| In the last two days, my inbox has been flooded with thoughts on what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for a whole host of marginalized groups. But there's one stat coming out of Election Day that has stuck with me: starting on midnight Tuesday, the volume of young LGBTQ people reaching out for crisis services from the Trevor Project jumped 125% compared to a typical day. The reason most of those people were reaching out, according to the nonprofit? "Election anxiety." "There are so many things about my life and so many reasons why I live life afraid," said Janelle Perez, executive director for LPAC, which works to advance representation of LGBTQ women and non-binary political candidates. "I say that as a woman, I say that as a queer woman, I say that as a Latina. When I hear people say 'you shouldn't be afraid because those things aren't going to happen,' all I think about is, 'man, it must be so nice to live that way.'" The angst, particularly among the transgender community, is understandable. Trump made attacks on trans people a key part of his campaign. At his infamous Madison Square Garden rally, Trump pledged to remove the "transgender insanity the hell out of our schools" and "keep men out of women's sports." In the first half of October, the President-elect and his supporters spent more than $21 million on a barrage of ads attacking Kamala Harris for her past support of transgender people, according to CNN. On his own website, he's promised to outlaw gender affirming care for minors and ask Congress to pass a bill "establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, as assigned at birth." The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the country's largest civil rights groups, in June warned that a new Trump administration could roll back anti-discrimination policies related to jobs, housing and health care and keep trans people from serving in the military —a ban the Republican already implemented during his first term, and was ultimately reversed under Joe Biden. His first presidency provided plenty of other examples for concern. GLAAD has tracked 225 instances Trump, his administration or campaign attacked the community via executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations since 2016.  LGBTQ supporters demonstrate outside of the Supreme Court in 2019. Photographer: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg "It's going to be daunting for our community," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive officer of GLAAD, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ advocacy. The anti-LGBTQ sentiment goes beyond Trump, though. This year, at the state level, legislatures have introduced a record 664 bills targeting the community, according to research organization Trans Legislation Tracker. Though only 45 have passed, the number of proposals is nearly four times the amount in 2022. In a 2022 concurring opinion in the US Supreme Court case that did away with the federal right to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the the court "should reconsider" its past rulings codifying same-sex marriage rights. If that happens, large swaths of the country could once again refuse to allow same-sex couples to marry. A marriage equality law signed by Biden in 2022 has loopholes that would allow states to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses, though they would have to recognize those provided by other states. Advocacy groups have already been prepping for this moment ahead of the election. Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, says it will be mounting legal challenges, working to advance progressive policies at the state level and ramping up its education efforts, which include debunking misinformation. "I've been through some dark moments in my life," said HRC's national press secretary Brandon Wolf, who is a survivor of the shooting at Pulse Nightclub, where 49 people were killed. "I've said many times that community has saved my life over and over again. I think we need that community right now, perhaps more than ever. Our first job is to care for each other because it's community that's going to get us through this." | 
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