With the news that Donald Trump won a second term as president earlier this week, terror and uncertainty spread across Oregon’s LGBTQ+ — and transgender communities in particular — in light of what the 45th and soon-to-be said the 47th president about them.

To what extent will it fulfill its stated agenda? How far will his influence reach? And how much of what he said was simply campaign talk?

Many members of Oregon’s LGBTQ+ communities say they are bracing for the impact once Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20.

“I think there’s something on the table,” said Blair Stenvick, a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Basic Rights Oregon, who is also trans. “He was very clear about what he thinks about trans people. And now he will have uncontrolled power. It’s scary.”

LGBTQ+ rights advocates say they have no reason to believe Trump won’t act on everything he’s promised. During his victory speech on wednesday he reaffirmed a general and broad commitment to follow through on his campaign promises.

“We’re going to turn it around,” Trump said. “We’ll do it all ways, so many ways, but we’ll do it all ways.”

LGBTQ+ rights advocates worry that Trump’s influence will encourage communities in parts of Oregon to enact their own local rules and restrictions. That’s on top of what lawyers could be Congressional legislation fueled by Trump which could tie federal funding to Trump’s views on LGBTQ+ rights.

Trump has promised to cut off Medicaid and Medicare money for health care providers who give minors sex-affirming care, such as hormones or surgery. He said he plans to impose “severe consequences,” including cutting federal dollars, on schools where teachers who talk about gender identity “suggest to a child that they might be trapped in the wrong body.”

And he talked about banning girls or transgender women from competing in women’s sports. He also promised to reinstate a first-term ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, which current President Joe Biden has rescinded.

He hasn’t said much about his positions on other LGBTQ+ rights lately, but he has offered countless views over the years.

Porta said she believes that if Congress and the Supreme Court uphold Trump’s to-do list, it could be difficult to impossible to uphold certain LGBTQ+ rights in Oregon — among them same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ couples who adopt children.

“The next president doesn’t like Oregon very much,” said Debra Porta, executive director of Pride Northwest, a Portland-based LGBTQ+ nonprofit. “There are so many unknowns. We don’t know how far they will push certain envelopes. That’s where most of the fear comes from.”

A survey of Oregonians last year showed strong support for protecting transgender people from discrimination in jobs and housing, but that support was deeply divided when it came to other areas, including participation in sports (61% supported allowing athletes to compete only in sports based on the sex they were assigned at birth) and allowing schools to teach about gender identity ( almost 50-50).

Residents in the Portland area aligned much more closely with transgender communities than residents in many other parts of the state, including on the issue of whether a person’s gender is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. A third of respondents in the Portland area agreed, compared to nearly double the rest of the state outside the Willamette Valley.

Jeff Selby, acting director of the City of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights, said the city is aware of the range of plans Trump has announced — from transgender people to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. But despite that agenda, Selby said the city is committed to upholding its core values ​​of anti-racism and fairness among all people.

“As city employees, our work is nonpartisan,” Selby said. But “this is not about politics. This is about a leader who specifically targets and attacks the people and communities we serve.”

The city’s Office of Equity and Human Rights is not funded by federal dollars, Selby said. But some wonder if Trump might also cut funding to cities or states, as he has threatened to do to schools that teach about gender identity.

And what would cross the line: Portland’s plans to build Darcelle XV Plazain honor of the deceased drag queen performer — complete with a pink triangle canopy? Or the efforts of a city or county to a encourage a diversity of contractors bid for jobs?

Selby questions whether Trump will control funding to run at the federal level housing and anti-job discrimination programs based on federal civil rights laws.

“If the federal government doesn’t enforce these laws or withhold funds, that could have a huge impact on the entire Portland community,” Selby said.

Porta, of Pride Northwest, said he was at a results viewing party on election night when the outcome of the 2024 presidential race became clear. And participants took all the positives they could find, she said.

“A community member came up to me and expressed his relief that, ‘Thank God we live in Oregon,'” Porta said. “For the most part, it’s true.”

Despite the efforts of some communities outside the Portland area “bubble,” LGBTQ+ people are more protected in Oregon than many other states, Porta said.

In 2007, Oregon prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in workplace, housing and public housing — joining an old list of other protected characteristics such as race and religion. The Oregon Legislature has also passed laws supporting gender-affirming care, including last year when this one insurance companies requested to cover necessary medical procedures.

Oregon is also notable for what it didn’t do. It is not part of a wave of states that have recently banned transgender youth from competing in sportstransgender people asked to use public toilets based on the sex they were assigned at birth or outlaw medical providers from providing gender-affirming care for young people.

“But,” Porta said, under a second Trump presidency, “we have to be careful. We can’t take what we have in Oregon for granted.”

Efforts are underway to ask voters in 2026 to approve a ballot measure which would enshrine rights to same-sex marriage, transgender health care and abortion in Oregon’s constitution. Currently, the state constitution defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, although a federal judge in 2014 and the US Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that definition unconstitutional. Oregon’s constitutional change would be insurance if the U.S. Supreme Court, now stocked with three Trump appointees and more likely to come, reverses its 2015 ruling.

There is also the fear that during his second term, Trump’s rhetoric may again cause an increase in hostility and violence towards LGBTQ+ people, as well as racism and xenophobia directed at non-white or non-white people. were born in the United States.

“Just like in 2016, there are people in this state and in this region who will be encouraged to believe that it will be okay to harm us,” Porta said.

Although unofficial results show Vice President Kamala Harris with a solid victory in Oregon, Trump still won a significant share of the vote, notes Stenvick of Basic Rights Oregon. Friday’s results show it has attracted 42% of the votes. And that’s unsettling on a “human-to-human level,” Stenvick said.

“As trans people, we’re just trying to live our own lives, make our own medical decisions with our doctors, and exist without discrimination in the public sphere,” Stenvick said. “And just knowing that there’s going to be somebody in the White House that’s antagonistic to that, that’s scary.”

— Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Contact her at 503-294-5119, [email protected] or @o_aimee.

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