Trump Administration Considering Narrowing the Definition of Gender, Threatening Trans Rights

The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing. “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.” That means that the 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender would basically be not recognized by federal law, dismantling all of the decisions made by the Obama administration, namely that gender is recognized as the individual’s choice and not reflected in the sex that the individual was assigned at birth. “This takes a position that what the medical community understands about their patients — what people understand about themselves — is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” Catherine E. Lhamon, who headed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in Obama’s administration and helped to write transgender guidance that is being threatened. The DHHS’ excuse? According to the Times the agency has argued that “sex” was never inclusive of gender identity, or even homosexuality.