Trump-Pence Admin Reportedly Planning to Erase Non-Discrimination Protections for LGBTQ People

HRC responded to an explosive New York Times report that the Trump-Pence Administration intends to redefine “sex” to intentionally exclude LGBTQ people and their families from non-discrimination protections. According to the report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is planning to release regulations narrowly defining “sex” in an anti-transgender way that guts enforcement of existing civil rights protections for LGBTQ people. The Administration’s plans are in direct conflict with a growing trend in federal court decisions affirming that sexual orientation and gender identity are covered under our nation’s civil rights laws which prohibit discrimination based on “sex.” This is the latest effort in a consistent, multi-pronged campaign by the Trump-Pence White House over the past two years to undermine the rights and welfare of LGBTQ people.

“Setting a destructive precedent, the Trump-Pence administration intends to erase LGBTQ people from federal civil rights protections and eviscerate enforcement of non-discrimination laws,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Defining ‘sex’ in this narrow language tailored to the talking points of anti-equality extremists is part of a deliberate strategy to eliminate federal protections for LGBTQ people. This is a direct attack on the fundamental equality of LGBTQ people and, if this administration refuses to reverse course, Congress must immediately take action by advancing the Equality Act to ensure that LGBTQ people are explicitly protected by our nation’s civil rights laws.”

HHS will likely also encourage other federal agencies to follow suit in their severely restrictive and narrow definition of sex. The administration’s decision could have severe consequences for LGBTQ people across the federal government. For example:

• Same-sex couples and their families could be turned away from emergency shelters
• A transgender person could have their insurance deny them coverage for transition related care
• A gay man could be harassed about being gay at a job skills training
• An elderly same-sex couple could be denied in home meal service
• A transgender woman could be turned away from a hospital for a broken ankle

The Equality Act would finally add clear, comprehensive non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people to our nation’s civil rights laws. In addition to having bipartisan support in Congress with 246 cosponsors, 117 major corporations have also joined HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act. Discrimination is a real and persistent problem for far too many LGBTQ Americans. HRC polling has found that nearly two-thirds of self-identified LGBTQ Americans report experiencing discrimination.

www.hrc.org/blog/trump-pence-admin-reportedly-planning-to-erase-non-discrimination-protectio?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Trump Plans to Legally Exterminate Transgender People, Define Gender by Genitalia at Birth: Memo

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to legally exterminate transgender people at a federal level, and define gender “as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth” according to a report in the NYT.

The NYT: “The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined ‘on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.’ 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.”

RELATED: School Closed After Parents Declare ‘Hunting Season’ on 12-Year-Old Transgender Student: ‘A Good Sharp Knife Will Do the Job’

The plans are the latest, and most draconian, of a series of efforts the Trump administration has been making to remove and restrict the rights of transgender individuals, including military service, federal prison rights, health care, schools, the CDC, the judiciary, and more.

According to the memo seen by the NYT, the HHS proposes that “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. 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.”

HHS is pushing the Departments of Education, Justice, and Labor to adopt its definition as well so it will have a better chance of winning in courts.

The proposal is based upon HHS’s “own reading of the laws and from a court decision,” according to the paper, which notes that it would affect the more than 1.4 million Americans that have identified as transgender.

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Trump Plans to Legally Abolish Transgender People, Define Gender by Genitalia at Birth: Memo