By Kayla DeMicco
Opinion Editor
Ever since Trump began his presidency, he has had plans for anti-progressive laws, proposals and to basically undo what Obama did. Many minority groups have felt the impact of these decisions and for them, it’s not an easy thing to live with.
In the summer of 2017, Trump announced on Twitter that he was banning transgender people from serving “in any capacity in the U.S. Military” because the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
This ban was a huge step away from gaining more rights for the LGBTQ+ community.
The Human Rights Campaign called it “an unnecessary and unwarranted attack against people who have volunteered to put their lives on the line for their country.” Them along with a few federal courts deemed it unconstitutional.
Mashable reported this past March that the Trump Administration said that the policy would not discharge any people that are current serving who are transgender, but block any who were trying to enlist. While the courts denied it going into effect, the Department of Defense wants the policy to be enforced and threatened to discharge transgender people currently serving.
On Oct. 21, the New York Times broke news that the “Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.”
This new proposal comes from from Title 9 of the Federal Civil Rights Law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity. This says that no person shall be subjected to discrimination, but doesn’t define “sex” or “discrimination.”
To address the controversy surrounding the situation, Trump said, “We have a lot of different concepts right now. They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now — you know that as well as I do — and we’re looking at it very seriously. I’m protecting everybody. I want to protect our country.”
Once again, the Trump Administration is moving in the opposite direction of progress and undoing the anti-discrimination statuses that Obama had set.
For transgender and gender-nonconforming people, this proposal could mean that they lose their rights.
Trans rights are human rights. Trans people are human beings too, treat them as such.
“This is an attack on the humanity of transgender people and it cannot stand.
Let’s send a clear message that we won’t sit back and allow this type of discrimination in two weeks at the ballot box,” said Hillary Clinton on Twitter about this issue.
Since everything is still new in this situation, there is still time to think about the future. CNN says that the public still have a chance to voice their comments for the administration to consider before issuing a final rule. If this proposal becomes a policy, court battle will occur to bring this issue to the Supreme Court.
Twitter user @samdylanfinch said, “Transgender people… are people. Not a political stance, not an ideology, not an agenda… human beings, across a spectrum of beliefs and experiences. There’s no such thing as ‘I don’t agree with transgender.’ We are a group of people that exist; our existence isn’t a question.”
It’s not easy being a minority at this point in time in this country.
What can one person do to help transgender people when their voices are silenced?
Call your representatives at the federal, state, and local levels and tell address your concerns.
Vote for politicians and policies that protect trans people (Make the right decision on November 6th).
Donate to trans owned organizations.
Educate yourself, then educate your family and friends on trans rights.
Support all-gender/gender neutral public restrooms.
Most importantly, offer love and support to your trans and non-binary friends and peers and respect their pronouns.
