'Collateral damage': Trans people 'disgusted' by MAGA — and the Democratic Party

For the last seven months, Frankie Perez has been collecting paperwork, scheduling appointments and taking every needed step to return to the Air National Guard.

Perez, 38, had previously served four years in active duty before leaving in 2015. While he served six years as a reservist, his goal was always to return to active duty.

He is scheduled to take his physical examination as a precursor to returning to service later this month. But, Perez doesn’t know if President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people, like him, serving in the military will prevent him from returning to service.

“I started all of this before Trump got back into the White House and before all of this happened,” Perez said. “I mean, I knew he was running. I knew what this could mean, and here we are.”

Like many trans people across the country, Perez is uncertain what his future looks like because of Trump’s escalated actions targeting the trans community.

Along with actions to prohibit trans people from military service, Trump has issued several other anti-trans orders, including one to block federal support for gender-affirming medical care to patients younger than 19 and one to ban access to restrooms in federal agencies.

“I was wondering if my recruiter was gonna send me a text to say ‘don’t go,’ but she hasn’t, ” Perez said. “From a legal standpoint, I’ve reached out to somebody who’s in the military that’s actually a lawyer. I may want to fight back if I get a hard no.”

The State Department is no longer issuing U.S. passports with “X” gender markers while the White House has required pronouns be removed from email signatures.

RockAthena Brittain, who is trans, said the moves by the Trump administration are setting the stage “in the public’s mind and in the legal discourse” that paints a picture that “transgender people are dangerous criminals and destroying lives.”

In his most recent action, Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to ban trans people from playing sports that align with their gender identity.

“Where do we go if we have no place in public or private life?” she said. “It sounds like death to me.”

Trans people and LGBTQ+ serving groups in Nevada said these recent actions have created a lot of fear and unease in the community.

Some say the lack of response from Democratic elected officials to the assault on trans rights is also troubling.

Brittain, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2024 in a Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, said she is “disgusted by the so-called Democratic leadership” for not doing more amid growing anti-trans rhetoric.

Democrats, she said, aren’t willing to stand up for the trans community while trans people are “being stripped of our lives.”

“Obviously I’m disgusted with MAGA,” she said.

But Brittain is also disturbed by members of her own party “turning their backs” and pretending it’s fine for trans people to be “collateral damage” out of convenience.

“I don’t think that these democrats on any level are willing to stand up and actually sacrifice themselves for the people that they are supposed to represent,” Brittain said.

‘People are really scared’

Since Trump won the presidency, AJ Huth, director of public affairs and civic engagement for the LGBTQ Center in Las Vegas, said they have received non-stop calls and emails from the community.

“People are really scared,” Huth said. “There is this extra vigilance we all have now.”

Andre Wade, the Nevada director for Silver State Equality, said he’s not surprised by the pace of Trump’s actions against the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the trans community,

“It’s spelled out in Project 2025,” Wade said of the ultra-conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that Trump has been using to draft orders and actions.

The playbook, originally drafted by the Heritage Foundation, outlines numerous anti-LGBTQ policies.

“Trump and the MAGA folks have been signaling they are going to be going this route,” he said. “These orders really point to an attempt to erase trans people and gender-diverse people at the federal level through policy and programs that have been in place.”

These executive orders at their core, Wade said, defines “who the Trump administration thinks are rightful Americans.”

But the orders, in particular the effort to ban trans people from the military, puts America “at a greater risk.”

“With the recent confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, our national security is in a more precarious position than ever,” he said. “We are also greatly disturbed by the sheer amount of animus present in the executive order—President Trump seems to relish belittling and harassing members of the transgender community.”

Many of Trump’s orders have faced legal challenges that have delayed implementation.

Even if they aren’t able to be fully enforced, Wade said they will still be detrimental to the trans community.

The orders would have “a huge impact on people’s mental health, their sense of safety, their well being and security in knowing they too are part of the American dream,” he said. “We are part of the American dream. We are part of the American fabric.”

Huth said the attacks, while scary, aren’t anything new.

The LGBTQ community in general, she said, has “been the political football for the last 30 years.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress and we know how to fight,” she said. “We know how to keep ourselves safe.”

Huth said she tried to be optimistic at first since the state has passed laws enhancing protections around gender identity and sexual orientation.

In 2023, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed several trans protections, including preventing insurance companies from discriminating against trans people on the basis of gender identity..

“At the beginning I was optimistic because Nevada is awesome,” Huth said. “We have some awesome protections so let’s hang in there and take it one day at a time because we’re going to be OK.”

Huth has been unable to figure out if Nevada’s protections could offer some protections to the trans community from the Trump administration’s multiple orders..

“I’ve asked that question to a bunch of people and nobody really knows the answer,” Huth said.

As actions keep rolling out, Huth said she has spoken to “a lot of people in our community who feel very betrayed right now” by some of the Democratic elected officials’ response, or lack thereof.

Huth said she’s beginning to lose confidence in Democratic members of Congress, including those from Nevada.

“People who have been elected who have historically been more progressive Democrats are kind of giving in…That’s a concern. I don’t really understand it.”

Huth declined to name particular elected officials who are undermining her optimism.

Brittain doesn’t share much of the optimism to begin with.

She said she has talked to other trans people who have told her they are optimistic and “hoping for the best.”

But at the same time, “There’s a lot of people in the trans community in this state who are scared to death, who don’t share that hope, who don’t know what to do, because they don’t have enough information or resources,” Brittain said.

Brittain thinks it might be time to leave the state.

“Nevada is not going to protect my family,” she said.

But the question is, if Nevada isn’t safe, where is?

‘We need them to stay in the game’

Five days before Trump’s inauguration, the Republican-controlled House voted 218-206 to pass legislation banning trans girls from competing in women’s sports. The bill hasn’t been taken up in the Senate.

Nevada’s entire Democratic House delegation voted against it.

While Lee said the bill was an overreach, in a statement last month she said “I do not support transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports when fairness or safety is compromised.”

“While I believe governing athletic bodies, like the NCAA, have been slow and inconsistent in updating their policies, the answer is not for the U.S. Congress to institute a nationwide ban for all ages,” Lee said in her statement. “This is an extremely complicated issue that requires very serious deliberation and updated rulemaking by appropriate governing athletic bodies to address the portion of athletics where fairness or safety is an issue.”

Nevada Current sent Lee questions about her statement, including if she would support another version of a legislation restricting trans from sports, and how she plans to address the attacks against the trans community in general.

Her office declined to answer.

The Current also sent Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus questions about how they plan to respond to actions targeting the transgender community.

In an email, Dick Cooper, a spokesman for Titus, said she “always has and always will stand up for the rights of transgender people.” Cooper also pointed to bill Titus has supported, the GLOBE Act, that seeks to protect LGBTQ+ rights internationally.

“Congressman Horsford is focused on defending his constituents, especially those most vulnerable to Trump’s attacks like the trans community,” his office said in an email.

Horsford also cosponsored the Ensuring Military Readiness Not Discrimination Act, which “prohibit all forms of discrimination in our Armed Services, including actions targeting trans individuals.”

Huth urged Democrats to “keep fighting for all of us” and not abandon the trans community.

“Don’t think, ‘oh, we can take a break and be a little transphobic but we don’t have to be homophobic,” Huth said. “It doesn’t work like that. We need them to stay in the game.”

‘One day at a time’

Perez was already serving in the Air Force National Guard when he came out as trans.

“I told folks in my squadron right away, and they were very supportive. It was a small adjustment, but we made it happen.”

While he decided to request an early exit from active duty in 2015 due to personal and family issues, Perez always hoped to return.

Since then, Perez has started a family, went back to school and began organizing with Make the Road Nevada.

Trump signed an executive action banning trans people during his first term preventing Perez from returning to the Guard.

By the time President Joe Biden took office and reversed the ban, Perez was a new father.

The call to return to active duty still weighed on Perez. In early 2024, he decided to take steps to return.

Perez is determined to serve. He said the reason he wants to join the Nevada Air National Guard is to be able to help Nevadans specifically in the face of an emergency.

Huth said the Center is monitoring safety and funding issues at other centers across the country but hasn’t faced in particular threats to either so far.

“As far as the Center goes, we are going to continue to give great primary care and continue to do testing and offer pharmacy services so people can get the medicines they need,” Huth said. “We are going to keep going and take it one day at a time.”

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com.