PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Civil rights advocates in South Florida said they were ready to stand against President Donald Trump’s orders against people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
Attorney Jon Harris Maurer is the public policy director of Equality Florida, a civil rights organization that has been monitoring the State Capitol since 1997.
Harris Maurer said those who support limiting the rights of transgender people are wrongly arguing that these conflict with the rights of women.
“Unfortunately, women are being used as a political pawn,” Harris Maurer said.
Trump terminated federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and blocked some requirements that transgender people be referred to by their pronouns.
Trump’s administration plans to only recognize males as those born with sperm and XY chromosomes and females as those born with eggs and XX chromosomes.
“I am personally very scared,” said Mei-Lan Diaz, the marketing coordinator for the Transinclusive Group, a nonprofit group based out of Wilton Manors.
The goal, Diaz said, was to “operate from a place of love, openness and grace.”