The economy, healthcare, and crime are the top concerns for most voters, while trans rights tend to fall low down the list. Yet we are often treated as “low-hanging fruit.” Politicians like Trump and his cohorts exploit ignorance about trans people to redirect attention away from more pressing issues, such as government corruption, violence, and the erosion of civil liberties. By stoking fear and misunderstanding about trans people, they create a convenient distraction from the real challenges facing citizens.
Opinion: The president's demonization of trans youth in his State of the Union requires a concerted pushback in school boards, family conversations, workplaces, and everyday speech, writes contributor Josh Ackley.The AdvocateJosh AckleyFeb 25, 2026There is a comforting story many of us tell about progress. We imagine rights arrive because the world improves, knowledge spreads, time passes, and people naturally become kinder. We picture history as a staircase that society slowly climbs together.Anyone paying attention now understands that is not how this works. Rights survive only when someone decides to hold them in place.
Oh... that is so true. Our rights are only skin deep! One judge, one legislator, and one governor away from loosing them!
Political speeches often elevate individual stories to humanize public policy, but this was something different. Here the young person’s life was enlisted as proof of a broader cultural crisis. Family dynamics, medical realities, and ongoing legal proceedings were flattened into a narrative of urgency and threat. The audience was invited to feel alarm rather than curiosity and certainty rather than compassion. Anecdote became mandate in a matter of seconds, and a child’s vulnerability was transformed into justification for federal intervention.
We can do the same! Our stories are powerful! Our families are powerful!
I have been out in this community for a quarter of a century. I have seen children transition, and I have detransition and get on with their lives. But these children who are poster children for the conservatives who are parading them around the country to go and tell their stories before legislators, I have to wonder what is that doing to them?
LGBT+ groups say ‘forced outing’ endangers vulnerable gender nonconfirming teens in unsupportive familiesThe IndependentAlex Woodward25 February 2026President Donald Trump used a teenage girl’s story to call for a ban on states and schools allowing transgender and nonbinary students to socially transition without parental consent, in what civil rights groups have called “forced outing” that endangers vulnerable children.Trump singled out the story of a Virginia teenager during his State of the Union address Tuesday to call on Congress to further restrict transgender and nonbinary youth after his administration imposed sweeping bans targeting trans Americans over the last year.Sage Blair’s mother, Michele, sued the Appomattox County School Board in 2023 over allegations that the district did not disclose information that Sage was identifying as male.
As I said, the harm that they are doing to these children is criminal! They are creating lifelong angst for them. They will always have a deep voice because Trump and his religious cohorts!
I have seen so many trans people detransition only to retransition. They were under so much family and/or religious pressure that they had to detransition. But in their souls they knew the truth.
