President-elect Donald Trump’s victory is generating fear among the Philadelphia area’s LGBTQ community, now worried that hard-won gains against bias and discrimination could be erased.
In particular, transgender Philadelphians and theirallies said in interviews that they areconcerned about the future after a blistering Republican electoral campaign targeted the community with a $65 million anti-transgender ad campaign featured in 12 states, including Pennsylvania.
Throughout the area, transitioning people are scrambling ― racing to doctors to speed up gender-affirming care, running to lawyers to change their first names and genders on driver’s licenses and passports ― all before they face the risk of losing the ability to control their own lives, several individuals said.
“I know I’m supposed to lead and fight for others in my community,” said Mars Sharrock, 32, a transgender man and program director at the Wardrobe, a Northern Liberties nonprofit thrift store. “But right now, I’m panicking about myself. In time, I know I’ll right myself.
“Our resistance now is just staying alive. Right now, you’re seeing people at their rawest.”
Given comments by Trump and other Republicans soon to be in power, the LGBTQ community here fears a cascade of losses: marriage equality, the right to adopt children, antidiscrimination laws ensuring jobs and housing, gender-related protections, and more.
In a video statement originally on X last year, Trump said he would halt federal funding of programs that support gender transition at any age, and that he would abandon gender-affirming care for minors.
Leaning into false tales of children getting transgender surgeries at school, Trump would often pepper his rallies with the tale of “Jimmy, your son who comes back [from school] with a brutal operation.”
Trump also vowed to ban trans athletes from competing in women’s sports and said he would ask Congress for a bill “establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female — and they are assigned at birth.”
‘They/them’ vs. ‘you’
Transgender individuals make up around 0.5% of the U.S. adult population and about 1.4% of U.S. teens between the ages of 13 and 17, according to the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at the UCLA School of Law.
Yet the Trump campaign devoted what seemed to TV viewers like an endless gush of ads about Americans who question their gender, especially young people caught up in “left-wing gender insanity.”
What would be an effective anti-transgender argument for Trump came in the form of a widely viewed ad that featured Vice President Kamala Harris stating she supports taxpayer-paid gender transition surgery for inmates. A narrator ends the ad by othering transgender Americans: Harris is “for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
The “they/them” spot was telecast more than 15,000 times. In Philadelphia alone between Oct. 16 and Nov. 5, the ad was shown 781 times at a cost of more than $1.3 million, according to AdImpact, which tracks political ads.
After Charlamagne the God, the host of The Breakfast Club, a popular show among Black listeners, saw the ad running during a football game, he shared some thoughts: “Hell, no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that,” he said, and that comment was packaged into another Trump ad.
Future Forward, Harris’ leading super PAC, found that the Charlamagne ad moved the race 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor, according to the New York Times.
After the ads ran and Harris lost, some Democrats began to suggest the party take a new tack on transgender rights — specifically in relation to transgender athletes playing women’s sports.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) told the New York Times earlier this month: “I have two little girls; I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
And Rep. Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.) told the New York Times that Democrats “have to stop pandering to the far left” to win elections.
‘Realities of hate and ignorance’
In the wake of Trump’s triumph, Philadelphia’s LGBTQ organizations “are dealing with the realities of hate and ignorance,” said Zach Wilcha, CEO of the Independence Business Alliance, the region’s LGBTQ chamber of commerce.
LGBTQ people who are married are huddling with lawyers over estate planning “should marriage go away,” Wilcha said. They’re also looking to make sure adoptions stay in place.
Sharrock said he has safety concerns: “If my name on my license doesn’t reflect my gender, I’m a target. If I get pulled over, does the cop think this is fake ID? What happens then?”
When it comes to health care, Sharrock said, “will doctors be forced to stop the meds transgender people need? Will we be able to shore up the supplies ahead of time?”
Agreeing with Sharrock, Wilcha said, “I do hope we’re overreaching and over-worrying. But I suspect we aren’t.”
Throughout the local LGBTQ community, “leaders and members are taking time to metabolize their reaction to the election,” said Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center.
“We’re particularly concerned for our trans siblings — the need for current and future advocacy — and we’re listening carefully to them for direction.”
Amid the Trump angst, however, there’s little impetus among LGBTQ Philadelphians to fight back with demonstrations, because many people believe not enough Americans would care, several LGBTQ Philadelphians said. After all, the thinking goes, so many voters heard what Trump said about gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and pulled the lever for him anyway.
“I’m very disillusioned and scared that America went this way,” said Jay Johnson, a gay male who directs volunteers at Action Wellness, a nonprofit helping people in the Philadelphia area living with AIDS and substance abuse disorders.
“People are so shocked, they’re not even out there protesting.”
‘We’re not going anywhere’
A message on the website of the Mazzoni Center, which supports health and human services for Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community, acknowledges these are “frightening times,” leaving people “vulnerable and scared.” But, the message asserts, “We are not going anywhere.”
Similarly, there’s a posting on the website of the Attic Youth Center, which provides services and support for young LGBTQ people: “It is OK to worry about ourselves and our loved ones. It is OK to be in shock. It is OK to be angry. It is OK to despair.”
Jasper Liem, the center’s executive director, who describes himself as a “transgender masculine person,” said in an interview that there has been an estimated 30% increase inyoung Philadelphia LGBTQ people contacting the Attic, “expressing difficulty” since Trump’s election. “We’re all worried there’ll be a lot of legally codified discrimination,” he said.
Nationwide, the Trevor Project, which provides suicide prevention services for young LGBTQ people, reported receiving 700% more calls to its crisis hotline than normal on Nov. 6, the day after the election.
An overwhelming 86% of LGBTQ voters nationwide voted for Harris, according to exit polling.
Still, the fact that 13% went for Trump bothered some individuals in the local community.
“These people said, ‘I got mine, so what do I care about some 14-year-old trans kid?’” said Scott Gratson, who is chair of communication studies at Temple University and was namedone of the 48 most influential LGBTQ leaders by Philadelphia Gay News. “They picked their paycheck over people.”
Gratson and others said they are taking solace in the support systems that exist in Philadelphia, including resources for mental and legal help for LGBTQ individuals, as well as a set of laws barring discrimination of LGBTQ people in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
“This city is a blue, rainbow island in a sea of red,” he said. “So now, under Trump, the question is: Do we just hunker down on our island, or do we fight?
“I don’t know the answer yet. It’s still a little too soon.”
