Emily Havens

ehavens@thespectrum.com

As President-elect Donald Trump has begun announcing his cabinet picks three weeks after the election, transgender people and LGBT allies grow more fearful of the unknown.

Trump was once referred to as the most gay-friendly Republican nominee during his campaign, and he notably told The Washington Post that Caitlyn Jenner was welcome to use any bathroom she chooses as a transgender woman at Trump Tower.

However, some transgender people think Trump’s views on their rights have flip-flopped over time, and the unknown makes some of them, including Robyn Boudreau, concerned for her rights as a transgender woman.

Boudreau, a Dixie State University professor who teaches organic chemistry labs, said she doesn’t understand the recent "hysteria" around transgender lifestyles.

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"Our lives don’t affect them in any matter," she said. "I fear for my safety and fear for my friend’s safety, as well as the whole LGBT community."

But Rachel Cassidy, another transgender woman in St. George, said her initial thoughts weren't fear; she said she didn't have much of a reaction.

"If it becomes an issue, then I'm going to worry about it," Cassidy said.

Trump didn’t oppose people who are transgender until April 2016, Boudreau said, but his running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, has a history of backing anti-LGBT legislation as Indiana’s governor.

Many transgender and LGB people were "terrified" by the election results, Boudreau said, because some are expecting the social climate to change. She said she’s never had an issue at DSU or in Southern Utah — even after the election — but Boudreau believes LGBT people have been made more vulnerable and more visible, which is something they typically don’t aim to be.

St. George resident Brianna Owens, a transgender woman, said she’s spoken with people who would support a Trump impeachment, but she said a Pence presidency would be much worse.

"At least Trump has flip-flopped on our issues," she said.

In April, Trump opposed North Carolina’s bathroom law, which requires transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex, but he amended his stance less than a day later.

"Of course, there was backlash against his support of LGBT people, so he started flip-flopping," Boudreau said. "Eventually, he totally flipped. Now he’s on the anti-trans side, and he picked Pence to court the religious right."

Pence received a tremendous amount of flack after he amended Indiana legislation that would allow for businesses to refuse service to individuals who are gay or lesbian by citing religious freedom.

"It’s a legal defense to defend against discrimination against LGBT people," Boudreau said. "That man is now my vice president."

Boudreau said transgender people in Utah are fortunate, however, for the transgender protection law that was passed statewide in March 2015, although it seems that there’s no hard-and-fast opinion among Utah’s leaders when it comes to transgender rights.

The Republican-controlled Utah state legislature passed a nondiscrimination bill dubbed the "Utah compromise" that aims to protect LGBT individuals from housing and employment discrimination. The bill modified the Utah Antidiscrimination Act, and it was even backed by leaders among The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

However, Utah was among the several states that sued the Obama Administration over the transgender bathroom guidance that was issued in May 2016.

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Former presidential candidate Ben Carson delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this year that led many to conclude Carson denies that transgender people exist. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a conservative Mormon, dismissed Carson’s claims, and said in a SiriusXM interview that of course transgender people exist, and they are "human beings who deserve the best we can give them."

"I just about fell off my chair," Boudreau said. "Orrin Hatch defending us? I wrote a very nice letter to him."

So, Boudreau said, Pence may be right about settling LGBT issues on state and local levels , implying that other states could follow Utah’s lead and establish laws that further protect transgender rights.

The bathroom guidance that directed public schools to allow students to use bathrooms that corresponded with their gender identity didn’t help transgender people at all, and it was ill-advised, Boudreau said. Since it has no real enforceability, she said it just made the target on their backs bigger.

Boudreau said women’s restrooms are by and large self-policing.

"If you can’t pass as a woman, you will get harassed," she said. "It’s really not a problem in the ladies room. This idea that a non-trans man is going to pretend to be a transgender woman … There aren’t a lot of guys who can just put on a dress and pull it off."

The idea that predators would abuse the bathroom directive was touted by Sen. Ted Cruz, who staunchly opposed the Obama Administration’s bathroom directive during his presidential campaign, saying once that, "It doesn’t make any sense for grown men to be alone in bathrooms with little girls," and continually referred to transgender people by their biological sex rather than their gender identities.

For Owens, a transgender woman, she’s not afraid Trump or his administration will reverse protective LGBT legislation, but she know’s he’s not going to help transgender people have better access to things like health insurance.

"He’s not going to move toward equal-access coverage," Owens said.

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Coverage for medications and surgeries for transgender people can get complicated, Boudreau said. Some insurance companies pay and some don’t, and she said she’s concerned that Trump’s administration or the fifth vote in the Supreme Court could withdraw that.

But there are all sorts of other dominoes that can fall, Boudreau said, and she said people who had "already had it in" for transgender people have become empowered by the election results, which causes her to feel less safe than she did before.

"Of course, the other thing that could happen is that (Trump and Pence) realize we’re not a threat, and we’re not a problem," Boudreau said. "They could realize they’ve been chasing a non-issue and get occupied with the real issues."

Follow reporter Emily Havens on Twitter, @ EmilyJHavens, or find her on Facebook atfacebook.com/emilyjhavens. Call her at 435-674-6214.