On Oct. 21, the New York Times published an article detailing the Trump administration’s “consideration” of narrowly defining gender as a “biological immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” which is the most drastic move made so far in the administration’s campaign to roll back the rights of transgender people in the United States.
The Trump administration argues that government agencies need to adopt a uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”
“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” their memo stated. “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.”
If anyone in the Trump administration had any clue what they were talking about, they would understand the absolute weight of putting something like this into law. To attempt to eradicate federal recognition of the existence of some 1.4 million transgender Americans is heinous and takes a position that what science and medicine has been telling the world over and over is completely irrelevant because the government disagrees.
I’m going to put this as simply as I possibly can: gender is so much more complex than previously thought, obviously, but so is our concept of sex. The notion of binary sexual dimorphism is a myth, and if you had an understanding of human anatomy beyond your ninth grade biology class, you would understand this.
Sure, you can argue that sex is a binary dichotomy, with “male” and “female” representing complementary sex categories for the purpose of reproduction, but doing so excludes a number of people who don’t fall perfectly into this binary. A number of individuals have an anatomy that doesn’t conform to either male or female standards, some 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births, according to the Intersex Society of North America. In the United States, that is at least 162,000 people, not to mention numerous people who have a more subtle variation of their assigned sex which may not be determined at birth.
These recent efforts by the administration are just another part of the cruel, baseless attempt to use the lives of queer people as political pawns. It’s a declaration of open-season on queer rights. By adopting pseudoscientific language regarding sex and gender, genes and genitalia, the administration pushes the agenda that legitimizes the discrimination and hostility transgender people already face. These policies would write them out of housing, employment, healthcare, education, etc. It is a consistent tactic used in the oppression of transgender people for centuries.
Transgender people face an alarmingly high rates of suicide. In a study conducted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute, 41 percent of transgender people attempt suicide at some point, compared to 4.6 percent of the general public. More than a dozen other surveys conducted since 2001 have found similar results, and the moves being made by the Trump administration are only going to see these rates go up.
When you belong to a marginalized community whose rights depend on the people in power, it’s hard to feel respected or safe. After years of struggle, transgender people finally got a small taste of equality under the Obama administration, only to have that crushed by the current political administration. I feel like my destiny is to forever be a political pawn in the hands of conservatives and liberals, at a time when transgender people are being increasingly targeted by acts of violence.
This latest attack on the transgender community, and on the queer community as a whole, will only continue to cost lives. It is setting a precedent that can and will lead to the further reduction of our rights.