As Donald Trump prepares for his second term in the White House, Sarah Austin, staff attorney with GLAD Law, spoke with Luis Hernandez about possible threats to LGBTQ rights, and what members of the local LGBTQ community can do to prepare.
Interview highlights:
On possible threats to LGBTQ rights:
Sarah Austin: I think it’s very clear that the incoming administration is going to target LGBTQ+ people and our rights, especially when it comes to transgender health care, transgender military service, and non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students.
We do anticipate that the incoming administration is going to try to restrict access to transgender health care and try to restrict insurance coverage of that health care. The way that that’s likely to happen is through conditions on federal funding to major health care providers and also to states.
On local protections for LGBTQ rights:
Austin: There are state law protections in many of these areas for LGBTQ+ people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
When it comes to healthcare, both Massachusetts and Rhode Island have state laws that require private and public insurance coverage for transgender healthcare, and they both have SHIELD laws that protect providers of transgender healthcare from criminal prosecution by other states.
The federal government cannot change state law. So they may try to override it in some areas, especially when it comes to trans students in schools, but GLAD Law and other legal organizations are preparing to fight and protect the rights of all LGBTQ+ people under both state and federal law.
On how to prepare for possible threats to LGBTQ rights:
Austin: Anyone who might be threatened by prohibitions or restrictions on transgender health care should talk to your providers and get your medical records.
When it comes to ID documents, there’s state ID documents, and there might be state processes for updating those to reflect your current name and gender marker. Those are not going to change under a new administration, so those state laws are going to affect things like state IDs, birth certificates, things like that. But for federal documents, there could be a change. That’s thinking about ID documents like passports and social security cards. It might be in someone’s best interest to update name and gender marker on federal ID documents sooner rather than later.
When it comes to parentage, we really recommend that parents take steps to establish parentage now if they haven’t done so already. In some cases, that can be done without the help of an attorney.
Finally, when it comes to schools, a lot of school policy is set at the local level, and so it’s up to families and parents in their local communities to get involved with the local school board and support inclusive policies and resist harmful policies like book bans and school censorship, which really undermine the positive school climate that benefits all students.
GLAD Law offers more tips here on how to prepare for possible threats to LGBTQ rights, as well as a guide to state-specific rights and issues. You can also find free and confidential legal information, assistance, and referrals at GLAD Law Answers.
