Hollywood and politicians blast Trump proposal to limit transgender identity

 

The Trump Administration is considering a proposal to narrow the definition of gender given at birth based on genitalia, a move that has been strongly opposed by transgender people.

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The Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly weighing options to implement a streamlined definition of gender based “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” and limit it to simply “male” or “female.”

Anyone who disputes the measure would have to undergo genetic testing in order to be reclassified, The New York Times reports.

“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 memo states, according to the Times.

The proposal has sparked outrage by many, including transgender star and advocate LaVerne Cox.

Last year, the Trump administration banned the CDC (Center for Disease Control) from using seven words in any documents the agency plans to use to prepare its budget, which included words like ‘diversity’ and ‘transgender’.

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“Transgender people are frightened,” said Sarah Warbelow, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, which presses for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, in an interview with the New York Times. “At every step where the administration has had the choice, they’ve opted to turn their back on transgender people.” After this article was published online, transgender people took to social media to post photographs of themselves with the hashtag #WontBeErased.

The Trump administration has also sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military and has challenged civil rights protections in the nation’s health care law.

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