LGBTQ+

First of all, you're absolutely welcome to post here as an ally.

Secondly, I found an informative article on thr queer news website them which explained everything:

[Link]

The order, titled "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” was one of more than 200 executive actions Trump issued on the first day of his second term, [...] disbanding federal programs on diversity, equity, and inclusion. [...] the document seeks to redefine gender at the federal level, erase recognition of trans people in government communications, cease the issuance of gender-corrected U.S. passports, bar incarcerated trans women from being housed in women’s prisons, deny gender-affirming medical care to trans inmates, embolden transphobia in the workplace, and block federal dollars from being used to “promote gender ideology.”

I live in the UK, so I only know what I'm being told, but the situation looks pretty dire over there.

Crazy complexity and that diagram is just about the genitals

And even then, it goes beyond gender. Even the idea that you can't change your sex is laughable. "Sex," despite what some TERFs insist, is not traditionally or in practice today determined by DNA. We've learned that chromosomes play a primary factor in determining sex, but your sex isn't your DNA. A blueprint isn't a house; a house is a house. The blueprint just tells you how to build a house.

Physical sex is really about primary and secondary sex characteristics. If a trans woman undergoes SRS for example, her sex is literally female. She has the same anatomy as an infertile woman, or woman whose had a hysterectomy.

And this is the traditional way of defining sex. We referred to people's "sex" for generations prior to discovering DNA. And even today, we sex infants entirely based on their genitalia. Actual genetic screening is incredibly rare.

Bigots just latch onto "sex==genetics" because it allows them an easy cudgel. But in reality, if your primary and secondary sex characteristics are of a certain sex, you are that sex. Does the initial cellular blueprint indicate a different sex? Assuming you're not intersex, sure. But again, DNA is just a blueprint.

The example I always like is the house/boat example. Imagine you owned a wooden boat. That boat was made by a particularly prideful boat builder, and every plank of the boat is stamped, "Smith's shipbuilding co." One day you get tired of sailing the waves, so you take your boat, disassemble it, and use the planks to build a house. You now live in a house where every board is stamped "Smith's shipbuilding co."

Imagine the absurdity of someone coming to your home and telling you, "you live in a boat! Every board clearly labels this building as a boat. Therefore, you must live in a boat."

That is the fallacy of relying on genetics to define sex. Chromosomes are just the initial blueprints or the equivalent of the "Smith shipbuilding co." stamp.

It’s only shitty to intersex people, non-binary is a gender not a sex.

First they came for the enbies

In fairness part of the decree is that it also can't be changed, so definitely still an impact to both binary and nonbinary trans folks. Also love the downplay of enby impacts, if it doesn't impact you it doesn't matter?

From the article:

The definition of male and female will be based on whether people are born with eggs or sperm, rather than on their chromosomes.

What did you say your gender was?

Problem is this means that things we were hoping to get like having hormone replacement therapy actually approved by the FDA for use for transgender care will not happen and any enforcement of anti-discrimination or laws against hate speech at the federal level will no longer apply to trans and non-binary people. This will allow, for example, insurance companies to not have to cover transgender care. There is already a huge waiting list for people who are seeking care in the US due to the lack of specialists (myself included), so that list is likely to get longer. And likely any doctors who might have been planning to take up transgender care specialties may have their programs lose their funding. It's a huge impact to a lot of areas of government and many industries to have the federal government not recognize transgender care as valid and not recognize non-binary people like me as people at all.

Also, I'm fortunate enough to live in a state that is friendly to transgender and non-binary people, but my employer is not based here, so the insurance I have doesn't have to obey local laws that don't allow for blanket policies banning coverage of transgender care. So, the federal laws do matter.

He'll sign one that there are only four elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water.

He should sign one that says the flag was at absolutely, definitely not at half mast.

Find community. Meet in person regularly if you can. Just existing in community is huge, if for nothing else than your own emotional, mental, and physical health. We are thinking of you all from outside the US 🫂

Me too 😔