The Trump Administration is considering defining gender as a person’s sex assigned at birth. The move comes at a time when LGBTQ advocacy groups across the nation are calling on politicians to pass heightened protections for transgender people.
If adopted, the Trump Administration’s policy could eliminate federal recognition for an estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming. That threatens their access to things like healthcare, legal protection, education programs, and military service.
Gina Duncan is the Director of Transgender Equality for the group Equality Florida. It's the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization and it calls the move “dehumanizing”. Duncan says the group is planning rallies throughout Florida from now until Election Day.
“We hope to make a strong statement that Florida will not be erased, Florida’s transgender community will not be erased, and we will not be moved back by a bigoted and discriminatory administration,“ Duncan says.
Equality Florida is also calling on Florida Governor Rick Scott to enact protections that would prevent workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for state workers.
“We call on the governor to not only stand by his commitment and his promise to protect LGBTQ state employees and send a message to all of Florida that we will be a welcoming and inclusive state, and also to push back against the violence against the transgender community which is rampant in the state of Florida," Duncan says.
Duncan says discriminatory policies like what the Trump Administration is proposing can demonize transgender people and can lead to real violence against those in the community. The Trump Administration’s moves would be a rollback of gender identity protections enacted during the Obama Administration.
