(Voting sticker and ballot stub. (Source: PXHere - https://pxhere.com/en/photo/288597))
The Trump administration is considering narrowing the legal definition of gender to just male and female, as well as making it unchangeable and biologically determined at birth. This definition would disregard and delegitimize transgender and non-binary people in the eyes of federal law.
Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that’s meant to ban sex discrimination in federally funded education programs. If it goes forward, the decision by the HHS would heavily affect the transgender community in more ways than just education.
HHS wants other departments (Justice, Education, Labor) as well to base their definition of gender on the genitalia a person is born with. The proposed move would jeopardize civil rights protections for trans people facing discrimination in schools, workplaces, housing, and health care.
The trans community is speaking out on social media.
On the same day the New York Times reported the story, the hashtags #TransRightsAreHumanRights and #WontBeErased started trending on Twitter. Here’s what some young people had to say about the Trump administration’s continued moves to roll back LGBTQ rights.
While these hashtags were trending, others took to social media to express their support for the Trump administration’s proposed redefinition of gender under federal law.
Over a million people in the United States identify as transgender. If the Trump administration, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services, follows through with this adjustment to Title IX, the law will neither recognize their identity nor protect them from discrimination.
The midterm elections are around the corner, and there are many lawmakers and pieces of legislation that will affect many transgender people’s lives on the ballot. Who is elected and what laws pass will play an outsized role in determining how our society treats LGBTQ communities moving forward.