Most Democratic elected officials are behaving with stunning timidity, at the exact moment that the crisis facing American democracy demands strength and aggression. Combining the neuroses of insecure teenagers and the poll-monitoring reticence of politicians fit for parody, they appear both weak and bashful. They are acting like losers, but their constituents will suffer the gravest losses.
Chief among those endangered constituents are transgender and nonbinary people. The first targets in President Trump's autocratic assault on civil rights, minority protection under the law and democratic representation, trans Americans face a state of emergency: They find their liberties under attack, their economic and educational opportunities under threat and their very humanity under question. The increasingly rabid Trump White House is leading a nationwide charge of Republicans in Congress, state legislatures, and governor’s mansions to declare war on trans citizens.
