The Next Target of Discriminatory Administration Rules: Transgender People

An estimated 1.4 million transgender individuals in the U.S. could be impacted by the Trump Administration’s latest announcement that it wants to narrowly define gender based on genitalia at birth. This short-sighted idea has yet to be formally proposed; it is being considered as the Department of Health and Human Services works to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance. However, gender at birth is not as cut and dried as the Administration would like to believe. Transgender people already suffer worse health outcomes relative to otherwise similar people and this could make things worse. As pointed out by Perry N. Halkitis at Rutgers University School of Public Health, “The policy fails to honor the fact that gender is an emotional truth not defined by the parts with which one is born.” Washington’s Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, pledges Washington State will continue to protect the rights of transgender individuals.