In an executive order issued on his first day back in office, President Donald Trump rolled back protections for the transgender community and declared that the United States would no longer provide any federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” If it’s a fight the president wants on trans rights, then Lucy Dacus is ready to square up.
In a post to her X account on Wendesday (Jan. 22), the singer-songwriter told her fans to share GoFundMe pages for trans people looking to pay for gender-affirming surgeries, promising that she would donate $10,000 as a means of helping. “if trans people wanna comment surgery gofundmes, I’m gonna give away 10k in $500 increments until it’s gone,” she wrote. “if other people wanna scroll through and make donations, please do.”
The post, which has since earned more than 300 replies, ended with a stark message from the Boygenius singer about the future for trans Americans under a second Trump presidency. “the government will never be the source of our validation or protection,” she wrote. “we have to do it ourselves.”
Trump’s executive order (titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”) makes it the official policy of the United States that there are only two sexes, while also eliminating any and all federal funding for gender-affirming health care.
The executive order comes despite calls from established medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society — for policies aimed at limiting access to gender-affirming care to stop. Additionally, the American Medical Association continues to acknowledge that gender identity and sexual orientation both exist on a spectrum rather than as a binary.
LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Lambda Legal already announced that they plan to challenge Trump’s executive order in court, saying “the impact of these executive actions will be devastating — stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children, and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life.”
Meanwhile, Dacus is currently promoting her forthcoming new album, Forever Is a Feeling. Last week, she debuted two new songs, “Limerence” and “Ankles,” while debuting the latter during a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
