Transgender activists urge supporters not to ‘vilify’ critics after Trump’s win, come out in public support: Report

Transgender activists say the organization’s conflict is leading to a lack of public support and that transgender people must avoid attacking critics if they want to win favor with the American people.

“We have to make it okay for people to change their minds,” Advocates for Transgender Equality Executive Director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen told the New York Times. “We will not insult them for not being on our side. No one wants to join that group.”

After President-elect Donald Trump’s victory earlier this month, activists now say it’s time to “rethink and reframe” their ways and push back against the “all-or-nothing rhetoric” among them, according to the Times.

Activists have cited a variety of tactics they believe are pushing people into the transgender movement, including efforts to police gender and abortion, suggestions that transgender misidentification is violence and enforcing the use of pronouns.

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Heng-Lehtinen suggested that activists should take Trump’s victory as an opportunity to treat movement skeptics as future friends and not as enemies.

“Nobody wants to feel stupid or looked down upon,” Heng-Lehtinen said.

Democratic Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts also expressed frustration with the transgender rights movement’s tactics. Moulton’s disappointment comes after protests in his office where the official said that transgender athletes could have a chance to compete or hurt other competitors.

“Here we call Republicans weird, and we’re the group that makes people put pronouns in their email signatures,” Moulton told the Times.

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The inclusion of transgender athletes in sports has been the subject of much debate over the past few years. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images | Photo by Swen Pförtner/photo alliance via Getty Images)

Still, he questioned how lawmakers could balance the rights of transgender people and athletes concerned about their inclusion.

“Having reasonable limits for safety and fair competition in sports seems to be a strong majority opinion,” Moulton said. “But should we take away civil rights from trans people, so they can just be kicked out for being who they are?

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But some activists have not backed down. Gillian Branstetter, communications strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the Times that she and other transgender advocates are impatient.

“What we’re dealing with is a fundamental injustice — and that’s not coming from people who like compromise and open debate,” she said. “These are people who are threatened by the existence of trans people. And, more importantly, they are trying to get an abortion.”