People participate in the Trans March in San Francisco in June. With Donald Trump becoming president, it’s hard to avoid the headlines that stoke fear about the end of trans rights.

Imagine you have a child. You were there for the birth and are listed as a parent on the birth certificate. You helped choose their name, changed their diapers and saw them take their first steps.

But according to the law, they’re not legally yours. To establish parentage in the eyes of the court, you have to fill out an adoption form with “stepparent” emblazoned across the top. At the bottom of the first page, it asks you to describe how your child was conceived. In extreme cases, a home visit is required before a judge will sign off on an adoption.

This process is just one of many outdated legal hurdles that LGBTQ people have to clear to be recognized as a family. There are 2.7 million LGBTQ adults living in California, nearly a quarter of whom are parents. My partner and I are among them.

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With about two months to go until Donald Trump becomes president, many queer people I know are scrambling to shore up legal protections, hiring lawyers and diving into archaic paperwork to legitimize their family in the eyes of the law.

The race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was billed as the most “anti-LGBTQ election” in decades. In the weeks leading up to Nov. 5, Trump’s campaign dropped $29 million on anti-trans ads, despite a Gallup poll that stated trans rights are a top issue for only 18% of voters. Trump’s website pushes for an end to trans players in sports and proposes a cut to federal funding for schools that teach critical race theory or “radical gender ideology.”

It’s hard to avoid the headlines that........

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