Laverne Cox is urging trans people to hold onto joy in the second term of Donald Trump's presidency.
Trump began his second term Monday as U.S. president, and already things are looking bad for trans people.
After Trump attacked trans people in his inauguration speech and then in several executive orders he signed, Emmy-nominated actress and host Laverne Cox posted a video on Instagram featuring a Daily Show clip of comedian Jon Stewart making fun of first lady Melania Trump's hat that she wore at the inauguration.
"Girlies (girlies in this context is gender neutral or fully gender expansive whichever you prefer. Yes we're still doing that here despite executive orders. Gurl!)," Cox wrote alongside a video of Stewart claiming that Melania wore the wide-brimmed hat so that Trump couldn't get close enough to kiss her. "Girlies, we need to laugh right now. We need to find our joy right now. Even in the face of the most catastrophic of circumstances our ancestors and transcesters found a way to dance, sing a song, poke fun at the absurdity. This is not a substitute for real liberation, freedom. But we can and might I suggest 'should' do both for our mental health, for that freedom that lives inside that no government can take from us."
In his inaugural address, Trump declared, "As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female," effectively declaring that he does not recognize the existence of transgender people.
He didn't stop there. One of the first executive orders Trump signed after being sworn in further solidifies his administration's view on trans people.
"It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality," the executive order says.
Despite the medical community, including all major American medical associations, acknowledging the existence of trans and nonbinary people and identities, this new order directs federal agencies to ignore gender identity and only look at an individual's sex assigned at birth for paperwork related to schools, workplaces, prisons, passports, and other government-issued identification documents.
