To All Trans Folks, I Lift a Glass in Your Honor

We in the trans community have been fighting the most immeasurably cruel and nefarious culture war for years now. A few friends and I discuss our trans worlds as divided into two parts BT and AT — Before Trump and After Trump.

While it’s easy to hang the hat of blame for all of our worldly ails on a single man; A Man who tried to strip of our healthcare, ban us from military service, referred to us as “Distractions” and “Burdens” and spoke at radical right conventions where other speakers declared their desire for our death, the war we fight today, in 2022 AT, is the result of his influence. While now generally considered an impotent figure in the political realm, even by those who used to be his closest allies, he opened the floodgates of tremendous hate and anti-trans sentiments that existed only in the shadows of shame before his rise to power. His legacy of torment and violence toward this community remains stronger than ever, pushed now by his flagbearers instead; Those who’ve latched onto his archaic and crudely expressed vile sentiments; Those who felt emboldened to march onward without him, but still with their loathing of our gender and self care as a hill to die on.

The years BT were not as divided. While anti LGBTQ+ rhetoric existed in some spaces, like the religious extremists and far-right pundits, they functioned mostly…