My ancestors left their homelands to escape antisemitism. Will my son have to leave the U.S. because he’s trans?
Trump’s executive orders scapegoating transgender people echo past persecutions of Jews
Demonstrators protest against President Donald Trump’s approach to transgender issues during his first term, on Feb. 23, 2017. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
My grandparents and their families fled their birth countries, settling in the United States, to escape the scourge of antisemitism. Now, I must wonder if my trans son, Preston, will need to make a similar decision, and leave this country that was once a safe haven for the persecuted.
My father’s family, the Berkowitzes, fled Poland after living through the horrific 1903 Gomel Pogrom. My mother’s family, the Warsaskis, lived in Czestochowa, in southern Poland, and endured virulent antisemitism — forced to pay higher taxes and denied the same educational and professional opportunities as their Christian neighbors. My great uncle Myer was the first family member to immigrate to the U.S., landing in Galveston, Texas on July 7, 1913.
Now, under President Donald Trump’s second administration, this country that presented my family with a safe place to start over seems poised to directly threaten the safety and wellbeing of trans people like my son.
Preston, 32,long suspected this moment would come. Last year he warned us about Project 2025, the Christian Nationalist playbook outlining, among many other things, a brutal crackdown on the rights and liberties of trans people.
Plans for such a crackdown under President Donald Trump have long been afoot. In 2018, a Forward op-ed by S. Bear Bergman warned that a memo from the first Trump administration suggesting that gender should be determined by a person’s sex assigned at birth was “designed to exclude anyone who is trans from legal protection or recourse against discrimination.” The legislation, Bergman predicted, would lead to the U.S. government refusing to allow trans people to change their passports and social security based on their gender identities.
And here we are — with an administration doing, effectively, just that. Under the guise of protecting the public from, in his own words, “transgender lunacy,” Trump has quickly signed a slew of anti-trans executive orders aimed at legislating the transgender community out of existence.
Trump’s initial such order declares that, in the eyes of the government, only two sexes exist, defining “female” and “male” solely based on biological sex assigned at conception — even though that definition isn’t biologically accurate. The order, which has not yet been enacted as law, means that trans people, like my son, will be forced to identify themselves in official paperwork with a sex that bears no relationship to their gender identity. Transgender people are at risk of losing access to their passports and other identifying documents if they apply to update their gender marker in this extraordinarily painful way.
Another executive order characterizes gender-affirming care as “chemical and surgical mutilation,” and threatens to cut off federal funding for institutions providing gender affirming healthcare for people under 19. This move irresponsibly contradicts the findings of more than two dozen nationally recognized, highly respected medical organizations which affirm that gender-affirming care saves young lives. Even in states where gender affirming care for youth is legal, some hospitals have already begun denying it.
Yet another order, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” says federal funding will be denied to any school supporting the social transitioning of minor students without parental consent. Under the order, teachers are required to inform parents of any changes in a student’s gender identity, even if the student wishes to keep this information confidential because they believe it would compromise their safety at home.
As a group, Trump’s orders also prohibit transgender individuals from using bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity, prevent them from serving in the military, and forbid trans women from playing on women’s sports teams.
Fortunately Preston lives in a state where his rights are protected, for the moment. But as an artist, his career will certainly face new roadblocks: The. National Endowment for the Arts, once known for supporting exciting and progressive projects, will now be restricted from making grants to projects that promote “gender ideology.”
And Preston has told us that he will likely no longer be coming home to Fort Worth, where my family has made our home for more than 30 years, to visit, as Texas has one of the highest numbers of anti-trans bills filed in the country — 56 at last count.
I don’t blame him for wanting to stay away. And I wonder how long he’ll be able to stay in the U.S. before the risks here feel too great. After all, as Jews, we have witnessed how dire things can get when laws are enacted that deny a minority group their civil rights; when such a group is dehumanized and treated as “other;” when they are subjected to official threats for simply being who they are.
My ancestors had to flee their homes because they recognized that their lives were in grave danger. If these executive orders become law, my son may have to leave his home as well. I trust that he, like my ancestors, will know when it will be the right time.
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