LeGaL: The Trump Administration Cannot Unilaterally Exclude Transgender People From Civil Rights Law

According to a memo obtained by the New York Times, the Department of Health and Human Services is leading a draconian effort to establish a legal definition of “sex” under the federal civil rights law, Title IX, as “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.”

LeGaL, The LGBT Bar Association of New York, issue the following statement:

Transgender people are literally fighting for their lives. The Trump administration cannot erase transgender people out of existence. The definition proposed by this memo is barbaric and sweeping. It runs counter to dozens of rulings by federal courts across the country that have held that transgender people ARE protected under federal law. The policy also flies in the face of the consensus of medical authority.

Donald Trump has been stacking federal agencies and federal courts with anti-LGBT lawyers who are warriors in the fight against trans people’s rights under the law. LeGaL has a 40 year history of fighting to protect the most vulnerable members of our community from discrimination, bigotry and indifference at the hands of the government. We will continue to fight them.