The Current

By Chantal Morfitt

 

Just days away from the midterm elections in the USA, the Trump administration proposed an Anti-Trans action, which would stop people from being able to identify themselves as a gender other than their physical gender, or the one that is presented on their birth certificate. This means that transgender, instersex, genderfluid, or anyone else who doesn’t identify as cisgender, would be forced to be known as the wrong gender. This even hinders fully transitioned people, because it includes their birth certificate as a gender identifier.

 

The New York Times were among the first to discover this draft policy, and among the first to report on it.

 

This is not the first time we’ve heard anti-LGBTQ threats and actions from the Trump administration. According to Trans Equality, on “October 6th, 2017, The Justice Department released a sweeping "license to discriminate" allowing federal agencies, government contractors, government grantees, and even private businesses to engage in illegal discrimination, as long as they can cite religious reasons for doing so.” On the same day, “the Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation allowing employers and insurers to deny coverage for birth control, as long as they can cite religious reasons for doing so. In April, President Trump and Congress overturned a regulation that protected Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of care for transgender people, and other family planning clinics from funding discrimination by states.”

 

Basically, healthcare providers, federal agencies, and other government businesses in the US are legally allowed to deny services (like birth control, surgeries, and protection) to LGBTQ people, particularly trans people, if they cite religious reasons for doing so.

 

According to Erica Green, Katie Benner, and Robert Pear at the Times, this action “would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.”

 

Another law that Trump has passed, which discriminated against Transgender people, was in July 2017, Trump reversed Obama’s plan, which was set to start January of this year. Of course, in classic Trump style, he announced on Twitter that the plan had been abolished, and transgender individuals were not allowed to serve in the military in any capacity, because the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

 

The New York Times wrote an article stating that even though the ban was lifted due to civil rights groups suing and tremendous outcry from the public, almost none of the applications from transgender people have been accepted. Some have been pending for months. The Times wrote that “Sparta, an organization for transgender recruits, troops and veterans, says that out of its 140 members who are trying to enlist, only two have made it into the service since Jan. 1.”

 

Just after Trump and Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos took office, another Obama policy was reversed. This policy was to protect transgender students’ rights to use the bathrooms of their choice at school. Now, students are forced to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender at birth or physical gender.

 

After Trump’s newest policy proposal is making his stance on this subject pretty clear. People are calling out as an attempt to erase transgender.

 

“...It’s suddenly harder to keep up the mask of confidence,” Shakina Nayfack said to The Guardian “It’s just that gentle touch reminds you how weak you are.”

“It makes me feel unsafe … and I’m very white,” said Will Davis, a theater director, in New York to The Guardian. “It’s trans women of color who bear the brunt of it.”

 

People are protesting using the hashtag #wewontbeerased and #iwontbeerased on social media and marching to draw attention to the issue. Hopefully, the US government doesn’t go through with the policy. Until then, we can only support each other and hope for the best for our neighbours in the US, and for the future of human rights everywhere.