In most parts of the country, transgender and nonbinary voters face significant barriers to the ballot box — which have only increased with the recent wave of restrictive voting laws.
In particular, requiring identification in order to cast a ballot can make voting inaccessible and even unsafe for trans and nonbinary people whose IDs don't match their name or gender. Many states also have strict and extensive processes for updating IDs, creating an additional obstacle.
To help trans and nonbinary voters navigate these rules, and in honor of Pride Month, HeadCount has partnered with VoteRiders to launch #TransPeopleVote. The initiative is part of the larger "Vote With Pride" campaign, aimed at supporting all LGBTQ voters.
HeadCount is known for encouraging voter registration at concerts and music festivals. For the Vote With Pride campaign, the organization wanted to bring that same event-based approach (plus online and social outreach) to the LGBTQ community, which is often underrepresented and disenfranchised in elections.
"HeadCount through this Vote With Pride initiative really aims to connect members of the LGBTQ community to the tools that they need to vote safely and actively engage in civic life," said Miranda Rosenblum, who is leading the campaign for HeadCount.
The campaign started last year, ahead of the 2020 election. This year HeadCount is highlighting the particular barriers trans and nonbinary voters face at the polls and providing resources to that community to help ease the voting process. During Pride Month, the #TransPeopleVote and the Vote With Pride campaigns will be front-and-center to bolster voter registration and participation for the LGBTQ community.
Thirty-six states require some form of identification in order to cast a ballot. Two dozen states have rules that impede a person's ability to update the name and gender marker on their ID. Twenty-two states have both types of laws, making it especially difficult for their trans and nonbinary residents to vote in elections.
In 14 states, trans and nonbinary people have to provide proof of gender affirmation surgery — an expensive operation that is inaccessible to many — in order to update the gender marker on their ID. Another 16 states require name changes to be published in newspapers, another costly ordeal.
"This kind of high barrier in order to update your identification to feel good about presenting your ID makes it really difficult for trans folks to be able to have an ID that really represents them," Rosenblum said.
Voting barriers can be even more insurmountable for people with criminal backgrounds, which disproportionately affects the LGBTQ community. Nearly one in six transgender Americans have been to prison, according to HeadCount. LGBTQ people are 2.25 times more likely to be incarcerated than other people, according to the Prison Policy Institute.
For Black transgender individuals, the incarceration rate is nearly one in two. Twenty-five states have additional restrictions around name changes for people with criminal records, often felony convictions.
If these barriers were lower, trans and nonbinary people could have a voice and make a bigger difference in elections at the local, state and federal level, especially ones with small margins of victory, Rosenblum said.
HeadCount's website provides an overview of state laws around voting and ID change requirements and recommends the steps trans and nonbinary people should take to get an updated ID before casting a ballot. If a person cannot update their ID in time for an election, the website also advises on what steps to take to ensure a safe and secure voting experience.
Because trans and nonbinary voters are more likely to experience harassment at the polls, on account of their name or gender marker not matching their gender presentation, voting by mail is often a safer option for them. But states like Arizona, Georgia and Florida have recently approved measures rolling back mail-in voting.
Through the organization's partnership with VoteRiders, there is also a free voter hotline people can text or call to receive additional assistance. The hotline is staffed by a team of voting experts who are trans-competent, Rosenblum said.
"The more education that we can provide for folks outside of the trans and nonbinary community to really understand how significant some of these barriers are — and then on the other side, the number of resources we can provide for trans and nonbinary people to have an affirming experience when they vote — it can change our democracy," Rosenblum said.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.