LGBTQ+ community vows to fight back after Trump signs executive order recognizing only 2 sexes
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- In the hours after President Trump declared the U.S. will federally recognize only two sexes, the LGBTQ community's standing together, vowing to fight back legally.
The President's executive order would, among other things, remove the "X" from passports. That alone is causing panic among those who use the gender-neutral option and have pending international travel.
"It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female," said President Trump on Monday.
The LGBTQ community's spiraling after the President's words.
"There is nationally, and rightfully so, an immense fear. I have the deepest personal fears about the Trump executive order," said Elle Halo, trans activist and founder of the Paris Tikka Mahon Memorial Transition Fund.
As a Black transgender woman, Elle Halo's had years worrying about violence and being treated unfairly with jobs and housing, and this executive order's only adding to it.
"The reality is that no one deserves to experience that, and that these executive orders only exacerbate what's currently happening and will embolden people to step up their own hatred and bigotry," said Anthony Harris, director of community programs with Diverse & Resilient.
Anthony Harris says lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women vow to support their transgender and non-binary friends in the latest attack, which threatens to roll back federal protections.
"Regardless of an executive order, there will be no erasing of trans people or of the LGBTQ community, because we exist everywhere," said Halo.
Already, national groups like the ACLU vow to take legal action against the President's order.
"There's gonna be hard days ahead, but you know, we need to be visible and show that, hey, we are here. You can't just erase us out of existence," said Jessica Katzenmeyer, the first openly transgender woman to advance past the primary for state office in Wisconsin.
Jessica Katzenmeyer was born in Maryland, where state law allows sex assigned at birth to be changed on birth documents, but she's concerned for others whose birth certificates here in Wisconsin don't align with their gender identity.
"Unfortunately, Wisconsin does not allow for people to change their - transgender people to change the marker on their birth certificate - it's something that I know many advocates are working on, hopefully reversing that law too. You don't have to agree with my life choices. I'm just asking people to respect me for who I am as a person," said Katzenmeyer.
We reached out to conservative lawyers for comment and heard back from the Southeastern Legal Foundation.
Kim Hermann said, “When President Biden changed the definition of sex from biological sex to gender identity, parents immediately stood up and fought in and out of the courtroom to stop this blatant erosion of their daughters’ privacy rights. President Trump’s Day One executive order restoring the definition of sex to mean biological sex – male and female – not only brings Title IX in line with Congress’ original intent, but is also the first step to ridding our nation’s schools from radical gender ideology. We know that women and girls will now be given back the protections they were meant to have with Title IX. The gender ideology movement has no place in our classrooms where it is ultimately harming women and Trump recognized that and took steps to fix it.”