Support trans rights

The Trump administration dropped a proposed gut-wrenching policy bomb against transgender people on Sunday when it announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will seek to change the legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination.

According to a memo released by the DHHS, a new policy would allow the government to only recognize a stark definition of gender determined “on a biological basis.”

It would likewise define sex as strictly binary—either male or female—and unchangeable, determined by the genitalia a person had at birth, rather than the gender a person identifies with.

This change, the DHHS argued, is necessary because government agencies require a gender definition that is “clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”

What a hateful sham. What heartless persecution of folks who already face ignorance, discrimination and real physical harm on the daily.

The Trump administration’s proposed stance isn’t grounded in science, it’s grounded in fear—a fear that will only serve to perpetuate discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people.

People have expressed sex and gender fluidity nearly since the dawn of time. Sex isn’t physically immutable. Neither is gender. Neither are beliefs and norms.

It’s time for the world to recognize that sex, gender, love, dignity and compassion don’t exist on a binary. Identity, self and physicality can and do evolve, and it’s imperative that beliefs and practices do, too.

It’s time, once again, to stand up to this abhorrent administration and the people who support it.

Trans rights are human rights.