A new topic for the 2024 presidential race, my gender!

Earlier this month, Donald Trump posted a video to his website titled, “President Trump’s Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity”  where he directly addresses transgenderism and its current place in the United States medical community. 

Oh, boy! I think “Left-Wing Gender Insanity” might be my new band name.

The probability of Trump returning to the Oval Office rises with every day as he gears up to run in the 2024 election. This prospect is of monumental importance to me and, I imagine, every transgender person in this country.

If not Trump, the other potential Republican presidential candidate is the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has also been openly against the transgender community, signing laws banning transgender women from sports in Florida.

Either way, Trump brought up specific policies he would put into place if he won, as opposed to just generally spouting transphobia, which is concerning. It seems the fate of transgender people in America will be one of the planks in the GOP’s see-sawing party platform.

“On day one I will revoke Joe Biden’s policies on so-called ‘gender-affirming’ care,” Trump said. “I will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures.”

I hear what you’re saying, ‘Ruth, there’s no way that could affect us all the way over here in sunny California! Our hippy state wouldn’t let that stop them from slinging hormone replacement therapy left and right!’

I would agree if it weren’t for the devastating fact that 69% of Medi-Cal funding is paid for by the same funding Trump wants Congress to cut. That means, as someone who depends on Medi-Cal to receive hormone replacement therapy, I would have to pay almost full price for my medication, which is approximately $221 per vial. 

As a transgender woman, this horrifies me, as you can imagine.

The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that Trump rarely delivered on any of his promises made while campaigning. Consider his promises of building a border wall and having Mexico to pay for it. 

What this does mean, however, is that people’s gender identity will be a topic of debate in the upcoming presidential race. Trump, due to all estimations I could find, is not the prime candidate for the Republican nominee. Gov. DeSantis seems to be at the top of the ballot. 

With one candidate threatening policy limiting transgender rights and access to healthcare and the other actively instituting those policies in his home state, gender identity will be one of the hot topics in the upcoming race. This, of course, means that everyone and their mother will be giving their opinion on transgender rights — including my mother.