The Trump administration is considering a policy which would have devastating effects on the transgender community. As reported by the New York Times on Sunday, the administration’s memo describes a plan which would basically remove federal recognition of transgender and non-binary identities.
The plan calls for The Department of Health and Human Services to change the definitions of “gender” that are used under Title IX. As a refresher, Title IX is the civil rights law that protects people from discrimination on the basis of their sex. Basically, this policy would open up trans, non-binary, and intersex individuals to a whole lot of discrimination.
It actually gets worse in the details. Not only would this new definition of gender only recognize “female” and “male” as sexes (not intersex, even), but it would come down to a DNA test. This means that people who have already taken gender-affirming steps on the legal level—say, changing their name on their license or passport—would be in a bizarre limbo.
Tellingly, this policy would also call for gender to be defined as entirely “unchangeable,” which sums up the entire horrific policy.
What would this mean for trans people, in practice? Federal protections and identifications are actually a big deal, even if it’s not something people think about on a daily basis. For example, this policy could allow basic public services, like access to fair and safe housing and health care, to be limited, if not gone for the trans community.
This says nothing of how transphobia impacts people’s mental health. Even before Trump took office, trans youth were more likely to live with depression, drop out of high school, and attempt suicide than their cisgender peers.
Trans adults are more likely to be evicted or denied housing. Trans women of color in particular face disproportionate levels of violence, including that which is fatal.
But trans people, and their allies, are not giving up hope. On Twitter, a campaign using the hashtag “#WontBeErased” has gone viral.
The policy, which moves to define gender as, “as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” is archaic and narrow. It also reaches far back into transphobic ideas that people are defined by their genitals, and that someone’s DNA is a more pertinent marker for gender identity than what an individual identifies as.
While this policy is deeply concerning, it is worth noting that how feasible it is for it to become a reality is unclear. Title IX actually doesn’t fit into The Department of Health and Human Services umbrella, so what the actual reach of the proposal could be is tough to decipher. Still, the beliefs it expresses are cause enough for concern.
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