‘We’ve Seen So Much Hate’: Trans People Are Already Afraid

Now, after Trump’s comments and actions on the first day of his presidency, the group’s crisis response team is getting more calls again. Sixty-two percent of the calls coming in this week, the group tells WIRED, are from gender-nonconforming youth between the ages of 14 and 17.

The singers are expressing different emotional and psychological distress, often expressing hopelessness and fear. One of the thoughts that many people share is “my world doesn’t want me to exist.”

Although the actions of the Trump administration are causing great stress to the community and their families, a significant increase in threats, online and offline, is already coming from Trump supporters who are feeling emboldened.

“We’ve already seen a rise in hate,” says Fisher. “We had someone come to our house last Tuesday and put in our letter box a note saying: ‘He is your father now, he is your president.’ You people will never exist again.’ So yes, they are quite brave. “

The trans pride flag they had hanging on their balcony was stolen twice in one week. At a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, she overheard people at a nearby table talking about how excited Trump was to “get rid” of immigrants.

“They didn’t get rid of them, they’ll always be there — but they put a lot of pressure on them, especially my son,” Fisher said.

And these protests are also targeting groups that are trying to help the LGBTQ+ community.

“We’ve seen a lot more hate,” Lance Preston, head of the Rainbow Youth Project, tells WIRED. “We’ve been getting a lot of messages, crazy, like ‘Trump is your president, now you all have to leave. We don’t want you here.’ We get referrals every day, and since this election it has increased dramatically. It is very sad.”

Some supporters are also worried that those who have always stood with the LGBTQ+ community may be too afraid to speak out under the new Trump administration.

“Every time something like this happens we see a lot of helpers back down and keep quiet,” Chris Sederburg, who helps gender nonconforming people through the Rainbow Youth Project, tells WIRED. “Not all, but many do it because they are afraid of what is happening. They are afraid of what will happen to them or they may hate it. “

Sederburg, a trans man who works as a truck driver, speaks to trans youth on social media and says the response this week from the community has been “tremendous and immediate.”

For Jamie Anderson, a 40-year-old teacher who lives in Texas, her biggest fear is that the Trump administration will force her 15-year-old daughter Dawn, who came out as trans last year, to make a heartbreaking decision.

Anderson said: “The most worrying thing is that they start lying again, like they are no longer who they were supposed to be.” “He is now happy, much happier than he was before he came out. He was very disappointed. We did not know what was happening. And finally he comes out, and he’s a new, wonderful, loving child. “