The moment Donald Trump won the presidency, feelings of anxiety arose among LGBTQ-identifying Americans, as they were left uncertain about whether President Trump would keep his election night promise: to “be a president for all Americans.”
After the Orlando nightclub shooting in June, Trump offered his support to the LGBTQ community, saying it was “an assault on the ability of free people to live their lives, love who they want and express their identity.” But many have deemed his administration picks, including Vice President Pence — who has supported a law that would allow businesses to cite religious freedom as a reason to turn away customers in the LGBTQ community — as disapproving LGBTQ Americans’ goals.
Some are worried these picks signal that Trump will begin rolling back some of the community’s advances during former President Barack Obama’s administration, such as an executive order signed July 2014 that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
A top concern for colleges and universities includes an interpretation of the Title IX law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gives transgender students the right to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. But North Carolina, after passing a measure requiring its citizens to use the bathroom that matched the gender on their birth certificate, received backlash.
Trump has shied away from saying whether he supports the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law. Instead, he said he thinks it should be left up to the states to decide.
“It’s difficult to know what the Trump administration will do in this particular area because they haven’t really said anything clear,” said Luke Jensen, the director of the LGBT Equity Center, who added that this is “a cause for concern.”
If the U.S. Department of Education takes a different position on whether the Title IX law protects LGBTQ students from discrimination in schools, students in Maryland and across the nation could be affected, said Patrick Paschall, executive director of Freestate Justice, an advocacy organization for the LGBT community.
Jessica Vooris, who teaches women’s studies at this university, said she fears the Trump administration will interpret the law differently, putting LGBTQ students at risk of losing their rights.
“[Transgender] students at Maryland were already navigating a difficult environment,” Vooris said. “It’s difficult to … deal with being misgendered in the classroom, to deal with professors who don’t understand, so I can imagine it’s only going to get worse for folks.”
The Title IX interpretation is only one of the many advancements that could be rolled back, Paschall said. Under Obama’s administration, LGBTQ Americans received better access to health care, domestic partner benefits, equal housing access and employment protections, he said.
“The Trump-Pence administration has made it clear that every single one of these things is potentially on the chopping block,” Paschall added.
Students are also worried that Trump’s victory, coupled with administration picks that have histories of anti-LGBTQ policies, may embolden people to perform hate crimes or use hate speech. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s pick for attorney general, supported a Constitutional ban of same-sex marriage, and Tom Price, Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, voted against a law that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“After Trump was elected, we saw an increase in hate crime, and I don’t expect having him in office is going to decrease [it],” said Savannah Speir, a junior cell biology and molecular genetics major and Pride Alliance board member.
Almost 1,100 bias-related incidents occurred in the U.S. in the month after the election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
After the election, some of Vooris’s LGBTQ students felt scared, she said.
“My reaction as a professor has been to create space…to talk about their anxieties, but also to remember the long history of LGBT rights in the United States,” Vooris said. “There’s a lot we can learn from the way we’ve addressed things in the past.”
