Combatting Fear and Panic: How the Transgender District is Resisting
In the middle of a hostile Administration, the Transgender District in San Francisco is taking a lead in empowering trans people.
by Veronica Esposito
“After the inauguration, the world was numb, but we were like, ‘We’re not doing this any more.’ We tried to get people to vote, but others just weren’t as invested in this election. So we stepped back and said, ‘What do we do to ensure the safety of trans and nonbinary people in our bubbles?’”
These were the words shared with me during a recent conversation with a fiery and defiant Breonna McCree. A longtime organizer and advocate for the trans community, she currently serves alongside Carlo Gomez Arteaga as Co-Executive Director of San Francisco’s Transgender District. We spoke about the profusion of attacks against the trans community coming from the Trump Administration, and what she is doing to fight back.
Established in 2017, The Transgender District was the first cultural district anywhere in the world to be centered around transgender people. Its numerous programs include efforts to address homelessness among the trans population in San Francisco, support trans people in obtaining accurate documentation, and act as an accelerator to help foster trans entrepreneurs. McCree and Gomez Arteaga took over as co-executive directors in 2023, following the departure of Aria Sa’id, who co-founded the District with activists Honey Mahogany and Janetta Johnson.
McCree has been energetic and practical in addressing the threat from Trump’s Executive Orders, wasting no time in taking action. One of the District’s first responses was to offer self-defense classes for trans people. “After the election, I was on a call with a few leaders, and I could feel the panic and the fear in trans people’s voices," McCree told me. “One of the participants said, ‘I think we should all just bear arms,’ and I said, ‘well why don’t we have self-defense classes, so people can have training to feel safer in their skin?’”
Starting in late February, The Transgender District began offering a calendar of self-defense classes to rotate at different locations and self-defense kits that include whistles and alarms. McCree emphasized that above all it is important right now to counter the fear and panic being sown by the Executive Orders by doing things like this to help trans people feel safer to go about their daily lives and continue to find ways to experience joy and thrive.
"These attacks will not impact our living,” she said. “It may mean that we need to strategize how to fight, but we’ve done it before.”
McCree also identified that the new Administration has caused widespread fear among trans people with regard to obtaining correct identification, a reaction that she believes plays right into the Administration’s hand. “We have a name and gender change clinic where people are now afraid to change their paperwork,” she told me. “They want you to not try, they want you to not turn in that paperwork. They want you to be scared.”
In response, McCree is currently working with legal groups to do info sessions to help provide trans people with accurate information regarding any potential dangers of filing name and gender changes. “Having the correct info to give to people is crucial right now,” she said. Videos of these sessions will be available on the District’s Instagram and Facebook pages so that trans people anywhere can access them.
She is also encouraging members of the trans community to continue traveling as they wish, and to enjoy their lives as who they really are. “People are afraid to travel without the proper identity documents, people are afraid to go on that vacation for the first time. It’s because of that panic and fear that was installed by the Executive Orders.”
McCree is also working to address the intersection of threats posed to immigrant trans people, who are at risk of attack for both their transgender and immigrant status. She noted that this risk extends to her colleagues, as the District recently hired a trans Latina who is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that protects the residency of immigrants who were brought over as children.
“She has the right documentation, but as a DACA recipient she is fearful,” McCree told me. “We have created two layers of security for entrance to our offices, and I told her that if ICE ever got into the office, they would have to get through me to get to her.”
Beyond direct actions to support trans people, McCree hopes to get the District more involved in reforming the Democratic Party’s disappointing record on trans rights. She is currently looking into transitioning the District from a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to 501(c)(4), as the latter designation will allow the District to engage explicitly in political advocacy. “That’s what a lot of trans people around the country are talking about. How to get more into politics and actually get some Democrats out there who want to fight for us.”
She also shared that she recently confronted new San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie at a roundtable of local leaders, asking him explicitly what he is doing to protect trans people in his city. “We did not get a clear answer in doing that,” McCree told me. She hopes to get more direct action out of the San Francisco Mayor’s office.
McCree further hopes to bring about more coherent leadership nationally, and is organizing meetings of trans leaders from across the country to talk more specifically in terms of a unifying political strategy. “We’re working on a national agenda. Folks are coming in from Texas, Seattle, Atlanta, to create a trans policy agenda. We’re trying to bring as many trans people in the room to figure out the best policies to hopefully start to shift something. For me, this administration has highlighted that we cannot do this in our silos, we need to figure out a national plan of attack.”
Fundamentally, McCree is urging trans people everywhere to not become intimidated by the barrage of actions coming out of Washington. “I personally have been encouraging people to wait and see what’s happening, what we’re fighting against,” she told me. “Let’s see how they’re being carried out and go from there.”
She is also encouraging trans people everywhere to focus on taking breaks, finding spaces of relaxation, and to continue experiencing joy in their lives. “People are really anxious and not breathing, and that is causing burnout, especially with our frontline workers. It is adding to the trauma that trans people already go through in our day-to-day lives.” Ever-aware that simply surviving is an important act of resistance for trans people, she is working on offering regular sessions of yoga, meditation, and other holistic health practices in order to provide space for healing and respite within the community. “We need to celebrate that we’re still here, that no matter what’s passed they can never erase us. Our existence is resistance.”
Veronica Esposito (she/her) is a writer and therapist based in the Bay Area. She writes regularly for The Guardian, Xtra Magazine, and KQED, the NPR member station for Northern California, on the arts, mental health, and LGBTQ+ issues.