Last night, SAGE made history: We forced President Trump to back down. Sometimes we sign petitions or letters and never see results. But last night we saw a victory -- sort of.
A few months ago, the Trump administration took the unprecedented step of eliminating LGBT elders from a federal aging survey that is used to determine how billions of dollars are spent on elder services, erasing any opportunity for LGBT older adults to self-identify.
We know that when the money is distributed, those who aren't counted simply don't count. So SAGE mobilized more than 15,000 LGBT elders and allies who said loud and clear: We refuse to be invisible.
Late last night, we learned that we made a difference. That's right, SAGE and our allies triumphed over the Trump administration!
But it was only a partial victory, because although sexual orientation was added back into the survey, the revised survey continues to exclude transgender elders, and that is unacceptable.
Once again, the Trump administration has picked on the most vulnerable among us. If they believe that a partial reversal of course will convince SAGE to abandon our transgender constituents, they are in for a big surprise. Their intimidation tactics won't diminish our sense of duty and loyalty to all our trailblazing pioneers, many of whom are the very members of the transgender community who stood firm at Stonewall nearly 50 years ago.
We will not rest until all of our community is counted, included, and supported. But we only have 30 days to tell the Trump administration that we will not be slapped down. Over the next 30 days, SAGE and our allies will rally our voices to tell Trump that our older trans community cannot be pushed around.
We will not be erased.
We will not be eliminated.
We will not go quietly.
We refuse to be invisible.
