Several hundred people took to the streets of D.C. on Saturday to protest the Trump-Vance administration’s policy proposals and executive orders targeting the transgender community.

The Transgender Unity Rally, organized by the Transgender Unity Coalition, began outside of the U.S. Capitol with speeches and continued with a march to the White House.

Speakers at the rally included activists and organizers as well as Georgetown University professor Chloe Schwenke. Schwenke served as a political appointee in the Obama administration working for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“USAID has been destroyed,” Schwenke stated. “And with it, the aid that goes out to LGBTQIA people around the world. 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 continued. “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.”

Other speakers at the event included Hope Giselle-Godsey.

“Too many of us have come here today in an effort to protest for things that we should not have to beg for,” Giselle-Godsey said. “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.”

“We have been here, we will always be here,” Giselle-Godsey continued. “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.”

D.C. resident Emmett Livingstone spoke about the need for 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 continued. “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 declared. “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.” Livingstone concluded to applause.

Following the speakers, participants began marching down Constitution Avenue chanting, “out of the closets and into the streets.”

The group of several hundred protesters peacefully marched on Constitution Avenue holding handmade signs and carrying trans and rainbow flags. The march ended on the Ellipse on the south side of the White House.

A video of the speeches was posted to YouTube by the Transgender Unity Coalition and can be viewed here:

U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday arrested 21 HIV/AIDS activists who protested in the Cannon House Office Building.

Those arrested, who were part of a group of more than 30 activists, began chanting and blowing whistles while holding signs, “Save USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), Save Lives” and “US Congress Kills People With AIDS Worldwide.”

The 21 activists who were arrested formed a circle on the marble floor and staged a sit-in to protest the Trump-Vance administration’s cuts to USAID and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and Congress’s failure to protect foreign aid programs. ACT UP NY, Health GAP, Housing Works, and the Treatment Action Group organized the protest.

“This demonstration marked the one month anniversary of President Trump’s controversial stop-work order that froze humanitarian assistance, an action activists described as both deadly and illegal,” Housing Works said in a statement.

The activists demanded the full restoration of PEPFAR funding, and warned of negative health outcomes from the funding freeze to PEPFAR and other international aid programs that USAID administered.

Capitol Police arrested the 21 activists after they did not follow orders to disperse.

“It is against the law to protest inside the Congressional buildings, so just after 11:30 a.m., approximately 21 people were arrested in the Cannon Rotunda for 22-1307 Crowding, Obstructing, and Incommoding.” Capitol Police said in a statement to the Washington Blade.

Washington Blade International Editor Michael K. Lavers contributed to this report.

The D.C. based LGBTQ youth advocacy and support groups SMYAL and the Wanda Alston Foundation, which among other things provide housing for homeless LGBTQ youth, have stated in recent messages to supporters that they face a potential funding “crisis” from Trump administration policies.

In fundraising messages sent to supporters by email, the two groups say Trump’s executive orders threatening to cut off all federal funding for organizations that provide services to transgender people, especially trans youth, could prevent them from providing what they call life-saving services to trans youth as well as all LGBTQ youth in D.C.

“Right now, the Wanda Alston Foundation’s youth and staff are facing unprecedented attacks, and we are grappling with one of the most challenging funding crises in our history,” the group states in a Feb. 6 email message to supporters.

The message notes that the Trump administration policies threatening to cut off funding for trans related youth programs were occurring at the same time that D.C. government agencies have “severely delayed payments” to groups like the Alston Foundation that rely on D.C. grants.

“This bureaucratic chaos is happening while LGBTQ+ youth—already disproportionately affected by homelessness and mental health crises—face increasing hostility in the political and social climate,” the Alston Foundation message says.

In its own fundraising message sent to supporters in a Jan. 31 email, SMYAL says the potential outcome of the Trump policies, including recent executive orders, could result in SMYAL losing as much as $88,000 every month.

“These funding cuts would have devastating consequences, limiting access to vital programs, mental health services, housing initiatives, and family support programs for queer and trans youth,” the message states. “We must come together to protect these essential resources and stand against policies that seek to erase and undermine our community,” it says.

Officials with both groups have since acknowledged that court rulings have forced the Trump administration to temporarily postpone the plan to immediately cut off all federal grant funding for programs related to trans youth. But the groups, along with national LGBTQ rights organizations, say the Trump funding cuts could very well take place in the near future.

In a statement to the Washington Blade, SMYAL Executive Director Erin Whelan said the group’s fundraising email came shortly before a federal court ruling required the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to temporarily rescind its Trump ordered policy of cutting off grant funds to groups like SMYAL.

“While the OMB memo has since been rescinded and is being challenged in court, we know that this is not the administration’s last attempt to cut federal funding for programs that impact the issues SMYAL works on,” Whalen said.

“Already, one of SMYAL’s federal funders cut off a grant early, resulting in an immediate $20,000 revenue loss for SMYAL each month,” Whalen said. “If further federal funding is frozen or rescinded, SMYAL’s analysis shows that we stand to lose an additional $68,000 every month—funding that directly supports housing and family support programs for queer and trans youth.”

Kurt Vorndran, a member of Alston Foundation’s board of directors, told the Blade the group also was initially concerned that Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs “would compromise, eliminate, or reduce our grants that we receive.” He said the Alston Foundation was relieved that the court orders halting the funding cuts at least temporarily have not resulted in the group losing any of its grant funds so far.

“We still feel that this administration has the potential for threatening our grants,” Vondran said. But he added that the fundraising appeal in its earlier email message drew a generous response from the community.

“It was the largest response ever that the Wanda Alston Foundation has received on an email appeal,” Vorndran said. “It was a great response from our community.”