‘I know who I am’: Trans and non-binary students dismayed at Trump’s executive orders

Jenny Ballutay ’28, a writer for The Stanford Daily, has pink hair. She loves theater and astrology. She dreams of becoming the tree mascot for Stanford. And she dreams of a world in which her right to exist as a trans woman is protected.

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that the government will only recognize two unchangeable sexes, invalidating the gender identity of Ballutay and other trans individuals. 

The order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” disputes “the idea that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa.”

The State Department has now stopped accepting changes to gender markers and issuing gender neutrality indications for passports.

Trump’s other executive orders attempt to eliminate gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, defund schools that support transgender students and bar transgender people from military service. Another bans trans athletes from women’s sports.

Accordingly, Stanford Athletics pledged to adhere to a new NCAA policy stating that individuals assigned male at birth may not compete on any female teams.

All these actions have serious legal, medical and emotional effects on transgender and nonbinary communities. “It becomes okay to devalue the life of a trans person,” Ballutay said.

Ballutay is not the only person at Stanford whose gender identity has been targeted by Trump.

Gabrielle Polite ’26, who identifies as nonbinary, said they feel both angry and deflated in the current political climate.

“It’s just so degrading … to hear arguably the most powerful person in this country, that I lived in my entire life, completely disregard [a part of my identity],” they said.

Stuti Desai ’28, another nonbinary student, believes Trump’s recent executive orders have reversed decades of progress for the queer community. They worry most for trans and non-binary youth who are still growing into their gender identity.

“Obviously, coming out is hard for many people, but … it’s just harder when the president’s like, ‘You’re not real,’” they said.

Ballutay legally changed her name and gender on her birth certificate and driver’s license when she was 17 years old, but she hasn’t yet updated her passport to reflect these changes. Now, she can’t.

“Every day I … blame myself for not changing my passport in the last few months,” Ballutay said.

Her family hopes to take a trip to Japan after she graduates from Stanford, but her passport has expired, and she is reluctant to renew it, knowing it would misgender her.

What concerns Ballutay more than the status of her legal documents is the heightened discrimination that the transgender community could face under Trump. “People are more emboldened to do discriminatory things under a discriminatory leader,” she said.

Ballutay generally feels accepted for her gender identity at Stanford, but that wasn’t always the case in her hometown of Tracy, Calif. 

Tracy is located in San Joaquin County, where nearly 42% of voters cast their ballot for Trump in the last presidential election.

In this environment, Ballutay felt othered as a transgender woman. “At Stanford, we’re just people … In Tracy, I’m not just ‘people,’” she said.

In high school, people would sometimes ask her friends, “Why do you hang out with her? Don’t you know she’s trans?” Ballutay recalled. She knew other transgender individuals in Tracy who struggled with self-harm and one who committed suicide.

Ballutay felt like she had to set a good example to inspire other queer youth, and she was afraid to give anyone justification for their transphobia. So, she took difficult classes, gained acceptance to a prestigious university and generally tried to model good behavior. When people picked on her for her gender identity, she forced herself not to “snap.”

She said it felt liberating coming to Stanford, where she experiences no pressure to represent the trans community. She can relax and be herself. But there are still daily moments when Ballutay is hyper-aware of how others perceive her.

“Every time I walk into a bathroom, I have a little moment like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try and smile and look apologetic for having to use the bathroom,’” she said, “because I don’t want to have some crazy experience where I’m thrown out of the bathroom and screamed at.”

Although Ballutay has found the Stanford student body supportive of trans rights, she has been disappointed with the University’s response to Trump’s executive orders pertaining to gender. In particular, she disapproved of Stanford Athletics’ compliance with Trump’s ban on trans athletes.

“It’s very telling that Stanford wants to ban things like that because it’s mostly a symbolic gesture. I couldn’t point to a single trans athlete,” she said. 

Ballutay stopped playing sports after she transitioned in junior year of high school, but she misses the opportunity to do so without stirring controversy.

Ballutay added that she respects the Undergraduate Senate for passing a resolution to condemn Trump’s executive orders against transgender and non-binary students, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

This summer, Ballutay will intern at the Transgender Law Center, the largest transgender-led civil rights organization in the U.S., where she will conduct research on state-level educational policies. The Haas Center for Public Service awarded Ballutay a Stanford Pride Fellowship to fund the internship.

“The only good thing that I can see coming out of this administration with me being a trans person is that it sets up a kind of purpose,” she said. “It helps me frame what I want to do for my summer because there’s a problem, and I need to respond to it.”

In Polite’s opinion, the importance of transgender issues has been overblown in American politics, given that only around 1.6 percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender or nonbinary.

“I was like, ‘This is what we’re doing on day one?’” Polite said, referring to the “Gender Ideology” order that Trump signed on his first day back in office. “This is … the highest priority thing? … I can think of so many things that need to get done.”

Polite said they feel powerless when it comes to advocating for trans and non-binary rights, despite the possibility of taking action. “That’s how they want me to feel,” they said of the presidential administration.

Desai maintains hope that in four years, the country will elect a Democrat who will restore DEI initiatives. In the meantime, they called on allies to “think global, act local.”

“I don’t think everyone has to be out on the streets. I think just respecting the trans and non-binary people in your life is probably the best thing you can do,” they said.

Desai hopes that Stanford will implicitly reaffirm its commitment to support trans and non-binary students while protecting their federal funding. For example, they said the University could release a statement to say it will abide by Trump’s executive orders relating to gender but does not condone them.

Jill Scheppman, a non-binary lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, considers recent attacks on trans rights an indication of hard-fought progress. 

The conversation on gender has shifted profoundly in the last decade, Scheppman said, and therefore prompted backlash. “That’s when we know that we’re actually making change,” they said. 

They referenced the gay marriage movement, which also faced significant opposition in its time — shortly after Scheppman married their wife, California banned same-sex marriage.

“Policies only matter if people follow them,” Scheppman said. They expressed hope that doctors would continue to provide gender-affirming medical care and that teachers would continue to support trans students.

As Scheppman sees it, trans individuals are standing up against the Trump administration every day by “honor[ing] their truths.”

Desai echoed this sentiment, saying that, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the government believes about their gender: “I know who I am, and the people who love me know who I am.”

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