The Trump administration is planning to erase 1.4 million transgender people from federal recognition. The Department of Health and Human Services is circulating a memo proposing a tight definition of sex and gender (or a definition of sex that excludes the relevance of gender) under Title IX, the federal law against gender discrimination in education. Yes, they want to use an anti-discrimination law to discriminate.
HHS is trying to get other federal agencies to sign on to create a uniform standard of exclusion and discrimination. The goal is a standard that defines sex “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” but the standard as proposed goes against a lot of current science:
“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”
The Trump administration has already rolled back several specific forms of civil rights protections for transgender people, but this plan, if implemented, would apply much more broadly. And the fact that a presidential administration is considering anything this dehumanizing is horrifying.
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