Pushing Back

Advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights offer advice and facts at Studio Two Three.

While a capacity crowd of 250 gathered in Studio Two Three’s auditorium on Wednesday night to discuss the uncertainties surrounding Donald Trump’s recently-issued executive orders, the president was in the process of issuing another one.

This time he announced that he was seeking to end gender-affirming medical treatments for children and teenagers under the age of 19.

“This is a rapidly moving landscape,” Narissa Rahaman reminded the crowd during her presentation at the community conversation. “That’s intentional on their part. They want to overwhelm us.”

The executive director of Equality Virginia, which advocates for the LGBTQIA+ community, Rahaman outlined for the audience a bullet point summary of knowns and unknowns as of Wednesday—what has already changed through these executive orders, what may change soon, and what may be simply political bluster that is very unlikely to stand up in court.

Narissa Rahaman, director of Equality Virginia, which advocates for the LGBTQIA+ community, told the crowd: “Litigation, public comment and advocacy will allow us to push back.”

This community discussion, co-sponsored by Equality Virginia and the ACLU of Virginia, was the first in a series of three that nonprofit Studio Two Three is hosting over the next month in response to Trump’s agenda. It will tackle climate justice on Feb. 17 and reproductive rights on Feb. 27. For those who couldn’t make Wednesday’s meeting, a video of the event has been posted on Studio Two Three’s website at https://www.studiotwothree.org/lgbtqia-community-discussion

[UPDATE: A Feb. 5 event devoted to immigration policy has been postponed.]

Trump’s presidential proclamations—38 as of this writing, more than any president at this time in his term—have, among other things, signaled sweeping changes in federal immigration, climate policy and health care. More pressing to this audience were his executive orders targeting, and lifting protections for, the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly transgender youth and troops serving openly in the military. The new president also rescinded 78 executive actions by his predecessor, Joe Biden, including several battling discrimination against gay and transgender people.

The concerned crowd on Jan. 29, 2025 at Studio Two Three.

“Legal challenges are already filed or in the works for many of the executive orders the Trump administration has issued,” Rahaman told the crowd, referring to a passage in the nonprofit’s newly-issued resource guide. “Litigation, public comment and advocacy will allow us to push back.”

In addition to Equality Virginia’s presentation, the designated “community discussion and info session” offered up advice and status reports from representatives of other area nonprofit advocacy groups such as ACLU of Virginia, Side by Side, Health Brigade and He, She, Ze & We.

Literature offered at the event.

Uncertainty around travel

The panelists’ answers to questions posed by the assembled was often, “we don’t know.” Executive orders aren’t laws, they are directives, the message was. Until actual laws are proposed, it’s hard to react. One key takeaway from the discussion was that it’s better to be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in Virginia than in many other states. For one thing, there’s the Virginia Values Act, a law which prohibits healthcare facilities, including hospitals and clinics from discriminating against trans people.

There was also practical advice. “The state department has said that they are not processing any new passports with changed gender markers,” reported Wyatt Rolla, the ACLU of Virginia’s senior transgender rights attorney. “The White House secretary said that if you have a valid passport, they will honor that. But it would be very risky for someone to try to send in their valid passport to get an updated gender marker. You may not get your passport back.”

“I think people are really worried about travel,” Fowler said before the event. ‘They are worried about the status of their passports and if they’ll be able to use them. That and bathroom laws and how to respond to increased discrimination from our government. There’s the more abstract concerns about being targeted, and the more concrete ones, like, ‘Am I going to be able to get on an airplane and go to Europe in six months?'”

Parker Heyford moderated the Q&A at Studio Two Three.

Attendee Theodore Khan, who identifies as a transgender man, asked the panel a question about future medical care for trans adults. “I came here to be with my community because I felt very isolated,” he said. “It’s been a very hard time and I needed to be with other people.”

He plans to attend future Studio Two Three discussions, even though he came away from Wednesday’s event with mixed feelings.

“I feel like there’s a lot of direction here to ‘wait and see’ and that didn’t serve us very well in the last Trump administration, so it’s hard to wait and see,” he said. “Literally while we were sitting here, another executive order that affects transgender youth was issued, so right now we are waiting for things to be done to us, and it’s not a great feeling.”

For more information:

Studio Two Three:

studiotwothree.org

Equality Virginia: 

equalityvirginia.org/

ACLU of Virginia:

acluva.org

Side by Side VA: 

sidebysideva.org

Health Brigade:

healthbrigade.org

He, She, Ze & We:

heshezewe.org

 

Ashley Hawkins, executive director of Studio Two Three, speaks to the crowd of citizens concerned about President Donald Trump’s executive orders impacting the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. Photos by Scott Elmquist

 

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