The Coali­tion Ad­vo­cat­ing for In­clu­sion of Sex­u­al Ori­en­ta­tion (CAISO) is rais­ing con­cerns about the po­ten­tial glob­al con­se­quences of U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s re­cent de­c­la­ra­tion that “there are on­ly two gen­ders: male and fe­male.”

CAISO is par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerned that Trump’s stance might em­bold­en lo­cal po­lit­i­cal and re­li­gious lead­ers to adopt sim­i­lar rhetoric. “We are wor­ried that our lead­ers may take up this po­si­tion with­out con­sid­er­ing the views of cit­i­zens or the dev­as­tat­ing im­pact on vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties,” Shep­herd warned. “Re­li­gious lead­ers could al­so use this as fu­el for ex­ist­ing con­ser­v­a­tive be­liefs about gen­der and sex­u­al­i­ty.”

Shep­herd point­ed out that Trinidad and To­ba­go al­ready has no ex­plic­it le­gal pro­tec­tions for LGBTQI+ in­di­vid­u­als. “Imag­ine what it must feel like to be un­af­firmed and alone in the world,” Shep­herd said. “Far too many LGBTQI+ peo­ple here are de­nied ba­sic rights, sub­ject­ed to bul­ly­ing, hate crimes, and in­tol­er­ance. Every time lead­ers de­ny the re­al­i­ty of gen­der and sex­u­al di­ver­si­ty, they put re­al lives at risk. This is not hy­per­bole—it’s a doc­u­ment­ed fact.”

Trump made the state­ment dur­ing his Jan­u­ary 20 in­au­gur­al ad­dress, spark­ing fears of a re­newed wave of an­ti-LGBTQI+ poli­cies world­wide, in­clud­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“These eight words—‘there are on­ly two gen­ders: male and fe­male’—are be­ing used to in­val­i­date the lived ex­pe­ri­ences of trans, gen­der-non­con­form­ing, and in­ter­sex peo­ple,” said Cather­ine Shep­herd (she/her), Di­rec­tor of CAISO: Sex & Gen­der Jus­tice. “But no state­ment, law, or pol­i­cy can erase gen­der and sex­u­al di­ver­si­ty. We have al­ways ex­ist­ed and will con­tin­ue to ex­ist.”

Shep­herd not­ed that Trump’s state­ment comes amidst a glob­al surge in con­ser­v­a­tive move­ments tar­get­ing LGBTQI+ rights, sex­u­al and re­pro­duc­tive health, and so­cial jus­tice. “The stakes are high,” Shep­herd said. “The rise in an­ti-trans vi­o­lence and in­tol­er­ance di­rect­ly cor­re­lates with this kind of rhetoric and pol­i­cy-mak­ing.”

Lo­cal­ly, CAISO’s Whole­ness and Jus­tice Pro­gramme has doc­u­ment­ed years of sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion against LGBTQI+ in­di­vid­u­als. Their 2023 In­sights Re­port high­light­ed the chal­lenges work­ing-class LGBTQI+ peo­ple face in ac­cess­ing hous­ing, health­care, polic­ing, and em­ploy­ment.

“We are fail­ing to pro­vide eq­ui­table ser­vices and pro­tec­tions,” Shep­herd said. “This hin­ders LGBTQI+ in­di­vid­u­als from en­joy­ing even the most ba­sic hu­man rights. It’s a harsh re­al­i­ty that must change.”

Shep­herd un­der­scored that LGBTQI+ in­di­vid­u­als are not ab­stract po­lit­i­cal con­cepts. “We are your chil­dren, sib­lings, teach­ers, doc­tors, and neigh­bours,” she said. “We are tax-pay­ing cit­i­zens who con­tribute to so­ci­ety. Our hu­man­i­ty is not ne­go­tiable, nor is it up for de­bate.”

Shep­herd al­so called for greater recog­ni­tion of aca­d­e­m­ic in­sights from gen­der stud­ies, which have shaped in­clu­sive poli­cies and high­light­ed the im­por­tance of ad­dress­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion. “The fall­out from one ex­ec­u­tive or­der at­tempts to dis­miss over 40 years of re­search and ad­vo­ca­cy,” Shep­herd said.

CAISO reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to ad­vo­cat­ing for LGBTQI+ rights in Trinidad and To­ba­go. “Every creed and race must tru­ly find an equal place,” Shep­herd said, quot­ing the na­tion­al an­them. “Our gov­ern­ment must act in align­ment with the core prin­ci­ples of non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and sub­stan­tive equal­i­ty un­der in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man rights con­ven­tions.”

As CAISO en­ters its fifth year of ser­vice, the or­gan­i­sa­tion con­tin­ues to pro­vide le­gal, clin­i­cal, and de­vel­op­men­tal sup­port to LGBTQI+ in­di­vid­u­als through its Whole­ness and Jus­tice Pro­gramme.

“We will not stop ad­vo­cat­ing for a more in­clu­sive, eq­ui­table so­ci­ety,” Shep­herd said. “Now, more than ever, we must re­sist the roll­back of hu­man rights and hold the line for jus­tice and dig­ni­ty for all.”