Let’s stop pretending this is abstract.

We are living in a moment when this administration would rather issue a passport that lists the wrong gender for an American citizen than acknowledge that transgender Americans are who we say we are. That is not symbolism. A passport is proof of citizenship. It is the federal government’s recognition of your existence. And right now, for some of us, that recognition comes with a disclaimer.

That is the baseline.

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So when I see a prominent figure retweet language describing “trans ideology” as a “severe public safety hazard” that must be “cracked down on immediately and aggressively,” I don’t interpret it as mere opinion. I interpret it as escalation built on top of erasure.

First you deny legitimacy.

Then you recast identity as ideology.

Then you label that ideology dangerous.

Then you call for aggressive state action.

That progression is not accidental. It is a historical pattern.

I was born in this country. The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law. It does not carve out exceptions for Americans whose existence is politically inconvenient. I should not have to weigh whether my own government sees me as fully valid. I should not have to think about contingency plans for leaving the country of my birth because powerful men with enormous platforms are normalizing rhetoric that frames people like me as an inherent threat.

When a minority group is described as collectively dangerous—not individuals who commit crimes, but the group itself—that is not a public safety strategy. That is eliminationist rhetoric. It conditions the public to see repression as reasonable. It primes the ground for rights to be curtailed in the name of protection.

Transgender Americans are not a contagion. We are not an ideology. We are citizens.

We pay taxes. We vote. We raise families. We contribute to the cultural and economic life of this country. And we are protected by the same Constitution as everyone else.

If equal protection means anything, it means the government cannot decide that some citizens are hazards to be managed. It cannot treat identity itself as suspicious. It cannot strip dignity first and rights second.

There is no place in a democracy for rhetoric that prepares the public to accept the removal of a minority from full civic life. None.

The country of my birth does not belong only to the loudest voices or the wealthiest men. It belongs to all of us. And the promise of the 14th Amendment is not conditional on whether a marginalized group is popular this election cycle.

Equal protection is either universal—or it is a lie.