Amber Ross, left, and Dusty Flath, right, from Kulpsville, hold signs in support of trans students during the Transgender Day of Visibility rally at Main and State streets in Doylestown on Monday, March 31, 2025.

From the moment President Donald Trump was elected, it was clear that the transgender community was going to be under attack. In the months since he began his second term, trans people have had their existence challenged by the state, their health care threatened and their ability to exist in society called into question. But in recent weeks, things seem to have gotten even worse than anyone could have imagined.

In the days following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, false claims that the shooter was trans spread across the internet. The Wall Street Journal initially claimed that bullets found at the scene of the attack were engraved with "transgender and anti-fascist ideology." Vice President JD Vance went on “Jesse Watters Primetime” the following week and implied that trans people were part of a “terrorist movement.” Donald Trump Jr. likened the trans community to al-Qaida. When the government shut down Oct. 1, the president found a way to blame trans people for that, too, saying the Democrats want “transgender for everybody.”

Chase Strangio, an attorney and the codirector of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV project, saw the backlash and took to social media. His message was simple: It’s time for cisgender people to stand up for trans rights.

The Instagram post Strangio made, which has 5 million views, gave clear directions for how people can support trans people in ways ranging from challenging comments from others who are “just asking questions” to financially supporting individuals in their community. On a phone call with me on Oct. 1, he stressed that it was important for people to have concrete actions they can take in a time when things feel so discouraging.

“Part of what we need to do is break through this very well-funded machine of disinformation to just re-tap into our shared humanity, and our shared impulse to really work together,” Strangio said.

Strangio makes a good point – we need to be working together toward an inclusive future. For cis people, that means standing up for trans people in their daily lives. It means challenging that coworker or family member who doesn't believe it's fair for trans women to play on sports teams that align with their gender. It means showing up physically, everywhere from school board meetings to the Supreme Court. It means loving trans people and defending them wholeheartedly.

The fight for trans rights hasn't been linear

Strangio has been part of the fight for trans equality for years. In 2024, he became the first openly trans person to argue in front of the Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a case out of Tennessee determining whether or not minors could access gender-affirming care. The ACLU ultimately lost the case in June 2025 – positing yet another blow to trans rights.

Before that, he argued on behalf of the ACLU in the legal battle over North Carolina’s House Bill 2, a 2016 law that required people to use the restroom corresponding with the sex they were assigned at birth. I was in college in the state when the law was enacted and remember when it was signed, as well as the backlash from businesses and entertainment that swiftly followed.

Strangio points out how that moment spurred the present problem we’re facing: Anti-trans lobbyists are spending a lot of money to convince the public that trans people are the enemy. In the North Carolina saga, this money came flooding in after the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision meant that there were resources left over from the fight against same-sex marriage.

“The opponents just regrouped,” Strangio said of the HB 2 fallout. “It was just that they reconstituted the narrative from ‘trans people are a threat in bathrooms’ to ‘trans people are a threat in sports.’ ”

This is also where the attorney sees the mainstream news media failing to do its due diligence. Major publications aren’t talking enough about the amount of money and resources that have been spent crafting the narrative that trans people are an alien “other” to be feared.

Cis people have to step up, loudly

Again, this fight isn’t just about standing up for trans people. It’s about all of our rights, and what is at stake when we treat marginalized communities as less than human. It’s not just about solidarity – this moment affects cis people, too.

As Strangio explained to me, it’s about the fact that there’s a throughline from the loss of reproductive rights, the attacks on transgender body autonomy and now the disinformation being spread about autism and vaccines.

“This is a fight that impacts all of us,” he said. “The steps that are being taken by this administration, by some state executives and legislatures, are really about dividing us from each other so that those in power can take more power and stripping away critical legal protections.”

I often feel helpless in this fight, as I'm sure many of you do. I worry about the trans people in my life every day as the government lobs continuous attacks on their personhood. But like Strangio stressed, that's part of what the right's goal has been – for us to feel disconnected from one another, to feel like there's no hope. But there are things we can do, even small things, that will make our communities safer for the trans people who exist in them.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I asked Chase Strangio how to stand up for trans people. It's easier than you think. | Opinion

Reporting by Sara Pequeño, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect