President Donald Trump returned to office on Jan. 20 and signed dozens of executive orders, and just over two months later, March 31 was International Transgender Day of Visibility.

Among President Trump’s executive actions were several attacks against transgender Americans, from banning them from serving in the military to blocking gender-affirming care. 

For transgender students at U-High, there is a looming fear of the government’s actions, even when surrounded by supportive friends and family.

“I have a support network, and I have a  community around me that is sort of ensuring that I am not getting hit with the brunt of this,” sophomore Valkyrie Laurence, who identifies as transgender, said. “However, that’s not the case for many, many trans people.”

Transgender activist Rachel Crandall Crocker organized International Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 to celebrate transgender people rather than just mourn their losses.

Spectrum club president Sylvie Bartom, a senior who identifies as transgender, feels national actions and state legislation will not affect her as much as it will the opinions of people she is around. It’s also affected her college plans.

“Just like existing as a trans person and, specifically for me, as a senior, what that has affected is what colleges I’m looking at,” she said.

“Especially with legislation specifically varying a law by state, there’s been more than half of the states in the U.S. I’ve just been like, ‘Oh, nope.’”

While she will have to put more thought into the state where she will attend college, she remains hopeful for the future and transgender rights because of supportive spaces provided by the Trevor Project, which has good resources for LGBTQ+ young people, and clubs like Spectrum, which provides a safe space for Sylvie and other LGBTQ+ students.

Valkyrie feels transgender people, who make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, are an easy target for conservatives.

“This rhetoric can be more effective because it’s not something that people are familiar with,” she said. “A lot of people are afraid to have conversations that really wouldn’t be offensive but would just get people more information because they’re scared they are going to offend trans people.”

Even with everything going on, Valkyrie tries to stay open and optimistic.

“Just because things are bad now, it doesn’t mean they’ll stay this way,” she said. “But it also doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to experience joy.”

Even now, the Trump adminisration removed over 150 terms and words from being used on federal websites, including numerous terms associated with the transgender community.

Although Transgender Day of Visibility has just passed, Sylvie says students and faculty can still take a stand.

“I think that this is kind of the thing that just being vocal or protesting or sending petitions to the government to make it heard about how much people do care about these things,” she said.