Trump pledged to roll back protections for transgender students. They’re flooding crisis hotlines

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at a campaign rally at Lee’s Family Forum, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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FILE – Protesters advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse, Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagost, File)

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FILE – Jude Armstrong and fellow Benjamin Franklin High playwriting class students perform their play, “The Capitol Project,” on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge, La., March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

We knew he was going to go to this, but remember the only one talking about trans people was the republicans. Harris never mentioned them. This is totally a manufactured outrage. No one cared before a few religious republicans got talking constantly about it. I think you all need to ask yourself how trans people affect your lives? There are what 1,400 trans people in the country? There are 5 trans kids in sports? There has never been a trans woman sweep the awards at any event yet that was the constant talking point. Trans women who they mistakenly call men / boys are going to steal your daughter’s trophy. But it never happened and they couldn’t show it. How was this something people voted to switch the election on? Think on it right wing voters on how you were played. So silly and stupid. Plus the religious people now in charge of the military intend to remove trans people and gay people. That will not only harm readiness because the military keeps saying it doesn’t affect the readiness at all. I know from experience that if you remove the LGBTQ+ from the military, it will gut the military entirely and that will harm readiness. Hugs

By JOCELYN GECKER and SHARON LURYE

Updated 12:50 AM EST, November 13, 2024

Transgender youth in the United States have been flooding crisis hotlines since the election of Donald Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign. Many teens worry about how their lives could change once he takes office.

During his presidential bid, Trump pledged to impose wide-ranging restrictions and roll back civil rights protections for transgender students. And his administration can swiftly start work on one major change: It can exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms.

One ad that aired over 15,000 times crystallized Trump’s stance on rights for transgender and nonbinary Americans: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

For one Alabama teen, the ad seemed to paint transgender and nonbinary people as a threat to society. The weekend before Election Day, the 16-year-old teen, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns “he” and “they,” called a crisis hotline at the Rainbow Youth Project. The group that serves LGBTQ+ young people has received more than 5,500 calls to its crisis hotline in the past 10 days, up from the 3,700 calls it typically gets every month.

The teen was in despair and struggling with suicidal thoughts, according to his mother, Carolyn Fisher. She said she hadn’t realized the depth of her child’s depression and how painful it was for him to see political ads that felt like a personal attack.

With the help of crisis counselors, Fisher said her teen has begun feeling better. But bullying at school has gotten worse, with some students telling her child Trump is going to make him “go back in the closet,” Fisher said.

”The kids who have taunted him are now proud of themselves, and they rub it in,” she said.

Opposition to transgender rights was a focal point of Trump’s campaign: Republican ads attacking political opponents over transgender or LGBTQ+ issues have aired over 290,000 times on network TV since March 2023, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

The messaging may have resonated with many Americans. More than half of voters overall — and the vast majority of Trump supporters — said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

President Joe Biden’s administration expanded recognition of transgender rights just this year. Interpretation of Title IX, a landmark sex discrimination law, is largely up to the executive branch, although court rulings can affect enforcement.

Originally passed in 1972, Title IX was first used as a women’s rights law. This year, Biden’s administration said the law forbids discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, but Trump can undo that. Biden’s new guidance had limited implementation in any case: After a spate of lawsuits, courts had issued injunctions pausing the rule in 26 states.

“Title IX will be a top priority. It is emblematic of all the culture war issues that have been created over the past few years surrounding gender identity versus sex,” said Candice Jackson, a lawyer who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the first Trump administration.

Trump also has said he would ask Congress to pass a bill stating there are “only two genders” and to ban hormonal or surgical intervention for transgender youth in all 50 states. Most Republican-controlled states already have banned gender-affirming health care for transgender youth under age 18 or 19, and several have adopted policies limiting which school bathrooms trans people can use.

While Biden’s election-year guidance did not extend to transgender students in sports, Trump has promised to end “boys in girls’ sports.” The administration likely would “approach these issues from a traditional understanding” of what Title IX has meant, “with a biological, binary understanding of sex,” said Bob Eitel, who served during the first Trump administration as a senior counselor to the education secretary.

In the U.S., 3.3% of high school students identify as transgender and another 2.2% question their gender, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released last month.

The survey found 72% of transgender and gender-questioning teens experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year. These teens also reported higher rates of bullying at school compared with peers. About 1 in 4 transgender students said they had attempted suicide in the past year, the CDC said.

LGBTQ+ advocates are mobilizing to address the despair they see rising among transgender and nonbinary youth. The Rainbow Youth Project, for one, has increased virtual peer groups and town halls so LGBTQ+ youth can connect. Another organization, It Gets Better, has focused on reaching young people online through social media platforms like Twitch and YouTube to create supportive environments even if legal protections are rolled back, said Brian Wenke, the group’s executive director.

Across the country, particularly in conservative areas, LGBTQ+ youth are discussing whether it would be safer to live somewhere else.

Jude Armstrong, a transgender high school senior in New Orleans, has led protests against Louisiana laws that regulated pronoun usage and discussions of gender and sexuality in the classroom. With the potential for federal changes on the horizon, Armstrong, 17, said he has thought of going to school in the United Kingdom, but worries about leaving behind the queer culture and history he loves at home.

“How do you feel like you’re protecting your own community when you’re leaving that community and going to another country?” he asked.

FILE – Jude Armstrong and fellow Benjamin Franklin High playwriting class students perform their play, “The Capitol Project,” on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge, La., March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Alejandro Jimenez, a sophomore at Texas State University, dreams of being a theater teacher in Texas. He knows how important it is for trans kids to see someone like them in the classroom. Now, he’s not sure if he’ll stay in his home state.

Already, tensions have risen on his campus in a way that makes him feel unsafe. The day after the election, two protestors held up signs that said, “Homo sex is sin” and “Women are property.”

“I feel it’s my duty to stay here, but I’m scared of being pushed out,” said Jimenez, who is transgender.

Under the new Trump administration, advocates worry efforts anywhere to accommodate transgender and nonbinary students could face scrutiny. Trump’s platform called for pulling federal funding for any school pushing “gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

“It sounds really dystopian to say that trying to be more inclusive could actually result in punishment from the federal government. But that is a risk,” said Elana Redfield, federal policy director for the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

With so much uncertainty, Eli, an 18-year-old trans college student in New York, stressed the importance of community, especially online for youth who feel concerned right now.

“You are not alone,” said Eli, an ambassador for It Gets Better, who asked to be identified only by his first name for safety reasons. “We will come out the other side. There are queer adults who have lived long and happy lives, and you will get there too.”

I am so tired of the lies about immigrants to please the maga bastards.

OK this is me just ranting before bed. Sorry. See I was an abused kid. Most of you who come here already know and don’t need any extra help in that to show you how badly I was abused. So I don’t need to show you more than my occasionally over the top ranting about my childhood abuse or the republicans claiming the republicans are stealing kids at the border … which is really what the republicans did. They separated parents from children and then gave the children to Christian adoption agencies to sell for profit. I wonder how their god feels about that. But please let’s keep talking about how Biden lost all these kids … who were never lost. Does any one else mind they are doing this????? Because as a human trafficked sexually abused and traded person … I fucking sure DO! Hugs.

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-migrant-children-missing-7ab0cea2fd2238346197429e952baa8b

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-10-02/fact-focus-claims-that-more-than-300-000-migrant-children-are-missing-lack-context

I am so very very tired and sorry if I hurt anyone tonight. It just hurts what the republicans are doing and keep doing. They hurt adults … They hurt kids. They care for no one.

I wrote this post days ago and fell asleep before I could publish it. Hugs

Peace & Justice History for 11/14

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november14

The Dumbest Person You Know Thinks Trump Won Because Of Trans People

Vaush shows how trans people are a manufactured issue that really had no effect on the elections. He shows how the republicans talked about trans people non-stop while Harris never mentioned it once. The law says that trans prisoners get trans treatment because once a person is incarcerated their healthcare is the responsibility of the state. Trump followed the law also doesn’t matter to the host in his attempt to bash the left. Great way to showcase the five or so trans athletes did not affect the average person’s life but costs of living did. Hugs

Let’s talk about Trump’s picks, 3 spots, and foreign policy….

Fact Check: Did Kamala Harris Lose More Than 325,000 Migrant Children?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/fact-check-did-kamala-harris-lose-more-than-325-000-migrant-children/ar-AA1rcC4F

I am so tired of this stupid lie. The right / republicans keep using it because the children they stole from parents at the border back during tRump’s term have never been found and returned to their parents. That is what this asshole false claim is about. Here are the facts. And also notice that the time frame includes tRump’s first term! Want to know why this pisses me off so much !!! Because as an abused kid I could have been saved if people had cared enough to do it. Instead the republicans do this shit that helps no child, helps no kid. Hugs

Kamala Harris is expected to visit the U.S.-Mexico border during a trip to Arizona this week as the Vice President attempts to win over voters on immigration policy ahead of the November election

Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted Harris over the number of border crossings during the Biden administration, highlighting the role handed to her by the president to investigate the root causes of migration in the Northern Triangle of Central America.

Trump went after Harris again earlier this week during a rally in Pennsylvania when he accused her of losing hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who had entered the country.

Kamala Harris speaks during a press conference at El Paso International Airport, on June 25, 2021 in El Paso, Texas. Donald Trump has claimed the Vice President is responsible for the disappearance of 325,000 migrant children. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images© PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

The Claim

At a speech in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 2024, Donald Trump claimed that Kamala Harris had lost more than 325,000 migrant children.

“She [Kamala Harris] lost more than 325,000 migrant children,” Trump said.

“They’re gone, nobody knows where they are. Many of them are dead, many of them are in sex trade, many of them, but many of them are dead, they’ve been trafficked, they’ve been raped. Three hundred and twenty-five thousand children are missing.”

The Facts

Donald Trump’s claim is wrong with some caveats.

It appears his claim is based on an

August 2024 audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) that uncovered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) statistics on unaccompanied migrant children (UCs).

Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, ICE transferred over 448,000 unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). After apprehension by the Department of Homeland Security, children are transferred by ICE to ORR.

ORR handles the care and custody of these children awaiting immigration hearings. Care and custody include placing children in shelters or with a sponsor. ICE is responsible for managing immigration cases, and the audit showed the agency struggled to monitor the whereabouts of many of these children after their release from ORR custody.

ICE reported that more than 32,000 children had failed to appear for scheduled immigration court hearings between 2019 and 2023. ICE also failed to serve Notices to Appear (NTAs) on 291,000 children, leaving them without scheduled court dates and outside the formal immigration process.

The “more than 325,000” figure appears to be a combination of the 291,000 children who had not been issued a court date and the 32,000 who did not appear for scheduled dates, off by a couple of thousand.

Crucially, the main figure to focus on is the 32,000 children who missed their court date, the audit noting that ICE “was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court.”

The audit also said that failure to send an NTA could limit the chances of maintaining contact when children are released from ORR custody, adding ICE did not always inform ORR about the failure to appear in court.

“Similarly, when ICE does not share information with HHS regarding UCs who did not appear for hearings, HHS personnel are unable to determine if UCs need wellness checks or post-release services for individuals at an increased risk of being trafficked,” the report stated.

“Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”

However, Trump combined the figures even though the audit did not say that the 291,000 who had not been issued an NTA were lost.

The report also does not say that ICE could not find all 32,000 children who had not appeared in court. ICE is not a child welfare authority either; as explained here and in previous Newsweek fact checks, unaccompanied minors are placed into the care of sponsors if available which ORR is meant to monitor. Although there have been concerns regarding the risk of exploitation in this system, the context of who carries responsibility here is important.

Furthermore, the OIG audit covered cases between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. Although more children were transferred into ORR custody between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, Trump’s administration oversaw transfers during the 2019 and 2020 periods and part of 2021.

Newsweek has contacted media representatives for ICE, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, and the White House via email for comment.

Trump also claimed during his speech that “many” of the children were “dead”, “in sex trade”, and “raped.” The report does not make that conclusion. While the OIG report mentions exploitation vulnerability, it does not support Trump’s claim.

The Ruling

False.

Trump’s claim is based on an audit that showed between fiscal years 2019-2023 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children had not appeared in court for immigration proceedings. The audit found that ICE “was not able to account for the location” of all these children.

The audit also said ICE had not issued orders for 291,000 children to appear in court.

Trump appears to have combined these two figures to try to make 325,000. The audit did not state that the 291,000 without court orders were missing, nor did it say that all 32,000 children could not be located. ICE is not a child welfare authority and unaccompanied migrant children are placed in shelters or with a sponsor by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is meant to monitor placements.

The audit monitored reporting under the Trump and Biden administrations.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team

How Trump’s second term will be different

Let’s talk about Warren Buffett, surgery, and the economy….

Peace & Justice History 11/12

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november12

The Fight for Native American Voting Rights

Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, Native American activists have had to repeatedly take their fight for voting rights to Congress.

The Fight for Native American Voting Rights

In June 1986, Judge Edward Rafeedie handed down a ruling. Indigenous voting rights were being suppressed in Montana’s Big Horn County, where “official acts of discrimination…have interfered with the rights of Indian citizens…to register and vote.” This was a victory for voting equality, but it wasn’t met with open arms. County Commissioner Ed Miller, for example, was dismayed, citing a longing for the “good old days.”

“The Voting Rights Act is a bad thing,” Miller claimed, according to the San Francisco Examiner. “[T]hings were fine around here. Now they (Indians) want to vote. What next?”

Maybe most weren’t as vocal about their opposition to equal rights as Miller was, but the Native American franchise was a hard-fought battle. As historian Matthew G. McCoy writes, “Only through consistent activism and legal action did Native Americans succeed in breaking down these egregious barriers to voting.”

It shouldn’t have been as difficult for Native Americans to vote as it was. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, in theory, settled the question of whether Indigenous people were citizens. They were. And they were entitled to vote. However, as historian Orlan J. Svingen explains, this law didn’t prevent discrimination.

“Just as passage of the 15th Amendment precipitated countless barriers for the freedmen, the Indian Citizenship Act also failed to elevate American Indian civil rights on an equal footing with non-Indians,” Svingen writes.

Though there was anger and a number of court battles in earlier years, it may have been the start of World War II that acted as a catalyst for activism

A government study in 1936, for example, found that seven states were actively preventing Native Americans from voting. Much like the laws that prevented Black Americans from voting, these states enacted laws specifically targeting Native American voters, including mandating that all voter registrars be taxpayers (many Native Americans were exempt from certain local taxes, and this law depressed voter registrations on reservations) and literacy tests as a requirement for voting. One Cherokee voter was told by a judge that despite his master’s degree from the University of North Carolina, “You couldn’t read or write to my satisfaction if you stayed here all day.”

Though there was anger and a number of court battles in earlier years, it may have been the start of World War II that acted as a catalyst for activism, McCoy notes. Though Native American soldiers were being sent overseas to fight for freedom, that same freedom eluded them at home. Navajo soldier Ralph Anderson sent a letter to tribal leaders in 1943 with this exact contradiction on his mind.

“We all know Congress granted the Indians citizenship in 1924,” he wrote, “but we still have no privileges to vote. We do not understand what kind of citizenship you would call that.”

In the following years, Native activists took their fight to Congress several times, meeting denials of their rights most times. But they were undeterred and began leading direct actions. In 1946, for example, Navajo citizens attempted to register to vote in Arizona and were denied, as were two people from the Yavapai tribe. The latter denial led to a court case, Harrison v. Laveen, that overturned a previous ruling that classified Native Americans living on reservations as being essentially wards of the state and ineligible for voting. A case in 1948 successfully took the fight to the federal government, arguing that the denial of voting rights was unconstitutional. And as Svingen writes, in the 1970s, “exemptions from certain taxes no longer limits [Native Americans’] right to vote, and election districts must be apportioned under the ‘one person one vote’ principle,” rules that officials in Big Horn County were simply ignoring.

There have been many subsequent fights for equality, and some experts argue that certain regulations, like voter ID, may still be playing a role in disenfranchising Native American voters. Legal scholar Sally Harrison writes that “one in five eligible Native American voters do not have a [government-issued] photo ID that meets the requirements for ID in strict-photo ID states [and] many states do not allow tribal photo IDs at the polls because a state or federal government did not issue them,” a contradiction that could lead to revisiting past injustices. As Harrison notes, “state and federal legislators should pay special attention to the Native American vote, making sure that it does not face the discrimination and exclusion it has in the past.”