Hundreds of transgender people and their allies gathered at the U.S. Capitol on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s widening assault on the trans community.

“Too many of us have come here today in an effort to protest for things that we should not have to beg for: our civil rights, our children, our medical care, access and resources and the ability to fight for a country that doesn’t give a damn about us,” said Hope Giselle-Godsey, director of communications for the GSA Network of trans and queer youth.

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“We have been here, we will always be here,” she said to cheers, according to The Washington Blade. “And there is no legislation, there is no piece of paper, document or thing that ‘that Orange’ can sign that is going to make us disappear.”

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Over the past month, Trump has issued executive orders to ban healthcare for trans youth, bar trans student-athletes from playing school sports, end changes to gender markers on U.S. passports, and purge trans service members from the U.S. military. His shutdown of USAID has unleashed chaos for recipients of life-saving medications through PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS. 

The Transgender Unity Rally, organized by the Transgender Unity Coalition, began at the Capitol and continued with a march to the Ellipse, the large oval-shaped park at the southern end of the White House.

The marchers on Constitution Avenue held handmade signs and trans and rainbow Pride flags, chanting, “Out of the closets and into the streets!”

“USAID has been destroyed, and with it, the aid that goes out to LGBTQIA people around the world,” said Georgetown University professor Chloe Schwenke, a onetime Obama appointee to the aid agency. “Some of that aid is literally there to keep them alive — the women, the children, the men who have AIDS — they will not get their medication. They will die. And this administration is okay with that policy.”

“They are now deciding how to deny visas to people who want to come to World Pride here in Washington, D.C.,” Schwenke said of Trump’s State Department. “They do not want transgender people coming to Washington. And they do not want transgender people coming to Los Angeles as athletes or even as spectators for the Olympics in 2028. They are working on that now. How to keep trans people out of America, even as visitors.”

D.C. resident Emmett Livingstone whipped the crowd with a message of resistance and non-compliance.

“As individuals in our various communities and workplaces, I encourage you all to be as irritating and hard to remove as a pebble in their shoe, a grain of sand in their eye, or even better — be glitter,” Livingstone said.

“Everyone,” Livingstone exhorted the protesters, “let’s race to support each other and grind their efforts to deny us to a halt. Do not go quietly. Correct misinformation when you hear it. Even a simple, ‘Hey man, that’s not okay.’”

“Trump is not a king, Elon is not our president,” Livingstone said. “I call on all of you to resist in any way you can, big or small. Be the glitter they cannot get rid of and never let anyone dull your shine.”

“President Trump is set on fulfilling all of the promises of Project 2025, but I have a promise for him and his cronies. I promise that we are not going away. I promise that we will not be silent. Today we show the world that we are Americans too and we will not be denied. We’re here, we’re queer. They will get used to it.”  

Some good news preceded the march when a federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction late Friday blocking the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from hospitals in four states that offer gender healthcare for trans youth.

The judge, Lauren J. King, said Trump’s order likely violates the separation of powers between the executive branch and Congress, and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantees to youth seeking gender-related care.

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