Donald Trump trolled with huge ‘trans lives are precious’ billboard outside his Mar-a-Lago home
FOLX Health took over a billboard along I-95, outside of Mar-a-Lago. (Twitter/FOLX Health)
Former president Donald Trump is being epically trolled with a pro-trans billboard outside his Mar-a-Lago home.
FOLX Health, an LGBT+ digital healthcare company, said it decided to take over a billboard along Interstate 95, outside of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in honour of International Transgender Day of Visibility on 31 March.
The blue billboard has the simple but powerful message: “Trans lives are precious”.
The company told KUTV that it understands the “importance of visibility for transgender folks to see themselves and have their value reflected in culture”.
The statement continued: “With this in mind, FOLX sought out to create a moment deliberately reminding the former president (who focused on dismantling the rights of trans folks) that the community’s existence is valid and important.”
TRANS LIVES ARE PRECIOUS.
Please RT if you agree. This year for #TransWeekOfVisibility and #TDOV, we took over a billboard along I-95, outside of Mar A Lago. The billboard will be up now through April 18th.If you see it in the wild, please share and tag us ? #FOLXHealth pic.twitter.com/P3nceN6NHy
— FOLX Health (@folxhealth) March 26, 2021
In 2017, Donald Trump announced a ban on trans people serving openly in the US military. He claimed the military needed to focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory” without being burdened by the “tremendous medical costs” of trans personnel.
The anti-trans ban has since been lifted by president Joe Biden in one of the first executive orders he put through when he stepped into the Oval Office.
Last year, Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Department pushed a rule to allow federally-funded homeless shelters to reject trans and gender non-conforming people based on the shelter’s “religious beliefs”.
Since leaving office, Trump has continued his anti-trans tirade. Trump appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February. During his hour and a half speech, Trump hit out at Biden for advancing protections for LGBT+ people.
He claimed that Biden and the Democrats are “pushing policies that would destroy women’s sports”. Trump also claimed, incorrectly, that a “lot of new records are being broken in women’s sports”, adding that “young girls and women” are “incensed” that they are “being forced to compete against those who are biological males”.
Rocco Kayiatos, vice president of marketing for FOLX Health, told KUTV that he is a trans man who began his transition “more than two decades ago”. He added that he “would not have believed” that he would work for a company that would “allow me to run a billboard” with a pro-trans message.
“For trans people, visibility is about changing, affirming and saving our lives,” Kayiatos said. “More than just seeing other trans people’s images, the value of seeing a message – from your car while driving on a freeway in Florida – that your life is precious is just I honestly would likely drop my jaw, start to cry and careen off the road.”
