On the campaign trail, Donald Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and passports and trying to remove them from the military.    They have caused a massive uproar because of the liberal woke media.

     It’s a contradiction of numbers that reveals a deep cultural divide: Transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, but they have become a major piece on the political chess board - particularly Trump’s.  For transgender people and their allies - along with several judges who have ruled against Trump in response to legal challenges - it’s a matter of civil rights for a small group. But many Americans believe those rights had grown too expansive.

     The president’s spotlight is giving Transgender Day of Visibility a different tenor this year.  “What he wants is to scare us into being invisible again,” said Rachel Crandall Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan who organized the first Day of Visibility 16 years ago. “We have to show him we won’t go back.”  So why has this small population found itself with such an outsized role in American politics?  Trump’s actions reflect a constellation of beliefs that transgender people are dangerous, are men trying to get access to women’s spaces or are pushed into gender changes that they will later regret.

     The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and other major medical groups have said that gender-affirming treatments can be medically necessary and are supported by evidence.