‘Trans people become ok when they are at Mar-a-Lago’: Trump, Elon Musk blasted for picture with Caitlyn Jenner despite disgustingly transphobic behaviors
Throughout his campaign, Trump has made his opinion of trans people painfully clear. He is planning to once again ban trans troops from serving in the military. He wants to ban trans athletes from playing sports. He has promised to impose draconian limitations on trans healthcare. In short, his administration and its supports are attempting to legislate trans people out of public life. In an increasingly transphobic nation, it turns out that according to Trump, trans people are ok in one place only: Mar-a-Lago.
Trump and his granddaughter, alone with noted transphobe Elon Musk, were all smiles when posing for a photo-op with Caitlyn Jenner at a function at Mar-a-Lago. The internet was quick to call out the hypocrisy. As a trans person myself, I can’t help but wonder what bathroom they allowed Caitlyn Jenner to use. Did they go against right wing congressional wishes and let her use the women’s room? Did they accommodate her with a designated outhouse around the back of the resort? Did they tell her to hold it the whole time? Just taking notes so I know what to expect in this upcoming nightmare administration.
While Trump was surprisingly open minded about trans people using the facilities in the past, he has since 180’d. During the 2024 presidential race, the Trump campaign spent over $20 million on anti-trans advertising alone, and apparently, they worked. There are currently a record high number of anti-trans bills worming their way through legislative bodies across the United States, and anti-trans sentiment appears to be at an apex. According to a recent poll, the majority of voters say that trans support by the American government has gone too far. Shannon Minter, a transgender civil rights lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, has stressed the “very real possibility” that Trump’s policies will cause the nation’s trans population “devastating harm.”
Elon Musk, standing in the photo with his arm around Jenner, has an equally abysmal track record when it comes to supporting trans rights. The multi-billionaire owner of X has used his recently purchased platform to spread hatred and falsehood about trans people, including children. In response to a post where a transphobic divorcee lamented that a custody court had granted his ex-wife the “authority to castrate” his child, Musk retweeted the post with the word “psychotic.” The child’s mother was not granted authority to provide her child with hormone replacement therapy or gender affirming surgery, as those procedures are generally reserved for after a child has begun puberty in rare, closely supervised circumstances, according to accredited medical guidelines.
Musk has also used his platform to take aim at pronouns, saying that he would allow X users to freely misgender anyone they see fit without free of repercussions. According to Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, X is becoming increasingly “hostile” to trans people. Much of this hostility comes from Musk himself, who has repeatedly mocked trans issues.
Musk’s invective against trans people has even been aimed at his own daughter Vivian, who is trans herself. Musk has said that his daughter was “killed” by the “woke mind virus,” and that he was “tricked” into signing documents consenting to her trans-affirming care. Vivian maintains that her father knew full well the nature of the documents he was signing, and that his denials are simply an attempt to score political points with his increasingly transphobic online accolades. When asked about the future of the U.S. under Trump and her father’s control, Vivian said she doesn’t “see a future” for trans people in America at all. In Trump and Elon’s future for the nation, apparently Caitlin Jenner is the only trans American who is safe, so long as she stays at Mar-a-Lago, apparently. The rest of us weren’t invited.
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