"People are scared": Activists brace for "unprecedented assault on human rights" under Trump

In the week since President-elect Donald Trump's victory, the transgender rights organization Advocates for Trans Equality has seen an uptick in the number of community members reaching out in search of resources.

People are scrambling to figure out what they should do next and what they should focus on in order to protect themselves from what they worry will be the inevitable infringement on their freedoms, Ash Lazarus Orr, A4TE's press relations manager, told Salon.

"People are also scared," Orr, who uses he/they pronouns, said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of anxiety and apprehension about what a second Trump presidency could bring," they added. "We have been through this before. We are unfortunately going to be going through it again."

As Trump readies to take office in January with a Republican-controlled Congress and a favorable Supreme Court behind him, leftist organizers for transgender rights, reproductive freedom and Palestinian liberation are preparing to face greater barriers to expanding the freedoms they seek and having their demands met under his administration. While activists and their communities are fearful for the future, they remain determined in their ability to affect change and hopeful the solidarity they've built under the Biden administration will be enough to sustain it.  

"We want folks to remember that despite the fear and anxiety — which is absolutely valid — our community is not alone," Orr said. "We are together in solidarity in this fight, and we are building a collective power for the future, and our vision of an inclusive and hopeful future does remain strong."

As the 2024 election progressed, transgender rights, reproductive rights and the war in Gaza emerged as key wedge issues for politicians and voters. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-trans ads flooded the airwaves during the election, attacking Democratic candidates on issues affecting transgender Americans, including gender-affirming care and sports participation. Some Democrats have since sought to blame the party's losses on its defense of transgender protections. Such claims, however, are not supported by exit polling or election data, and pre-election Data for Progress surveys of likely voters have found that transgender issues are not salient factors in most Americans' voting decisions.

Protecting abortion access and reproductive rights buttressed Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates' campaigns, while Republicans worked to distance themselves from backing what would be a vastly unpopular national abortion ban in favor of allowing states to decide on abortion policy. Stories of women who received life-saving abortion care colored politicians' appeals to Americans as the number of reports of women whose preventable deaths from pregnancy and miscarriage complications in states with abortion bans grew.

Outrage against the Biden administration's handling of Israel's retaliatory invasion of Gaza simultaneously spawned nationwide protests, some of which disrupted Biden and Harris campaign stops, and the anti-war Uncommitted Movement, which encouraged disaffected Democratic voters to select "uncommitted" or a similar option during their state's primary to make their grievances known. A cohort of exasperated Americans also vowed to sit out the 2024 general election or vote third-party in protest of the Biden administration's policy.

Sonya Meyerson-Knox, the communications director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish-led, pro-Palestinian organization whose members led and participated in an array of antiwar protest actions across the country, said that the impending Trump presidency, though a "threat," can't easily dismantle the "profound solidarity" the pro-Palestinian movement has forged over the last 13 months. 

"We’re viscerally aware of the threat that the ascendent MAGA movement poses to so many of our communities, to the environment, and to our Democratic institutions," she told Salon in an email. "We are resolute in continuing to organize for collective safety and collective freedom. We are already doing so."

Jewish Voice for Peace Action drove over 20,000 emails to U.S. representatives demanding they vote no on HR 9495, which would have granted the U.S. Treasury the power to revoke tax-exempt status for "terrorist supporting organizations." The bill, viewed as an effort to intimidate pro-Palestinian groups, failed Tuesday with 145 Democrats and one Republican voting against it.

While the group has seen tens of thousands of new members join its ranks over the last year, Meyerson Knox said it also saw a 200-person bump in participation in its daily, virtual collective action calls in the days immediately following Trump's win.

Despite these successes, Meyerson-Knox said she's aware of how much steeper of an uphill battle advocacy for Palestinian liberation will be under the Trump administration. Trump's ardent support of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose expanded military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and face-off with Iran have inflamed tensions in the Middle East, in his first term is likely to continue in his second, taking Biden's strong backing further. 

The president-elect's appointment of former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — a staunchly pro-Israel evangelical Christian who has opposed a ceasefire and criticized the Biden administration for urging Israel to moderate its operations — to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Israel also offers an early glimpse into how his approach to foreign policy in the Middle East may materialize once he takes office. 

Meyerson-Knox also pointed to the Heritage Foundation's Project Esther, which outlines a detailed strategy to tamp down anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian protest efforts it describes as antisemitic and bolster Americans' support for Israel. 

Still, she said, Jewish Voice for Peace organizers and their allies "are not going anywhere."

"We will not allow fascism to divide us and we will not be intimidated," she said, adding: "We are preparing for an unprecedented assault on human rights here in the United States."

Ryan Stitzlein, the vice president of government relations and politics for advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, echoed that sentiment in the fight for reproductive rights, emphasizing in a statement the grief and frustrations that many voters are feeling "because our fundamental freedoms are at stake." 

During this election cycle, Trump campaigned on backing states' decisions on whether to expand or curtail abortion access and vowed to veto a federal abortion ban should it ever reach his desk. But some organizers are skeptical he will uphold those promises. Trump's vows during his campaign marked a departure from his previous attitudes toward abortion, which saw the now-president-elect take credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 and, in his previous term, unsuccessfully trying to undermine the Affordable Care Act's coverage for contraceptives. 

“Our losses on the federal level underscore that this isn’t a fight we have just every two or four years — it’s one that we need to mobilize for around the clock in order to protect our rights on every front possible," Stitzlein said.  

"Make no mistake, the American people are still with us. Abortion helped move the dial in key races and secured victory in seven ballot measures," he added, pointing to the electoral victories of Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen of Illinois, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan.

Abortion and reproductive rights initiatives were on the ballot in 10 states this election cycle, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Seven states — Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York — passed ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights or other reproductive rights in the state constitution. An anti-abortion measure passed in Nebraska, while an abortion rights measure failed in the state as well as in Florida and South Dakota.

To carry those gains forward under the Trump administration, Stitzlein said Reproductive Freedoms for All plan to hold the president-elect and congressional Republicans accountable to their promises to reject a national abortion ban or roll back access to contraception and IVF. He urged the Senate and the Biden administration to push through as many judicial nominations as possible, calling it an "important path to protecting reproductive freedom" ahead of Trump taking office. 

"Because we've already lived through a Trump presidency, and we know the devastating impact that a second term could have on our rights and safety, this is a new chapter of resistance, and it is one that we are prepared for," said Orr, the Advocates for Trans Equality spokesperson.

In his first term, Trump restricted LGBTQ+ healthcare protections and banned transgender people from serving in the military, the latter of which the Biden administration later reversed.

During his third bid for the presidency, Trump made promises to ban transgender women from sports and minors from obtaining gender-affirmation surgeries on his first day in office. His official campaign platform, Agenda 47, also outlines a number of gender policy proposals he would pursue as president, including laws that ban what he describes as "child sexual mutilation," striking Medicare or Medicaid eligibility from healthcare providers that offer gender-affirming care to youth, and backing lawsuits against doctors who offer that care, according to USA Today.

"[Trans] people in our country are exhausted by these petty and destructive politics because it's time for us to move forward together and to create a new path," Orr said, adding: "We need leaders to prioritize the needs of the people, not politicians who are inciting division for personal gain."

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Since Trump's win last week, A4TE has ramped up its efforts to protect transgender Americans and help the community prepare for the potential rollbacks in protections under his administration. The organization has urged them to make any needed legal name changes and update gender markers on IDs and passports, providing state-by-state guidance on the processes to do so on its website and vetted legal representatives to assist.

Orr said the group also offers a guide to navigating the healthcare system as people seek gender-affirming care options while providing resources to both those who plan to leave hostile states and those who are unable to. 

Though he declined to state what other specific initiatives A4TE sees itself implementing as the Trump administration takes hold to protect the trans community, Orr said the group is preparing for "multiple scenarios" and plans to "pivot" as it sees the political landscape shift.

The flock of allied politicians — and Delaware Representative-elect Sarah McBride becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress — offers some comfort in the face of a second Trump term, he said, and the organization's priority is to "enshrine what rights we have at this moment in time."

Trump's win has put the need to broker greater solidarity "with all who are committed to collective liberation" into greater focus, Meyerson-Knox added.  

"It’s never been clearer," she said. "Working for freedom for Palestinians is inseparable from the work of liberation everywhere, including for our immigrant, Black and brown, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, trans and queer communities here in the U.S."