This story contains mentions of transphobia, assault, and gender-based violence.
*Due to identity protection, some individuals have been granted anonymity, and their names have been replaced with fake ones in order to tell the story authentically. The pseudonyms are Riley Stevens ‘26, Alex Sanchez ‘27, and Aster White ‘28, all transgender students at the high school. Any similarities to other individuals’ names are purely coincidental and unintentional.
The 21st century has been heralded as an era of social progress. In the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, the United States is deemed the “Land of the Free.” Freedom, however, was the last word on nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict’s mind as they were brutally assaulted by a group of classmates in the girls’ restroom of an Oklahoma high school in February 2024.
Legislation restricting transgender individuals’ rights has been around for decades. However, with the rise of the right-wing Heritage Foundation policy initiative Project 2025 last year, fear surrounding the future of trans individuals has increased greatly. To make matters worse, President Donald Trump’s unprecedented election has resulted in many of these oppressive policies to be brought to life. President Trump’s unprecedented election win has struck fear in the hearts of trans individuals everywhere as their rights are slowly being stripped by the president who claims he believes in the “majesty of freedom”. Yet, for trans students across the nation who have been forced to hide their identity from others in order to escape persecution from both the government and those around them, Project 2025 is neither majestic nor free.
“I tried to be optimistic, especially leading up to the election,” Riley Stevens* ‘26 said. “Honestly, I didn’t think that Trump would actually win. I was just like, ‘it’ll be fine, hopefully’ because I was just trying to focus on the president. [Now, there is] the existential fear that today, I could wake up, and this could be the day that a decision is made that will take away my rights.”
When Project 2025’s 900-page manifesto, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, was first published right before the election, many individuals believed the suggestions the manifesto gave were far too extreme to be implemented by the Republican Party. Trump even publicly distanced himself from the project, claiming that some of the policies outlined were “ridiculous” and that he knew nothing about it. This denouncement of Project 2025 gave trans people a ray of hope; after all, Trump had publicly denied support for the project. However, immediately upon taking office, he wasted no time implementing the very same policies he had once condemned.
“If I go looking for [more] information [on anti-trans legislation], all I’m doing is just making myself super anxious, because I literally don’t have any rights,” Alex Sanchez* ‘27 said. “I know that Greg Abbott took away trans healthcare for minors, and [the Trump administration is] definitely trying to drill that even further. Some people say ‘we’re protecting children’, but trans attempted suicide rates [are] 40 percent.”
On the first day of his administration, Trump put out Executive Order 14168, which stated that the only two recognized genders were male and female. Furthermore, this order forbids official documents from recognizing any other genders. Though many have rightfully pointed out that this legislation does not recognize intersex people, the larger issue at hand is that this is a complete disrespect of civil rights and freedom of choice. Attempting to compromise with Trump supporters implicitly denies the fact that trans individuals inherently have rights, by virtue of being human.
“It doesn’t just affect trans people,” Sanchez said. “It also affects people with too high levels of certain hormones, or people who need hormone replacement therapy, but for literal hormonal reasons, and kids who need puberty blockers [because] they’re going through puberty too early. ‘Trans healthcare’ isn’t just for trans people — it’s for the general population. In criminalizing being human, they’re also criminalizing having sicknesses related to being human.”
Almost immediately after Executive Order 14168 was implemented, the Trump administration implemented Executive Order 14183, banning trans and non-binary Americans from enlisting in the military, and paused gender-affirming care to active members and veterans. While the administration sees this as a power play to further limit the career options for whom they view as “transgender extremists,” this only hurts America. According to Vox, in 2024 the U.S. military’s active-duty army had the smallest enlistment since 1940, and the Navy and Air Force missed their recruiting goals. It is impossible for trans individuals to spread their so-called agenda in the military. However, those who join the military typically possess intense love for their country, and by denying dedicated individuals an opportunity to fight for their country, the government has inadvertently decreased their already dwindling military force.
Furthermore, various aspects of Project 2025’s legislation aims to abolish policies related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). DEI recognizes that certain groups of individuals have historically been oppressed, and need a boost to even the playing field. However, many Trump supporters believe that DEI provides these groups with an advantage against others, rather than providing them with the means to compete on equal footing. In reality, DEI ensures that everyone is able to fairly vye for the same positions or accomplishments.
“One of my biggest problems is the removal of DEI programs, which is not just trans and LGBT, but it’s also people of color, women, [and] anyone who is not a straight, white, cishet male,” Aster White* ‘28 said. “That’s going to severely limit the inclusion of minority groups in decisions that will 100 percent affect them greatly.”
It is clear that Trump won’t simply stop at anti-trans legislation. If cisgender women think they’re safe because the current fight is against the trans community, they are wrong. Once the administration is done restricting trans people in every aspect of their life, they won’t stop there; they will move on to the gay community, then women — because that is what authoritarians do. They fuel hatred of a community, and continue redirecting it everywhere until only they and their closest administrators have power.
“They made it illegal for doctors to treat trans patients,” Sanchez said. “I know that I personally have been turned down by 20 doctors because they’re afraid that they’re gonna lose their license. I literally cannot take the necessary steps to make myself as safe as possible because doctors won’t see me because they’re afraid of the repercussions. What am I supposed to do to protect myself? I’m a teenager, first of all, so I can’t move. I also don’t want to move. This is my home. This is where I live. This is where I built my life. I don’t want to have to move just because the government is against my existence.”
However, despite President Trump’s onslaught on trans youth, for many, this isn’t news. Specifically, Texas has implemented policies similar to the ones Project 2025 has recommended for years. In 2023, Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation barring trans youth from accessing gender affirming care. While administrators believe that this legislation will prevent the spread of the so-called “gender ideology”, it only encourages trans youth desperate for a release from gender dysphoria to obtain gender affirming care illegally or through unsafe methods, which could genuinely harm their body to a greater degree than opponents believe gender affirming care will.
“All you’re doing is encouraging people to get their estrogen or testosterone illegally brewed, maybe in somebody’s basement,” Sanchez said. “That’s not good because you don’t know what’s in there, and it’s not like you can legally get it tested. All it does is just put people in danger, and so I guess I technically don’t know much about [Project] 2025, but I definitely know the repercussions it’s going to have. What are you supposed to do to protect yourself? You can’t do anything except for not be your identity, which is what the government wants. They’re just trying to make trans people illegal, which sounds kind of like fascism, if you ask me.”
Project 2025 details vast, abusive legislation toward trans individuals, including removing protection against discrimination for the LGBTQ+ community, denouncing allies as sex offenders, and equating the so-called “transgender ideology” with pornography. There is no doubt that they view the trans community as malignant propaganda, displaying a complete lack of respect for human rights. How can one’s existence itself be propaganda? The project’s makers seem to be uneducated on basic law, as many of their principles go directly against articles seen in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One part of Trump’s legislation that has already affected the trans community is his restriction on passports: the State Department is no longer issuing passports with “X” gender markers, and trans men and women are receiving their documentation back with their sex assigned at birth. For some trans people such as Ash Lazarus Orr, their classified documents are being withheld wholly, showcasing a complete mismanagement of the passport and governmental system.
“I was actually planning on changing my name after high school, and now I cannot do that if I want to vote,” White said. “I’m not allowed to dress really how I want to for fear that it will be taken as gender-affirming care, and I just generally feel less safe, especially in a red state where they’re already not accepting of LGBT individuals.”
When Benedict was assaulted in the bathroom that aligned with their assigned gender at birth — the bathroom that Republicans claim people should go in — the nation was swept by the brutal nature of the bullying. America is only the land of free for a select group of people, just as it always has been. Whether it was the genocide of Native Americans, mocking of Chinese laborers, oppression of women, crimes against gay men, or now the attack on the trans community, this country has proven time and time again that anyone different, American or not, must suffer.
“The American people know, to an extent, when something is not constitutional,” Stevens said. “I believe people know what’s right and wrong, and I like to believe that we as a country have some kind of power to keep fighting and to prevent it from getting to the worst circumstance.”
Over half a century ago, Ruth Bader Ginsburg championed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the nation began to take steps forward for equality. It is now clear that the Trump administration doesn’t just seek to reverse those steps — they will stop at nothing to revert to archaic beliefs when anyone who wasn’t white, cisgender, straight, and rich was under the heel of those in power. The Trump administration is following a guidebook to dismantle democracy from the ground up, disguised under protection of citizens. The signs of fascism are there; it is up to the general public to act.
“You’re not only taking away our rights, but you’re setting a precedent to take away anyone’s rights, and that includes your own,” Stevens said.
As incidents of violence against trans people increase rapidly, Benedict’s story is more relevant than ever. It’s clear that Project 2025 isn’t acting out of ideology, but rather hate for anyone who doesnt fit into their normative understandings of the world. As we slowly exit the first 100 days of Trump’s second presidency, it’s clear that if we don’t act now, stories like Benedict’s will grow tenfold.
