Activists project ‘Transgender people #WontBeErased’ on Trump DC hotel

Activists projected messages in solidarity with transgender people on President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel Monday night to protest the administration’s efforts to eliminate definitions that give leeway to transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.

The National Center for Transgender Equality displayed several messages saying transgender survivors, voters, people of color and service members will not be “erased.”

Transgender survivors #WontBeErased.
Transgender service members #WontBeErased.
Transgender voters #WontBeErased.
Transgender people of color #WontBeErased.
Transgender immigrants #WontBeErased.
Transgender youth #WontBeErased. pic.twitter.com/wbP7kLSlyh

— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) November 19, 2018

The organization projected the messages above an entrance of the Trump International Hotel blocks away from the White House on the final day of Transgender Awareness Week.

“We felt it was important to once again to tell the country, tell trans people, tell the Trump administration and the president himself that transgender people won’t be erased,” executive director Mara Keisling said in a video statement.

“So we’re here today to make a statement about visibility, to make a statement to let everybody know that when they attack us, we fight back every time,” Keisling continued. “And every time they attack us, we get stronger and they get weaker.”

We went to the Trump International Hotel for the final day of #TransAwarenessWeek to make a statement about visibility – to make a statement that every time they attack us, we fight back.

We will always fight back, and we will always win. #WontBeErased pic.twitter.com/FuhaX9KQu2

— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) November 20, 2018

The projections also come amid reports that the Trump administration is looking to change the legal definition of gender to require individuals to identify as male or female based on their genitalia at birth, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times last month.

The Department of Health and Human Services proposed that government agencies adopt a definition of gender that is determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”

The change would essentially eliminate the definition that offers leeway to transgender and nonbinary individuals, rolling back protections for an estimated 1.4 million Americans.

The president’s D.C. hotel has become a common site of protest since he came into office.

Advocacy organizations have often projected images on the side of the building, including to call for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault leveled against Trump. 

The word “s—hole,” along with the poop emoji, was projected onto the property after Trump allegedly called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “s—hole countries” during an Oval Office meeting in January.