The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) rejects and condemns the Trump administration’s attempt to undermine the civil rights and protections of people who are transgender or gender nonconforming.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that the administration is proposing to narrowly define “sex,” for purposes of nondiscrimination across federal programs, as “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” This is an archaic, malicious attempt to roll back the hard-fought legal rights of transgender people. If implemented, it will perpetuate health care access barriers, harassment in schools and workplaces, and discrimination across a wide range of contexts.
As a civil and human rights organization dedicated to defending the rights of people with disabilities, we will fight alongside our LGBTQI allies, many of whom inhabit and embody both disability and gender nonconforming communities. Transgender and gender nonconforming individuals face discrimination and mistreatment in all aspects of life, and these injustices are only compounded when they intersect with disability. For example, people who are both transgender and disabled are significantly more likely to face discrimination in the health care and social service settings; be subjected to economic and housing instability; and confront harassment and violence in school (as compared to both the general population and individuals with only one of these demographic characteristics). Indeed, just last week, GLSEN released its biennial National School Climate Survey, which confirmed that school bullying and harassment against LGBTQ students with disabilities is increasing.
DREDF is gravely concerned that the Trump administration’s new policy would make it even more difficult for transgender and gender nonconforming people to assert their federal civil rights, which would exacerbate existing discrimination, mistreatment, and health disparities. People with disabilities are all too familiar with having stereotyped expectations and bad behavior thrust upon us because of features we are born with or acquire. DREDF firmly supports a broad and inclusive interpretation of civil rights laws, and we stand in solidarity with our LGBTQI allies, their families, and the broader human rights community in opposing this bigoted proposal. Transgender and gender nonconforming people—including those with disabilities—#WontBeErased.