With anti-trans policies and rhetoric on the rise, many transgender and gender non-confirming members of the Chatham community have started to question how the recent flurry of federal changes since President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term not only impact communities throughout America, but also individuals’ lives.
“As we move forward into the next four years, a lot of these executive orders that he’s putting in place are going to have a really big reverberation throughout the whole community,” said Oona McKeegan ‘27. “I know that really the only reason why a lot of the [executive orders] aren’t impacting the trans community right now is because courts are blocking them and things like that, but that can’t last forever.”
Some of the executive orders have focused on transgender and nonbinary people, including attempts to defund gender-affirming care and only legally recognize two genders. The Trump administration also is prohibiting trans women from being able to participate in women’s sports.
Dr. Erica Maloney, social worker and assistant professor of social work at Chatham, explained that gender-affirming care is currently provided under Medicaid and Medicare, but that could be changed in the future.
“President Trump has already signed an executive order banning any use of federal funds for gender-affirming care,” Maloney said. This could potentially eliminate “access to things like puberty blockers, a drug that they can give to youth who are questioning their gender or interested in some point transitioning.”
Gender-affirming care has become a widely discussed topic for lawmakers and people within the transgender community, especially with President Trump’s Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation.” The order claims “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing …children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.”
Dr. Maloney said her work, and the work of other social workers, is impacted by newly enacted policies.
“Under these new policies, I cannot work with children who are trans to provide even talk therapy to help them navigate [their emotions],” Maloney said. “That prospect is terrifying because the suicide rates for trans people [are] astronomical.”
These federal policy changes mean social workers and medical professionals are put in danger if they provide services to transgender and nonbinary youth.
McKeegan recalls their own experiences with gender-affirming care.
“I’m someone who has taken hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. It was really, really liberating and really freeing and definitely akin to healthcare that I’ve received for sicknesses and things like that, just kind of like ‘Oh, I feel really good about myself,’” McKeegan said. “So it’s not just kind of mental, but it’s also really just like a connection with your body in a way that’s really important and really freeing.”
The use of puberty blockers, HRT and gender-affirming surgeries are specifically targeted in Executive Order 14187.
“Hormone blockers sound a little scary, but actually aren’t because your body can just resume puberty normally. It really helps people who are figuring themselves out [prior to puberty], who are either really sure about their gender identity or exploring it because that’s part of life, exploring your general identity and exploring yourself,” McKeegan explained.“If they decide, ‘Hey, maybe I’m okay with my assigned gender. Maybe I am cis[gender],’ then there aren’t any repercussions to that.”
The potential restriction of access to gender-affirming care isn’t the only result of the Trump administration’s executive order.
“It’s all terrible, obviously, but I think one of the more pressing consequences other than the direct things is a lot of the alienation and ‘othering’ of the trans community,” Angelo Licavoli ‘26 said.
In an email sent out on Feb. 11, President Phillips stated, “This university uses its mission and core values of sustainability; women’s leadership and gender equity; community engagement; and diversity and inclusion as its guidestar.” This is to be part of the newly established Strategic Response Team (SRT).
“There’s already a lot of fear that hasn’t been addressed by the president’s office and by Chatham. I think that the continuation of this neutral stance and this lack of opinion or lack of support from them really just shakes the entire community from their trust in Chatham,” said McKeegan.
“I try to be authentic to myself regardless of what’s happening,” Licavoli said. “When it was announced that Donald Trump was elected president I was like, oh, you know what? Well, now’s a good time to start estrogen…I suppose if there’s one takeaway from all this for me, it’s that I’m not going to stop being who I am just because of what’s going on in the world.”
For more information on transgender and nonbinary rights, visit aclu.org. For support at Chatham, contact the Counseling Center or the Women’s Institute.
