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Champions for Equality Fight Back How Your Elected Officials Are Standing Up to Project 2025
Winter 2025 • Kendall Kalustyan He/Him
Since Inauguration Day, the office phones for elected officials have been ringing off the hook as constituents in red and blue states alike are already feeling the strain of Donald Trump’s disastrous policies. Within the discriminatory attacks of its first 100 days, the Trump administration has taken aim at LGBTQ+ rights and singled out the transgender and nonbinary community. The Human Rights Campaign, along with our members and supporters, have not been silent and are demanding action from our elected representatives — and they are mobilizing.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) has received nationwide praise for publicly standing up to Trump on behalf of transgender youth during a White House event. As former state attorney general, Mills was not bluffing when she told Trump, “We’ll see you in court,” in response to his threat to withhold federal funding if Maine doesn’t comply with his transgender sports ban executive order.
“Gov. Mills is a force for transgender rights. Gender identity, and the rights of transgender students, have been protected in Maine since 2005. Mills knows that this executive order, and panic over settled law, only serves to scapegoat the small handful of trans students in Maine,” said Cooper Reed, HRC associate regional campaign director.
In February, in an unwavering show of unity, Senate Democrats banded together to defeat a nationwide transgender sports ban. Not a single Democrat supported the bill, resulting in a failure to reach a 60-vote procedural threshold and preventing the harmful legislation from ever reaching the Senate floor for a final vote. Several senators spoke openly about the bill being a politically manufactured distraction and overreach of the federal government.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), a lifelong champion for equality and the only currently open LGBTQ+ senator, said, "Republicans in Washington are saying they know better than parents and local school districts. They are wrong. I trust parents, schools and local sports leagues to make these decisions for their children."
Even moderate Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) strongly opposed the bill, posting on Bluesky that “the small handful of trans kids in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally, and I am one.”
The Senate's rejection of this anti-LGBTQ+ attack shows how our pro-equality allies will resist attempts to legislate away our freedoms. HRC and its members helped drive over 38,000 constituent calls and emails to lawmakers on Capitol Hill urging them to reject this legislation.
Transgender veterans and service members are another part of the LGBTQ+ community who need us now more than ever. In response to the transgender military ban executive order, and the Pentagon’s directive to enact the order, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) led 41 lawmakers in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging him to withdraw the directive.
“Any American who currently does — or can in the future — meet the standards required of military service should have the opportunity to serve. And in an all-volunteer force, transgender Americans serve at twice the rate of the general population and have proven that they are more than up to the challenge,” Rep. Jacobs and the lawmakers wrote.
Among others those who signed the letter were strong leaders in the democratic caucus — Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and several members of the Congressional Equality Caucus including Caucus Chair Mark Takano (D-CA) and Co-chairs Mark Pocan (D-WI), Becca Balint (D-VT) and Sarah McBride (D-DE).
As the lead Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) is another leader fighting for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the military. Smith ultimately voted against the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act — the annual defense bill that he had worked to craft — in response to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) jamming in a gender-affirming care ban provision at the last minute.
“Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong.” Rep. Smith wrote, sending a loud message to the Democratic caucus. “I urge the speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill — reflective of the traditional bipartisan process — that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn’t attack the transgender community.”
In response to Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for minors, Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) led 89 House Democrats in sending a letter to the Trump administration calling the order “an astonishing attempt to interfere in private health care decisions.”
“Trans young people, their parents and their doctors should be the ones making their health care decisions. No one should need to ask the President’s permission to access life-saving, evidence-based health care,” Rep. Balint and the lawmakers wrote.
Additionally, in response to the order, New York attorney general Letitia James led 14 attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin in signing a statement in support of access to gender affirming care.
“As state attorneys general, we stand firmly in support of healthcare policies that respect the dignity and rights of all people,” the joint statement read. “Health care decisions should be made by patients, families, and doctors, not by a politician trying to use his power to restrict your freedoms. Gender-affirming care is essential, life-saving medical treatment that supports individuals in living as their authentic selves. The Trump administration’s recent executive order is wrong on the science and the law.”
Lastly, in a rare break from party lines and recognition of trans people’s humanity, Republicans in the Montana statehouse voted against two bills that would discriminate against the transgender community. After openly transgender state Reps. Zooey Zephyr (D-MT) (above left) and SJ Howell (D-MT) (above right) spoke on the state House floor about the dangers of these bills, Republican Rep. Sherry Essmann (R-MT) took to the floor to encourage her colleagues to “trust the parents to do what’s right, and stop these crazy bills.” Both bills were defeated with Republicans flipping to oppose the measures.
These officials' brave actions prove that public pressure works and our lawmakers hear us. But in order to continue this momentum, and encourage others to speak out, we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials. We need to keep calling, emailing and attending town halls to hold them accountable. This is how we begin to fight back and show the country we are not giving up on the fight for equality for all Americans.
Follow the Human Rights Campaign on social media to find more stories of your elected officials fighting back against the Trump administration.
