The first weeks of the second Trump term has delivered on one of the Republican’s major campaign promises: a harsh crackdown on the civil rights and recognition of transgender Americans. That community amounts to just a tiny fraction of the population. Among the torrent of executive orders issued by President Trump so far are a number of policies directly aimed at the transgender community, including moving transgender women into men’s prisons, banning transgender people from military service, and halting gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. While legal challenges have left many of the orders in limbo, the Trump administration’s intentions are clear enough. In 2021, Ashley Shade made Berkshire County history when she won a seat on the North Adams, Massachusetts city council as the first openly transgender elected official in the region. Since then, Shade has become the body’s vice president.
Shade spoke with WAMC.
SHADE: It's a stressful time to be different in this country. The actions being taken through executive order are incompetent and, quite frankly, discriminatory. It's hard to be a person right now when your government declares you not to exist and is trying to erase the history of people like you. So, it's a really difficult time, not only for me, but anyone who is trans in the Berkshires. We're all kind of reeling with every action that gets taken.
WAMC: Are there any particular actions that stand out to you for either their cruelty or singularity that we've seen so far?
I mean, honestly, I think all of it’s cruel. Banning people from serving in the military who have honorably served and have been part of the military for years and saying they can no longer serve their country- That's very cruel. The fact of trying to define what gender is and what biological sex is when they don't even have the correct biology behind it is also quite disturbing. The administration has gone through and erased many pages through different government websites relating to LGBTQ people and trans people specifically. They were ordered to put that back up, and on the pages that they put that back up, they put out a warning saying, we disagree that these people even exist. So, it's quite a challenging time.
Now, as far as the behavior of folks towards you as a trans person- I know that in the past, we've talked about that discrimination is nothing new to you in a lot of ways. But have you seen, has there been an uptick in bad behavior or deliberately provocative or trolling behavior towards you over the last few months?
Definitely in the online spaces, yes. The internet, trolls on the internet, love to troll, and there's people that definitely feel more emboldened to say some terrible things. And I've publicly made some posts about that and shared that, and my motto on that is, every time that they share hate to me, I'm going to ask people to donate for my reelection campaign. So, if they want to try to flood my inbox with insults and derogatory statements, I'm going to go to my supporters and ask them to help me continue to fight against this kind of behavior.
What do you think needs to happen on the local or even state level to ensure that the trans community is protected here in either Berkshire County or Massachusetts writ large?
Yeah, I think there's several actions we need to take Massachusetts. Luckily, we passed a constitutional amendment protecting people based on sexual orientation and gender identity many years ago, and that still is in place, but we still have a long way to go enforcement of discriminatory policies. It's going to take a big effort from both school boards and the state on protecting children in schools with the federal mandates that are coming down- Though, with them eliminating the Department of Education, the feds aren't really going to have much of a say in education going forward it looks like, so we'll see what that looks like. But also, the city of Worcester just made themselves a sanctuary city towards trans people, and I think that's an action that more cities can take, to publicly declare that they are a safe place and that that their government employees should not comply with any executive orders from the federal government, should not comply with other states trying to indict people for providing services or care.
As you look ahead, what are your feelings about this era to come that's just ahead of us? Are you really concerned about the direction the country is going in around gay acceptance and trans acceptance, and as you say, anyone who sort of falls out of what seems like a relatively tight parameter? Do you feel like this is going to intensify? Are you hoping that this is a particularly ugly moment that might change in the future? What's your optimism or pessimism like looking ahead?
Well, I always try to look towards positive things, and the positive thing is that a lot of people are gathering together and coming together to fight back, but it is going to get worse before it gets better. You have the newly confirmed Health Secretary [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] saying people on certain antidepressants and certain stimulant medications should be sent to farms to weed off their medications and learn how to be healthy. You have a president that's reopening Guantanamo Bay to turn it into a detention camp for migrants and immigrants. These are highly concerning things that I don't see stopping anytime soon. And honestly, the real fight now is to slow down the progress of any kind of action, discriminatory behavior that's being taken at that level, while also preparing to, hopefully, that the incumbent party loses enough seats in two years that they won't have the power to control Congress anymore. And we need to turn out and show out and take Congress back from this administration, because the president does not have unlimited power and authorities. Our Constitution was made to make sure that the president had checks and balances, and many of the actions that are being taken are things that need to be done through the legislative body, not from the executive branch or an executive order. So, from a legal standpoint, a lot of these executive orders are being challenged, which is great, but with the clearing out of the Justice Department and the FBI and the CIA, who's actually going to, even if the courts say, yeah, this is unconstitutional, the bodies aren't there to enforce that it's unconstitutional and do something about it. And unfortunately, with Congress being where it is right now, Congress also won't act to rein in the president, so that that's a really scary situation, and the courts can only hold for so long. So really, the only option we have is to get the right people in office in two years, win back Congress, and take action through the legislative branch.
Do you have a message to folks here in the Berkshires about this moment? If you had to communicate something to people right now who are maybe concerned or not knowing sort of how to react to the last few weeks of what seems like endless surprises or endless challenges to the things that we've come to take for granted- What is your message at this chaotic moment to folks in the Northern Berkshires?
Yeah, my message is, one, show up and be active. Two, community is everything right now, we are stronger together, and we need to come together to keep each other safe, keep our spirits up, and keep each other in a place where we can combat this, this action. And then finally, don't be scared, be prepared. Learn to defend yourself, learn different skills to help fight back against what's happening. Fear- Fear is a motivator, but it's okay to be afraid. But also think about the actions that you can take, what you can learn, what skills are valuable, and how you can get involved and fight back against what's happening. That's the best we can do right now.
Councilor Shade, is there anything about this I have not thought to ask you that you want to make sure people understand as a part of this conversation?
Yeah. I mean one thing that recently happened here in Massachusetts is a person who had applied for a passport change in Massachusetts had their documents sent back to them and their documents were essentially destroyed. And so, sending in government documents is risky right now. It's a risk that could be taken with- Honestly, don't do it as an individual, use an organization, use resources, and use attorneys and different LGBTQ organizations to help you if you're going to pursue those routes. Don't try to do everything on your own, don't try to be alone in this fight. We there's a lot of us. There's more of us than they realize. The trans population is 1% of the population in the United States, but we are, right now, considered the enemy by our federal government. And that's a scary proposition- A government with unlimited resources and a military that is trying to do basically whatever they want right now. So, it's really important that we come together, that we use the resources that are available. There are a lot of organizations out there, like the ACLU, like the Trevor Project, like the MassEquality, the Massachusetts Trans Political Coalition. There are many organizations out there willing and ready to help people fight these battles. And again, I can't stress enough the importance of safety and being safe and keeping yourself safe right now.
