First, it was the states’ trying to ban the federal protections that Obama put in place under Title IX barring discrimination and sexual orientation.  In 2016, the Department of Education required schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom or locker room of their choice.  If a school didn’t comply, it could risk losing federal funds.

Then, the present Administration wanted to bar transgender individuals from the military, but the military knew better.

Now, the Trump Administration wants to limit the meaning of gender to male or female on birth certificates. Passports would change language from gender as well to sex.  The New York Times memo from the Department of Health and Human Services plans by the end of the year to create a legal definition of gender that will be sent to the Department of Justice.  It would be defined as a fixed status, “on a biological basis that’s clear, grounded in science, objective, and administrable, unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.” Genetic testing would be used to determine a person’s gender.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services plans to create this edict under Title IX law that bans discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs.  In 2017, Trump’s administration thought that Obama’s directive was a “federal outreach.” The HHS department has argued that the term “sex” was never legally meant to include homosexuality and gender identity.

The effects of Limiting Federal Protections for The Transgendered Community:

According to the Williams Institute, a think tank for LGBT research in California, a 2016 study revealed that 1.4 million American adults identify as transgender. Yet, with society’s non-inclusion, their stigmatized existence has resulted in:

• 64% of trans pupils are bullied for their sexual identity.
• 82% of transgender youth feel unsafe at school.
• 2018 is the worse year for deadly assaults against transgender Americans.
• Most of the violent deaths are against transgender people of color.
• More than ½ of transgender male adolescents attempt suicide.
• Suicide rate is higher for transgendered than for LGB community.

This new directive is undermining the welfare and rights of the LGBT people by eliminating federal protections.  It could also be defining transgender out of existence.