The existence of transgender people is not up for debate.
But the Trump administration seems to be proposing that our country do just that. The New York Times reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is planning to change the definition of sex encoded in federal civil rights law to one in which sex would be determined by a personās genitalia at birth.
That would exclude transgender Americans from civil rights protections ā and effectively write them out of legal existence.
The implications of such a proposal are staggering. Take, for instance, its sheer invasiveness, as James Hamblin wrote this week for The Atlantic:
Scientific implausibility aside, this is a federal agency proposing widespread genetic testing and keeping records of citizensā genitals. This is a proposal by the government imposing an expectation that everyone look and act in one of two ways, and that everything in between is somehow not right ā an aberration, an anomaly, a flaw, a problem, a disease ā rather than a marvel of the natural world.
Or take the chilling political game theory that critics like the Los Angeles Timesā Michael Hiltzik see in such a proposal:
There is no conceivable reason to support discrimination against transgender individuals other than to show one can target a community without a strong political voice or political power.
Or take the proposalās dubious distinction as being merely the latest in a long line of attacks on the transgender community from an administration with a connection to an anti-LGBT hate group. Itās that anti-LGBT history that Masha Gessen was describing when she wrote for The New Yorker this week:
The revocation of rights feels violent because it is violent. ā¦ Trumpās is the politics of simplistic categories designed to exclude ever greater numbers of people. This process is most obvious in the politics of immigration, where more and more people are being defined out of citizenship, out of legal residence, out of deserving asylum ā out of full personhood. That is precisely what the proposed legal changes will do to people whose gender expression or identity falls outside the newly redefined boxes for āMā and āF.ā
We watched cities around the country join in protest this week to say loudly and unequivocally, āWe wonāt be erased.ā
Itās an inspiring message that can apply to all the communities we are serving during this uncertain time ā immigrants, people of color, those who have been incarcerated, the economically marginalized and so many more, all of whom find their rights under assault.
But while these protections seem in doubt, our role is crystal clear. As Hiltzik concludes in his piece for the Los Angeles Times:
When word of the Trump administrationās determination to restore and expand discrimination against transgender Americans leaked out, it was left largely to LGBTQ advocacy groups to sound the alarm. But itās not their battle ā or shouldnāt be. Itās part of the battle for the soul of a civilized America, and that battle belongs to all of us.
We couldnāt agree more.
Weāre proud to represent our LGBT and gender-nonconforming clients, supporters and people everywhere who know gender both exists on and exceeds a spectrum of identities ā every one of them beautiful.
We hope youāll join us in this fight “for the soul of a civilized America.ā
The Editors
P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:
- āYou are still blackā: Charlottesvilleās racial divide hinders black students by Erica L. Green and Annie Waldman for The New York Times
- āI thought it was very nice’: VA official showcased portrait of KKKās first grand wizard by Lisa Rein for The Washington Post
- Geneticists criticize use of science by white nationalists to justify āracial purityā by Amy Harmon for The New York Times
- Naming the enslaved, reconciling the past in Memphis by Hannah Baldwin for SPLC
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Photo Lucy Nicholson / Reuters