Wash staffBy Norah Aycock
LGBTQ+ hotlines haven’t stopped ringing since November, advocates say, from callers concerned about the legality of same-sex marriages and access to gender-affirming care.
Worries for transgender rights and other issues have been a top concern for callers, according to Aaron Almanza, executive director of the LGBT National Help Center. On Donald Trump’s inauguration day, Jan. 20, and for at least a week after, call volume to the National LGBT Hotline was “more than double a normal day,” Almanza said.
Lance Preston, executive director of Rainbow Youth Project, an Indiana-based nonprofit with a national LGBTQ+ crisis hotline, said the hotline received roughly 8,000 calls in November and December.
“As of January 30th, we have answered 9,102 calls already this month —a stark contrast to our monthly average of 3,765 calls prior to November,” Preston said.
He added that the organization’s referral rate for mental health services from November to January “has escalated from 17% to 38%, indicating a dire need for intervention.”
The trend mirrors the jump in calls for several weeks after Trump was elected, when crisis hotlines were flooded with LGBTQ+ people seeking support, according to Almanza. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization, also released a statement reporting a call volume spike of almost 700% on Nov. 6.
Transgender people are most vulnerable
LGBTQ+ Americans say top concerns include the potential of a nationwide halt on gender-affirming care for adolescents and the possible overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges. This 2015 case legalized same-sex marriage nationally, according to reporting in TIME.
Transgender individuals appear to be the most vulnerable, targeted group within the LGBTQ+ community. On Jan. 28, Trump announced an executive order that the government would not support efforts at gender-affirming care for people under 19.
On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
Same-sex couples wed pre-inauguration
According to KCCI 8, a local chaplain helped dozens of couples marry in Des Moines, Iowa. In Cincinnati, a public library organized an event where nine same-sex couples got married, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“We often only need to look at the past to predict the future. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst,” said Kara Taylor Curran, 36, who is lesbian, soon after the election. Taylor Curran is a third-year University of Houston Law Center law student.
Same-sex couples who wed point to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which stated that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” its ruling in Obergefell.
Taylor Curran married her wife on Nov. 10 because she feared Obergefell could be overturned. In December, she said it would likely be at least two years before Obergefell could be overturned because a legal challenge must first be brought.
The Idaho House passed a resolution on Jan. 27 calling for the Supreme Court to reconsider Obergefell. Rep. Heather Scott introduced the petition, “Memorial On Who Defines Marriage,” as Idaho’s session’s first piece of action. It is not the same as a law. It was on its way to the state senate at publication.
During her December interview, Taylor Curran said Obergefell will likely be overturned over the next two to four years.
“Do I think it’s probable? No. Do I think it’s possibility is high enough to take action now to protect my family? Yes.”
Others think the timetable is longer.
Rutgers Law School Professor Katie Eyer said, “While this may be a genuine risk at some point in the future, I don’t think it is likely to transpire in the next four years.”
Eyer specializes in constitutional law and civil rights, among other areas, and with the Constitutional Accountability Center, wrote a “friend of the court” brief arguing for the position that the Supreme Court adopted in Bostock v. Clayton County, protecting gay and transgender individuals from workplace discrimination.
Eyer based her prediction on two main factors.
First, that it would be “an administrative nightmare” to overturn Obergefell, which she thinks will sway at least some conservative justices. Second, there isn’t an especially active movement to overturn Obergefell, “which almost always is a historical precursor to a major legal decision like this.”
Kazze Kaiser, 20, a journalism major at American University who identifies as nonbinary and pansexual, described what same-sex marriage means to them.
“As somebody who doesn’t really identify with a gender, it kind of certifies it,” by not forcing them into the binary of a heterosexual marriage, said Kaiser.
Latest focus: gender-affirming care
Almanza said that concerns of National LGBT Hotline callers in 2016, at the start of Trump’s first presidency, centered around same-sex marriage.
“We’ve seen those questions this time around too, but not nearly as much as gender-affirming care and other transgender rights,” he said in a recent interview.
Experts say the likelihood of a national ban being implemented hinges on the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case considering the validity of a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth.
On Dec. 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Skrmetti, and the conservative majority seems ready to uphold the ban. However, it remains unclear whether the Court will hold that heightened judicial scrutiny is required under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by June, before the end of the current term.
Trump administration’s quick impact
In the meantime, hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and D.C. announced on Jan. 30 that they had paused gender-affirming care for young people to evaluate Trump’s executive order, according to the Associated Press.
On Feb. 5, the attorneys general of 15 states released a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to protecting access to gender-affirming care.
The joint statement reads, “Gender-affirming care is essential, life-saving medical treatment that supports individuals in living as their authentic selves.”
This coalition of states includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Eyer believes the new targeting of minors receiving gender-affirming care has broader implications.
“My best guess is that this is an attempt to push the envelope toward a ban on care for adults,” said Eyer. “That has always been the goal of many of the more extreme actors in the conservative legal movement.”
Preston saw the executive order in more expansive terms.
“[It] stands in stark contradiction to the administration’s professed emphasis on parental rights,” he said. He also urged people to recognize that the order is motivated by “bigotry and the desire to impose Christian Nationalism on Americans.”
Actions on Day 1
On Trump’s first day in office on Jan. 28, he signed another anti-trans executive order claiming, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” This order effectively paused gender marker update applications and requests for the “X” gender marker on passports for nonbinary individuals.
Almanza said that during Trump’s first presidency, there was a sense of uncertainty about where attacks on the community would be. Still, now it’s clear that trans individuals are in the current administration’s crosshairs, so we are seeing a much larger number of calls, chats, and emails concerning the executive orders.
Brittany Dyer, 34, of Missouri, is the community organizer for the Missouri Democratic LGBTQ Caucus and the Springfield captain for the Missouri Equity Education Partnership, a non-profit organization focused on inclusion and equity for all people.
“What we are hearing from youth right now is that they are terrified and struggling to see a future with them in it. At that age, it’s so difficult to see long-term,” said Dyer.
Christopher Sederburg, a trans man and leader of the Transcend Advocacy Group for Rainbow Youth Project, said feelings of fear and anxiety caused by anti-trans discrimination “are daunting for adults, (but) they can be devastating for teenagers.”
Eyer, Kaiser, Dyer and Taylor Curran expressed concern for trans individuals because of the proven link between restrictions on gender-affirming care and the suicidality of trans and nonbinary youth, as detailed in a study published in the National Library of Medicine.
“Transgender individuals and youth seem to be the first target, and also the most vulnerable,” said Dyer.
Kaiser expressed concern for queer people of color, saying they “are now going to have to not only just fear for who they are on the outside … but also who they are on the inside, and that is just criminalizing an entire person.”
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