.
Gender-affirming care for youth isn't always medical in nature.
It usually starts with an evaluation that often happens by a pediatrician or a mental health specialist.
Some trans youth may decide to start with a social transition, like a new hairstyle or clothing. It also can mean a name or pronoun change.
Medical care can include puberty blockers, which are reversible, and also give someone time to explore their gender identity.
Older teens may later take hormones, so their bodies more closely match their gender identity.
Well beyond that can be some kind of gender-affirming surgery, but the Grand Rapids Trans Foundation tells FOX 17 that surgeries are very rare in trans youth.
Gender-affirming care is supported by medical groups like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
FOX 17 also reached out to several Republican lawmakers at both the state and federal levels to get their reactions.
We spoke with state Rep. Brad Paquette from the 37th District, which includes portions of Berrien and Cass counties in Southwest Michigan.
He says he supports the president's order and for the last few years has been looking at how this is handled in Michigan.
He says pharmaceutical and surgical intervention is what the president is trying to stop.
"Hopefully, there will be enough people standing out saying that this is harming children, because these are the most vulnerable individuals among us, and they're becoming pharmaceutical customers for life. And no child should have to be thankful that they were able to grow up without hand of intervention and be able to grow through puberty. No child should be thankful that they were able to go through puberty without handed intervention. And this is what's happening in our state right now, and it needs to end," Paquette said to FOX 17.
FOX 17 also received a statement from Republican Congressman Tim Walberg, who represents Michigan's 5th District in Southwest Michigan.
It reads:
"Many children and teens go through challenging, awkward, and uncertain times as they grow up. Permanent, life-altering decisions made during these times can lead to immense regret...
"That's why we have laws in place to prevent children from making many permanent decisions that they are not capable of fully consenting to.
"Regardless of one's thoughts on the topic, it should be common sense that taxpayers are not funding gender transitions for minors."
Resources for trans youth can be found here.
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