On only the 15th day of the new administration President Trump issued his fifth illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional executive order targeting transgender Americans, purporting to ban transgender women but not transgender men from women’s sports. In his effort to justify this order Trump lied repeatedly, falsely claiming that transgender women won gold medals in the Paris Olympics — when no transgender athletes even competed in the Paris games. In fact, despite being eligible to compete for almost a quarter century, no transgender woman has ever won an Olympic medal. Trump falsely claimed that a transgender weightlifter broke the women’s record for lifting; that has never happened.
Most importantly, Trump ignored the fact that the Supreme Court has explicitly held that to discriminate against transgender people violates the Civil Rights Act.
Trump cynically uses transgender Americans as a distraction every time one of his major initiatives or pronouncements is exposed as illegal, unworkable or corrupt.
Regardless, we are not distracted. We are not intimidated. And those Republican elected officials who violate the Constitution and the law should not think that Florida’s registration numbers will protect them come Election Day. Trump and those who support him should make no mistake: Floridians and the nation will see through the attempt to create an issue where none exists, for the sole purpose of ending discussion of the flailing failures and illegal actions of Trump and his first bro Elon Musk.
Kristen Browde
President, Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus