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Are you a trans person or ally who is having a really rough time with the current political climate, and desperately wants to do something about it? I've prepared a list of actions (from super simple to highly complex) that you can take to put pressure on legislators, organizations, and others to disobey Donald Trump's orders to do harm to the trans community, as well as to generally help the trans people in your lives get through this. You can bounce to different sections using the link list below, or you can simply scroll through.
Note: A good general practice for people engaging in activism—and just being on the Internet at all—is to familiarize yourself with basic security practices. A good source to learn about this is the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Surveillance Self Defense (https://ssd.eff.org/) resource.
I have designed this website for people who are already generally aware of how the Trump Administration has negatively impacted the transgender community, but because of the way it's advertised, there's a chance you might not be up to speed. If you are in this category, I have included a list of other articles explaining the basics of what has been going on.
Before we begin here: Doomscrolling all day is not productive. While it is important for you to understand what is going on, ruminating all day on whatever new thing happened in the news and what you can do about it is likely to make you panic, spiral, or burn out. Make sure to take time to experience joy, through your hobbies, interests, art, community, etc.
Rather than endlessly scrolling, you should pick a few good news sources and keep up with them, without constantly hovering over them waiting for things to change. Here are a few sources for trans-specific issues that I personally recommend:
Let's talk about tone: It's absolutely fine for you to be angry, and even to express that anger, but it is vitally important that you do it in a way that is not and cannot be reasonably interpreted as a threat of violence. Yes, it's deeply unfair that elected officials are empowered to enact legislative violence against trans people while making a stupid joke in an email could result in authorities knocking on your door or FOX News running a paranoid scare piece involving you, but that's unfortunately the world we live in. In these communications, you should do your best to be concise, respectful, and on-topic. (Note: There is room for more long-winded, disrespectful, and broad communication, but I would put them more in the category of protest.)
There are multiple ways to contact your elected officials depending on what works best for you. Calling them directly on the phone is generally regarded as the most effective method, because it is immediately impactful and frequently very annoying. The least effective? Emails, especially if you are copying and pasting somebody else's text. If you are incapable of calling on the phone for whatever reason, don't let that stop you: You are still making a difference by writing paper letters, sending faxes, engaging directly with politicians on social media, and and yes, even emails. Better yet, do a bunch of them! You could call, write a letter, send a fax, comment on their Facebook, include their @ on a critical message posted to Twitter/X, and send an email all for the same issue.
While you should definitely try to be as eloquent as possible, it's worth remembering that most of these aren't going to be directly read by the recipient themselves, but will be sort of tallied together in statistics of "people agree with this" and "people don't agree with this." That said, do a separate set of actions for each issue you are concerned about, don't just send a list of completely unrelated grievances. If you're contacting them via phone call, write a script (or use one from somewhere like 5 Calls) that gets straight to the point, and remember to give your address, especially if you are leaving a message.
Some ideas for what kinds of things you should contact electeds for include:
You can get a list of all your elected officials at USA.gov by entering your address (https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials). It contains information like mailing addresses, phone numbers, emails, and social media accounts. Personally, I like to print off big sheets of address labels for my elected officials, and I save form letters to update and print periodically. Some benefits of doing it the traditional way, in your own words:
If you are in a position where you see elected officials in person, you can also go to local events like town halls that are open to the public. Again, unless your goal is to to cause disruption or get arrested, stick to being concise, respectful, and on-topic.
You can get a list of all your elected officials at USA.gov by entering your address. It contains information like mailing addresses, phone numbers, emails, and social media accounts. Personally, I like to print off big sheets of address labels for my elected officials, and I save form letters to update and print periodically. Some benefits of doing it the traditional way, in your own words:
If you are in a position where you see elected officials in person, you can also go to local events like town halls that are open to the public. Again, unless your goal is to to cause disruption or get arrested, stick to being concise, respectful, and on-topic.
Calling elected officials is generally considered the most effective way to get through to them. 5 Calls is a great resource that will provide the phone numbers of your elected officials as well as scripts you can use to call them. If you have a lot of phone anxiety and do not want to talk to a live human being, one option is to try calling after hours to see if you can get their voicemail. It also has a lot of good information on what is happening to keep you in the loop, and you can also sign up for a newsletter. Here is a page specifically about Trump's anti-trans executive orders.
Calling elected officials is generally considered the most effective way to get through to them. 5 Calls (https://5calls.org) is a great resource that will provide the phone numbers of your elected officials as well as scripts you can use to call them. If you have a lot of phone anxiety and do not want to talk to a live human being, one option is to try calling after hours to see if you can get their voicemail. It also has a lot of good information on what is happening to keep you in the loop, and you can also sign up for a newsletter. Here is a page specifically about Trump's anti-trans executive orders - https://5calls.org/issue/transgender-lgbtq-rights-trump-eo
Resistbot is a service you can use to automatically send letters to your elected officials. It stores your contact information so you can automatically send messages to your legislators that you either write yourself or that are pre-written by others who have the same goals. You can send an email for free, or use coins to send via first-class mail or fax.
Resistbot is a service you can use to automatically send letters to your elected officials. It stores your contact information so you can automatically send messages to your legislators that you either write yourself or that are pre-written by others who have the same goals. You can send an email for free, or use coins to send via first-class mail or fax.
FaxZero has a service that will allow you to send free faxes to your representatives, if they are accepting faxes, and has some handy lists you can refer to:
FaxZero has a service that will allow you to send free faxes to your representatives, if they are accepting faxes, and has some handy lists you can refer to:
Capitulators are people, organizations, and companies that obey Donald Trump's orders to dehumanize and erase trans people, often before there is any legal obligation to do so. It's important to note that the reasons people capitulate vary a lot. There are people who have convinced themselves that sacrificing trans people was the lesser of two evils compared to not getting funding. There are people who didn't want to support trans people to begin with who are taking Trump's executive orders as a welcome opportunity. Neither of these behaviors is OK, and it is very important that people let them know it.
There are a number of ways people, organizations, and companies have been complying, including:
The first step is to avoid supporting any company or nonprofit that is capitulating. Don't shop there, if at all possible, and cancel any services you are able to. If you are donating to a nonprofit that does this, find somewhere else to donate. Obviously, there are cases in which this will not be a viable option for you, but when it is an option, choose that option. If you need to cancel a subscription or something to do this, you will probably get an opportunity to explain why you are canceling your service... tell them why!
If you didn't get the opportunity to explain why, whether because you didn't subscribe to anything or it just isn't that kind of organization, directly contact them to let them know you don't approve. There are a lot of ways to do this, whether through contact forms, emails, calls, engaging on social media, or filling out surveys they pester you with on their websites (for instance, federal government webpages often end with a "Was this page helpful?" survey, and will let you enter in comments if you select "No").
Remember what I said about tone: Be concise, respectful, and on-topic.
Be aware that contacting capitulators has been working! Some organizations, such as the NSVRC, have restored their content after being called out, and some hospitals have resumed providing gender affirming care to youth due to backlash.
Finally, you can help identify and blow the whistle on organizations that have been scrubbing transgender content from their websites, a good guide on how to do that can be found on MadyCast.com at Call To Action: Help Archive LGBTQ+ Resources. The short version is that you can do a Google search for the domain of the organization and keywords like "trans," "transgender," "LGBT," and "gender identity" to see if they have any resources including those terms, then click to see if the page is still there and still has those terms. For instance, if you were searching for the word "transgender" in a group called "nonprofitorganization.org," you would search for site:nonprofitorganization.org "transgender"
Note: In the web-based version, you can find a list of current capitulators. I am leaving it off the print version because it is quite long and changes rapidly, but you can access it by scanning the QR code below, or going to one of the listed addresses:
This is a list of organizations, companies, and other entities that I am aware have been participating in Trump's persecution and erasure of transgender people, how they are doing it, and how to contact them. Because this is an ongoing issue, the list of who is capitulating is constantly changing. There are organizations that reversed their decision to capitulate, and others that will likely capitulate in the future. Before contacting any of the entities listed below, you should check and see if they are still engaging in the behavior described. Click each category to expand it:
Note: Most federal agencies are either capitulating themselves, or their websites are being purged of references to trans people by other federal actors. The groups I'm including are some particularly notable and egregious examples, but if you search for transgender content on any federal site there's a decent chance you will find information purged, so don't feel obligated to stop at this list.
Note for folks using the print version of this document: To access these links, go to https://www.federalregister.gov, scroll to "Search Federal Register Documents," and search for the provided document number.
When changes are made to government rules, forms, documents, etc. there is a notice made on FederalRegister.gov requesting comments from the public. One thing you can do is leave comments on any requests for comment that involves erasing transgender identities or otherwise antagonizing trans people.
Note that public comment means public comment; although you can leave comments anonymously, they are public record and you shouldn't include anything you wouldn't want people to be able to search.
Comment on this to oppose banning ACA healthcare plans from covering gender affirming care:
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Marketplace Integrity and Affordability - 2025-04083
If you have a trans person in your life, providing direct aid when needed will be extremely helpful. This can include the obvious monetary support, like donating money to a GoFundMe, or more practical forms of support like accompanying them somewhere intimidating (like a court hearing), giving them a ride if they don't have transportation, giving them resources, or being emotional support if needed. This does not need to be directly relevant to transition or them being trans, transgender people are at particular risk of things like poverty and homelessness, so helping evade that risk also counts.
It is also important to support things like trans art, literature, and media. One of the effects of Trump's attacks on trans people has been the suppression of transgender art, such as the National Endowment for the Arts restricting federal funds to art projects, organizations, and venues supporting trans people or diversity, equity, and inclusion. https://www.ksla.com/2025/02/20/national-endowment-arts-changes-guidelines-setting-restrictions-art-organizations-artistic-expression/
If you are financially able to, you can give money to organizations doing work to help trans people. There are a number of organizations that are challenging anti-trans legislation legally, providing mental health support for trans people who are struggling, putting on clinics to help people get things like legal name and gender marker changes, and so much more.
I've included some popular groups (as well as a couple lists of groups), but it would also be a great idea to look into more local options. A lot of organizations are risking losing federal funding by continuing to work with trans people despite having much smaller budgets, so supporting them will have a comparatively bigger impact than donating somewhere that gets tons of donation money. I often ask people to donate to Diverse & Resilient (https://www.diverseandresilient.org/), based in Wisconsin. Note that some local groups have been capitulating to try retaining federal funding, so you should do your due dilligence and check their websites to make sure they are still committed to supporting trans people.
If you can't afford to donate money (or in addition to it), a lot of organizations have volunteer opportunities you can participate in. This may be as simple as following their action alerts (often stuff like signing petitions or sending emails), or signing up to do volunteer work such as phone banking, canvassing, or offering whatever skills you have.
Here is a list links to specifically action-alerts-oriented pages; you can also go to your favorite organizations' websites to look, as they often will have similar pages:
Allow me to be candid, here: This is my least favorite part of working toward social justice. It does not matter how gently or respectfully I try to word it, there are some relatives of mine who will either shriek at me or belittle me for being an "overreacting liberal" if I talk about any sort of social issue, and when you are treated that way it's easy to retreat into your own little echo chamber of like-minded individuals in order to avoid conflict and keep the peace.
I'm not saying you need to waste time talking to people you already know from experience are just going to antagonize you, but only discussing social issues with people who already agree with you is not enough. Posting a bunch of links and hot takes online that are going to be algorithmically pushed to the very people who will say "hell yeah" and click "like" is not enough.
This does not mean posting online is always useless and in-person discussions never are; the issue is whether or not you are only interacting with a pro-trans echo chamber, and what action those discussions result in. If you are moderate or conservative and/or most of your friend group is, talking about trans issues somewhere like Facebook and rebutting arguments from that perspective could easily be more powerful than a group of liberal or leftist folks blowing off steam together in person. It doesn't always feel like it, but there are conservatives who consider what Republicans are doing to trans people to be a gross violation of personal freedom; you should not assume anybody is completely unreachable or irredeemable.
The decision to bring up trans issues at a workplace is very complicated, and if you are trans I don't necessarily blame you for choosing "employed" over trying to shoehorn trans issues into workplace discussions, however you may have opportunities to bring things up that are relevant to your employer, such as committment to any DEI initiatives they may have been working on. If your employer has resources for LGBTQ+ or specifically trans people, utilize and support those. Express concerns if you notice things like processes or practices that might disadvantage trans people (for instance, at my employer there is a small group of employees who are cis allies who have been advocating for an easier process for changing gender markers in our system).
The point here is to reach people who might be concerned enough to act, but who might not be fully aware as their personal bubble is not talking about it.
Note: This webpage is designed to show most of the collapsed content (except for the capitulators list, as it is too time-sensitive) and links in its print version, in case you would like to keep or distribute it as a resource.
Creating and distributing materials such as leaflets, booklets, and stickers is one way to bring information about this issue off the Internet and into the streets. Some of the most well-remembered activists in history were leafleteers.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not giving legal advice).
Keep in mind that putting stickers on public property is not legal (https://reyabogado.com/us/is-it-illegal-to-put-stickers-outside/), but distributing things like leaflets is considered a 1st amendment right. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/leaflets-and-handbills) Another important thing to remember is that printers, particularly color printers, can frequently be identified by their printouts. You can learn more about this by checking out this page from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (https://www.eff.org/issues/printers) Remember what I kept saying earlier: Be careful about what language you are using and avoid statements that could be interpreted as threats. Your actions are probably be more trackable than you think they are.
I'm not telling you exactly what to write, but you should always consider things like who your audience is going to be when you choose things like content and tone. An action guide you are giving to people you already know are sympathetic and want to help could have a completely different tone from one intended to inform the general public, and both of those would be different from something like a guide to local resources for trans individuals or a zine of poetry written by a trans person. That said: There are a lot of different types of literature that are useful at a time like this! Distributing artistic works by trans people is a subversive act in a country where simply being trans in public is increasingly deemed to be inherently obscene, and so is distributing information on survival to trans people in a country trying to prevent it.
For printable literature, I like using QR codes to provide a convenient way to direct people to resources. My favorite is QR.io (https://qr.io), because it's free and I like the customization options, although it does go through some lengthy periods of having server issues. I typically also include the full address to where it points, as there are people who do not trust QR codes and would prefer to manually type it in. The pictured example QR code directs the user to this site.
Right now there is a bit of a resurgence in Zine Culture. You can make booklets of resources or information from one sheet of paper that folds easily into an eight-page booklet (front cover, back cover, and 6 internal pages). I am personally partial to the guide on making these at My Modern Met (https://mymodernmet.com/how-to-make-a-zine/).
Most of the literature I have made directs to my darker sister site (more oriented toward people who don't know what is happening or don't believe it's that serious) and as such can be found here.
Before anybody comes at me: "Disobedience" is not synonymous with "violence" or even "illegal activity." Disobedience is just refusing to obey orders, in this context orders that you know are intended to harm an oppressed minority. In an administration that is actively trying to get you to ignore and forget transgender people's right to exist, anything you do to challenge that is "disobedient." For everyday people, this can be as simple as wearing pins and buttons indicating that you are trans-friendly, or putting your pronouns in your email signature, something the current administration has specifically attempted to stop people from doing.
Disobedience can also mean refusing to comply if you are in a position where you are expected to carry out some aspect of trans erasure or harm. It can mean refusing to remove resources for trans people from a website you maintain for a government or corporate entity, or archiving it and whistleblowing about it if you truly feel you have no choice but to comply. There are trans people who have gotten correct passports after Trump's executive order; there is some suspicion that this is because there are some individuals working there who are playing dumb or otherwise refusing to comply.
One form of disobedience that has been very effective for helping protect trans people has been clogging up the "snitch forms" state governments and other entities have been creating in order to report trans people living their lives, or trans allies being affirming. When Utah passed legislation banning trans people from using state-owned bathrooms and changing rooms matching their gender identity, people flooded the forms, rendering them entirely useless. When Missouri had an online form to report "Transgender Center Concerns" (complain about trans people being provided medical care), it got flooded with the Bee Movie script. A form in Indiana to report schools teaching about LGBTQ+ people and other so-called "political ideology" topics, it got flooded with memes.
https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/utah-bathroom-bill-complaint-hotline-flooded-with-bogus-tips/
https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/21/missouri-trans-snitch-form-down-after-people-spammed-it-with-the-bee-movie-script/
https://www.advocate.com/news/indiana-snitch-line
A non-trans-specific example has been people sending a bunch of garbage to the email address that sent out that request for federal employees to submit "five bullet points" summarizing what they did in the last week, although it's not clear what effect this has had yet, if any (https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/22/politics/elon-musk-employees-emails/index.html). Updating in March, there is a similar snitch form for diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools (https://www.them.us/story/trump-department-of-education-dei-snitch-form-trolls-social-media).
It can also mean showing up and protesting, although if you do this, you should be sure to check out that Surveillance Self Defense site I talked about earlier. Notably, you should be extremely wary about things like Facebook events for protests that have no legitimate organization sponsoring them (and even if there is, you should consider whether or not it's a good idea for you to RSVP for any protest), avoid going to protests alone, or putting yourself on any lists related to specific protests. If you do organizing, do it off of the major platforms (Facebook, in particular, has shown itself to be overtly transphobic). You should also be aware that, depending on what you are doing, you may be at risk of arrest, and how bad that is will vary significantly from person to person. For instance, you aren't likely to get arrested for just booing at Rep. Glenn Grothman at a heated town hall, but Chris Kluwe did get arrested while protesting at a city council meeting. That arrest generated a lot of media attention, which is frequently the point, but also, he is Chris Kluwe and you (probably) aren't.
https://www.wpr.org/news/glenn-grothman-faces-hostile-crowd-at-oshkosh-town-hall
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2025/02/19/chris-kluwe-arrest-maga-protest/79240528007/
One group trying to bring back in-person direct action protests is Transexual Menace, an organization that started in the '90s and was recently revived in the current political climate by the same people who originally organized it after a long hiatus. They have primarily been setting things up in New York City, but are encouraging people to develop their own chapters in other locations. They have their own protocol for what security measures to take when organizing or participating in protests.
https://transexualmenace.org/
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