The plans are the latest, and most draconian, of a series of efforts the Trump administration has been making to remove and restrict the rights of transgender individuals, including\u00a0military service<\/a>,\u00a0federal prison rights<\/a>,\u00a0health care<\/a>,\u00a0schools<\/a>,\u00a0the CDC<\/a>,\u00a0the judiciary<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n According to the memo seen by the NYT, the HHS proposes that \u201cSex means a person\u2019s status as male<\/a> or female<\/a> based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.\u00a0The sex<\/a> listed on a person\u2019s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person\u2019s sex<\/a> unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Right Wing Watch reports<\/a>: \u2018The effort is being led by\u00a0Roger Severino<\/a>, who has taken the anti-LGBT agenda of his former employer, the Heritage Foundation, into the Trump administration as director of the civil rights division at HHS. When he was named to that position,\u00a0a dozen U.S. senators objected<\/a>, citing Severino\u2019s \u201clong history of making bigoted statements toward lesbian<\/a>, gay<\/a>, bisexual<\/a>, and transgender people and attacking women<\/a>\u2019s access to health care services and reproductive rights.\u201d One of Severino\u2019s former colleagues at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Anderson, is at the\u00a0forefront<\/a>\u00a0of the Religious Right\u2019s anti-trans<\/a> crusade. Anderson\u2019s latest book is \u201cWhen Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.\u201d Anderson argues that gender cannot be severed from biological sex<\/a>, and that \u201ctaking our sexual embodiment seriously in public policy is not discriminatory.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n Severino in 2016 accused the Obama administration of attempting to<\/a> \u201ccoerce everyone, including children, into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n Lambda Legal added to statements from the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign<\/a> today with regard to the rumored Trump plans.<\/p>\n Diana Flynn, Lambda Legal Litigation Director, issued the following statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, transgender Americans received confirmation of what we had long suspected \u2013 namely, the Trump-Pence administration was literally trying to write them out of the law by defining them out of existence. This effort, spearheaded by anti-LGBTQ extremists in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), not only willfully ignores the long line of federal cases protecting transgender people but also inexplicably disregards the vast consensus of medical authority.\u201d<\/p>\n Yesterday\u2019s New York Times story was based on a draft memo that the newspaper reported has been circling since last spring. According to the story, in its memo, HHS proposed that for purposes of Title IX, \u201cSex means a person\u2019s status as male<\/a> or female<\/a> based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. The sex<\/a> listed on a person\u2019s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person\u2019s sex<\/a> unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf the New York Times story is accurate, the sheer breadth of what HHS is proposing is jaw-dropping. HHS would be calling on the federal agencies that enforce parts of Title IX \u2013 including the Departments of Labor, Justice and Education in addition to HHS \u2013 to accept its completely arbitrary definition of what constitutes a person\u2019s \u201csex<\/a>\u201d for purposes of applying federal antidiscrimination law in aspects of life ranging from education to employment to health care.\u00a0 This is clearly another ideologically-driven attempt by the Trump administration to marginalize transgender people and force them into the shadows. They have neither law nor fact on their side, and we will not accept this shameless attempt on the part of our government to erase the very existence of transgender members of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet us be clear:\u00a0 For years,\u00a0courts<\/a>\u00a0across the country have recognized that discriminating against someone because they are transgender is a form of sex<\/a> discrimination, full stop. If this administration wants to try and turn back the clock by moving ahead with its own legally frivolous and scientifically unsupportable definition of sex<\/a>, we will be there to meet that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Former \u2018Heritage Foundation\u2019 Exec Linked to Trump Plans to Legally Erase Transgender People<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\nREAD THIS:\u00a0Trump Plans to Legally Abolish Transgender People, Define Gender by Genitalia at Birth: Memo<\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n