Since day one of his second term, President Donald Trump has made his views on transgender policies clear.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said in his inauguration speech, in a line that elicited cheers.
A month and a flurry of executive orders later, the LGBTQ+ community and its allies across Southern California are concerned about their lives, their rights and worrying about the depletion of federal dollars that pay for vital resources at LGBTQ+ centers.
Organizations and people in Orange County and the Inland Empire fear they’ll fare worse than those in Los Angeles County, because those areas have historically been more conservative. Still, the anxiety is being felt in the Los Angeles area.
“In the past few weeks, there have been a lot of changes and a lot of uncertainty,” said Jeremiah Givens, spokesperson for REACH LA, which runs a downtown Los Angeles center. “As far as funding is concerned, we are hopeful but it’s still scary.”
The organization advocates for LGBTQ+ communities of color in Los Angeles and receives federal and state money as well as donations. It offers preventative sexual health services, social support groups and arts programs.
Trump signed an executive order that recognizes only two genders, male and female, though LGBTQ+ organizers point out that nonbinary and gender nonconforming people have been around for centuries. Another order prevents federal money from being spent to “promote gender ideology,” though activists said the belief that there are only two gender identities is itself a “gender ideology.”
Other orders lessen protections for LGBTQ+ people by barring the participation of trans athletes under Title IX, stopping trans people from serving in the military, ending gender-affirming care for people under 19 and revoking other anti-discrimination precedents.
Trans people who tried to get their gender marker — the spot on a passport that specifies gender and, previously, X for nonbinary people — changed before Trump took office have received passports with their sex assigned at birth, which doesn’t match their current gender. This puts them at greater risk while traveling, especially abroad or in conservative states, foes of the move state.
The political climate has upended LGBTQ+ centers.
“We still have funds earmarked for this grant period but we don’t know what the future holds at this moment,” Givens said.
REACH LA’s grant period ends in September 2026. Already, one major grant has an “uncertain” future, Givens said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s PACT Let’s Stop HIV Together Grant — a national campaign to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S., according to the CDC website — was one of many federal websites that went dark after the executive orders.
On Jan. 23, the PACT website — which had thousands of resource materials on HIV — and the CDC webpage for the grant went down, Givens said. The CDC webpage was ordered by a judge to be restored Friday, Feb. 14, according to the CDC website.
“Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female,” a notice on the top of the grant’s CDC webpage states. “The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation … this page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.”
REACH LA was one of more than 10 community groups across the U.S. in the campaign.
In January, REACH LA also saw a drop in communication with federal employees who help manage the grant after Trump halted mass communication from federal departments, Givens said.
About half a million dollars upon which REACH LA could previously rely now hangs in the balance.
The grant reimburses REACH’s monthly expenses for the HIV prevention program. Now, Givens said, the group is not sure if or when it will be reimbursed.
The uncertainty isn’t just affecting center employees.
People interested in hormone replacement medication and gender-affirming surgeries like top surgery can typically get referrals from centers. Gender-affirming surgeries have been controversial in recent years, but Tustin resident Toni Collard called the option of hormone replacement therapies or gender-affirming surgeries “life-saving measures.”
“I think people complicate it and make it more than it is,” Collard said. “These resources are important, especially for mental health reasons and to help people feel comfortable in their own skin — something everybody wants.”
Collard identifies as gender non-conforming or nonbinary and uses they and he pronouns. They compared the decision to get these medical procedure to plastic surgery. It’s a personal decision, not one requiring government intervention, Collard said.
Opponents of these surgeries have expressed concern for underage trans youths getting permanent changes, but a 2024 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that “little to no utilization of gender-affirming surgeries” was done by minors in the U.S. Trans and gender nonconforming people are usually required to be involved in psychological services for months or years before getting medications or having surgery.
Collard worries that places like Orange County, where there’s a higher concentration of conservatives and a lack of LGBTQ+ resources, will be impacted by these policies.
“Huntington Beach is probably going to get hit the hardest,” Collard said. “That’s why it’s important to have these resources in Orange County, because they’re already few and far between.”
Some Southern California LGBTQ+ centers — those that are fully nonprofit — are less worried.
While the executive orders haven’t hurt Temecula Valley Pride financially, they have affected the communities’ level of comfort, Community Outreach Director Justin Daley said.
“The LGBTQ+ community deserves equality and to be treated with fairness under the law,” said Daley, whose organization runs a center in Murrieta. “Any deviations from that cause not only Temecula residents to be uncomfortable, but the LGBTQ+ community nationwide.”
A protest in which Temecula Valley Pride will be participate aims to support the LGBTQ+ community and is set for Saturday, March 1, at the Temecula Duck Pond, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Religious organizations such as Temecula United Methodist Church and its members are expected.
“Community feedback right now has been multifaceted. Some are visibly emotional, crying and just really not understanding why this is happening,” Daley said. “You have others that are frightened, afraid to engage within the community as much as they may have in the past.”
In the San Gabriel Valley, the LGBTQ center doesn’t provide services such as health care, so it has avoided potential budget cuts, said Camila Camaleón, board president of the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center.
“A lot of our funding comes from local grants and local initiatives,” Camaleón, a 30-year-old Pasadena resident, said. “People are worried about if they’ll be able to receive healthcare or hormones. We’re currently seeing gaps in care for LGBT+ people.”