Trump Administration Considers Policy To Abolish ‘Transgender’ Identity
'Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits'
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The Trump administration is now considering defining gender unchangeable, the biological fact that is assigned at birth, removing transgender identity.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking to create a new legal definition of sex under Title IX.
HHS will define gender on:
"A biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” the memo writes, according to The New York Times.
The definition would define gender as male or female, as per the person’s genitalia at birth.
The memo also indicates that discrepancies would be determined by genetic testing.
“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the memo reads.
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“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.”
Former President Barack Obama instituted that wrongly allowed “sex” to include gender identities and homosexuality, paving the way for people to identify as any gender they choose.
“Courts and the previous administration took advantage of this circumstance to include gender identity and sexual orientation in a multitude of agencies, and under a multitude of laws … [leading] to confusion and negative policy consequences in health care, education, and other federal contexts,” the memo continues.
Roger Severino, the HHS’s Office for Civil Rights Director, said this of Obama's policies:
A “culmination of a series of unilateral, and frequently lawless, administration attempts to impose a new definition of what it means to be a man or a woman on the entire nation.”
Trump administration officials said that by January 2019 the HHS would present the new definition of gender to the Department of Justice.
This new policy would also affect transgender people serving in the military, and those who are students.
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Divisive battles have ensured over which bathroom students can use in school and what sports teams they can play on since Obama relaxed the definition of Title IX.
Many companies have covered the cost of transgender surgeries for transitioning employees.
While some states have made insurance companies pay for sex-change operations.
In 2017, Trump faced backlash for banning transgender persons from serving in the military.
But later, a U.S. district judge blocked the move, arguing that it was was a Fifth Amendment violation.
Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow said the proposed change has made people afraid.
Transgender people are frightened,” she said, according to the NYT.
National Center for Transgender Equality policy director, Harper Jean Tobin said:
It is “an extremely aggressive legal position that is inconsistent with dozens of federal court decisions,”
The policy change came after the World Health Organization (WHO) refused to classify being transgender a mental disorder in June.
