In the wee hours of Nov. 6, Volta Tran was up watching the election returns. By 2 or 3 a.m., it became clear to her that Trump was coming out ahead.
“It felt like a repeat of 2016, of course,” she said. “I felt, not numb to it, but I felt … I felt familiarity.”
Tran is a 29-year-old trans woman, a writer and a community health advocate. The election didn’t go the way she hoped. After that night, she said she thought she would feel more scared or panicked.
“I definitely feel the urgency,” Tran said. “However, I can’t say that even since November I’ve been surprised by anything.”
Trump has promised to defund institutions that provide gender-affirming care, to punish teachers for acknowledging transgender children, and to ask Congress to pass a bill that affirms there are “only two genders.” But even before Trump was reelected, Rhode Island had seen five failed attempts to pass anti-trans legislation at the state level.
This interview was conducted by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.
