Imagine growing up not knowing if you belong. Growing up thinking that something's wrong with you, that you're different from everyone else, that you are an abnormal mistake in this world. Imagine growing up miserable and confused, until finally realizing why you feel so distant and detached from every other person you know.
Transgender. Finally, a term that describes you. A name for the way you feel and the person you feel like. A label that describes and validates your identity, making you feel like you finally have a place in this world.
LGBT rights have come a long way in this country, now granting the legal rights and recognition that people who identify as transgender deserve, largely in part to the work done by President Obama. Unfortunately, continuing the trend of attempting to repeal everything passed by President Obama, the Trump administration is acting to consciously derail these efforts, suggesting that all people should have their sex determined by how they were biologically identified at birth.
This is evidently a truly fantastic decision on behalf of the Trump administration. Way to invalidate some 1.4 million American adults (in addition to who knows how many children and adolescents) who define their gender as something different from what they identified as at birth. I'm sure they are beyond grateful to President Trump for yet another stellar decision to constrict human rights.
The presence of a policy change under consideration in regards to those who identify as transgender is a serious threat to the safety of a considerable amount of the American population. The Trump administration has moved to, yet again, ban transgender adults from enlisting in the military and assign transgender people who have been convicted of crimes to prison based on their birth-assigned sex.
The term itself could be defined out of existence by the Trump administration, and the term gender could become defined as solely the "biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth." If this new policy comes to life, it would be considered the most drastic governmental move to infringe upon the rights of transgender individuals in history.
This seems to be the next episode in the series of "Donald Trump tries as hard as possible to repeal and set back every single policy, bill, and law that President Obama introduced to this country." The Obama administration's decisions that loosened the legal definition of gender in federal programs was a huge step forward for the recognition and acceptance of the transgender community—something that admittedly put many Conservatives on edge.
Being the progressive country we claim to be, I would hope that this policy change never sees the light of day. However, too many things have occurred unexpectedly in the past two years in America to leave something like that to chance. If the Trump administration succeeds, the Department of Health and Human Services would include a legal definition of sex under Title IX, which is the federal civil rights law that eliminates gender-based discrimination in government-funded education programs. People who are trying to embrace their identities will only face more hardship and oppression; even if they take any actions to personally adjust to their true selves, any legal steps they take, in any capacity, will be filed and followed by genetic testing to resolve gender disputes.
Don't let this happen, America. Stand up for the freedom of expression, rights, and identity that we all deserve. Ensure that every single person in this country is able to live their lives without fear of oppression, discrimination, and hate.
