UC Davis students share contributions of transgender individuals, contemporary rhetoric surrounding transgender rights
By EVELYN SANCHEZ — features@theaggie.org
The political climate has presented a troubling and frightening time for many communities in the country. With extensive immigration policies and widespread misinformation, underrepresented and marginalized communities have had the most to lose.
One specific group targeted recently has been the transgender community. Legislation specifically concerning the Trump Administration and how it might impact students immediately and long-term has been a topic of conversation. One of the more recent bills passed, AL SB79, outlines a standard for sex-based terms and requires the assigned gender at birth to be legally reported on documentation. President Donald Trump also recently signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” specifically barring transgender women from competing in women’s athletics programs.
“Transgender people have been around since the existence of humanity,” Newts Henkel, a first-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, said. “There’s documentation of trans people in cultures all around the world. Until now, there hasn’t been a necessarily defining name for those people, but in a lot of places historically, trans people have been significant religious and social leaders in society.”
The Navajo ‘nádleehi’ was a term for gender-fluid individuals in the Diné culture who existed outside of the traditional binary. As many as 150 pre-colonial Native American tribes recognized and integrated transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals within their communities. The Indigenous people of Oaxca’s Zapotec culture also held non-binary individuals in a very high regard, their cultural term for them being ‘muxes.’ They would adopt traditionally feminine work such as embroidery and decoration.
“[Transgender people are] acknowledgments of change and things that exist beyond our understanding and what is readily apparent,” Henkel said.
River Baker, a second-year political science and philosophy double major, also commented on the dominant role that transgender people play in terms of all queer rights.
“[For] a large portion of our rights, if you start taking away queer rights, you start the process of taking all of them like a domino effect,” Baker said. “In terms of the queer community, trans individuals play the dominant role in [queer people] having rights at all. If you take away trans rights, you take away all [queer] rights.”
On Jan. 7, 2025, Oklahoma passed a resolution, OK HR1002, regarding restroom access for transgender individuals.
“Only a person born as a biological female shall be allowed into any restroom facility which is designated for female members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, except as authorized for the operations of the House,” the resolution reads.
This legislation is one of many examples fueling rhetoric based in bioessentialism, the belief that people’s most important characteristics are controlled by biology and cannot change.
“I’ve been trying not to look at the news,” a second-year student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said. “There’s nothing I can do about these things, so why should I let it take up much of my mind?”
Henkel continued by sharing significant contributions that have been made by transgender individuals.
“Quite a few trans women have made significant contributions to technology,” Henkel said. “Trans people have been contributing to society regardless of identity, but I feel like trans people because of their identity are important. We are the embodiment of what can be and free choice and possibility.”
Transgender people have contributed to many important forums, from technology to activism. Lynn Conway designed very-large-scale integration (VLSI), which is the process of embedding hundreds of thousands of transistors into a single chip, transforming the global microelectronics industry. Sylvia Rivera founded The Gay Liberation Front and her participation alongside transwoman Martha P. Johnson during the Stonewall Riots was pivotal in asserting LGBTQ+ rights across the country. Sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski wrote and directed “The Matrix” and “Cloud Atlas.”
Despite transgender people’s contributions and importance in society, students at UC Davis and beyond feel that their importance hasn’t been properly recognized by either political party.
“I have an issue with the Democratic party because they don’t take any stances with anything,” Baker said. “They’re not liberal but more conservative in that they pander to the center-left and moderates. [America] is a very conservative country no matter who is in office.”
Baker continued by discussing that the left side of the political spectrum often settles for less active policies to avoid being considered too radical.
“They pander towards the moderate conservative because they don’t want to be that far left,” Baker said. “It’s less about their morals and what’s going to get them the most votes. I fear that liberalism is not an accurate way to define the Democratic party.”
With the establishment of Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), many important organizations and initiatives are being cut off under the pretense of streamlining government spending, including Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
“I think [DOGE] is a very unconstitutional creation and is giving authority to someone who wasn’t elected,” Baker said. “[It’s] giving them access to our private information.”
Musk has been outspoken about anti-transgender ideas and, during an interview with Jordan Peterson, claimed that his child was “killed” by the “woke mind virus” after she transitioned. In the same interview, he described gender-reassignment surgery as “child mutilation and sterilization.”
“The court has blocked [some] things, but I think that the fact that Elon Musk can have so much authority despite not being elected but simply because he has money points towards how oligarchical our country is becoming,” Baker said.
Regarding Trump’s appointment of colleagues to important roles such as Pete Hegseth, a television presenter for Fox News and former officer of the National Guard, who has held no previous political office, as the U.S. secretary of defense, students also shared their grievances.
“It’s a combination of distaste and disappointment,” Henkel said. “I would expect better from the world and government.I would expect better from the people who are making decisions for millions of people. [It’s] the rise of an era of utter anti-intellectualism and it’s so stupid.”
Despite modern legislation seeking to limit their rights and minimize their societal contributions, transgender individuals have been an integral part of society for centuries. UC Davis students have shared not only the contributions but also the important role that transgender people have played and continue to play in communities all over the world.
Written by: Evelyn Sanchez — features@theaggie.org
