The hashtag #WontBeErased became a rallying cry on social media for the trans community over the weekend after the New York Times published a report that claimed the Trump administration is considering defining gender as biological and unchangeable, determined by genitalia at birth. With 1.4 million people in the U.S. who identify as transgender, this new definition would strip them of federal recognition.
We’ve been walking this earth before men spoke their first words. We were high priestesses, messengers of the divine, healers, queens’ lovers and kings’ concubines. We were revered. We will show our resilience & we will rise again & again. #WontBeErased https://t.co/NDUhKiR523
— Cecilia Chung (@cecilia_c_chung) October 21, 2018
I spent too much of my life struggling to live in a life and body that didn’t represent my true self. I won’t go back. #WontBeErased pic.twitter.com/EBD7kI33ch
— abeardedgnome (@abeardedgnome) October 21, 2018
This is my daughter. She exists. She will not be erased. Vote as if her life depends on it. It does. So many lives depend on it. #wontbeerased #transequalitynow #thisiswhattranslookslike pic.twitter.com/pyC7YdE9ZF
— Jamie Bruesehoff (@jamiebruesehoff) October 21, 2018
Others used #TransRightsAreHumanRights and #TransIsBeautiful to protest the Trump administration’s reported move:
In indigenous cultures all over the world gender existed beyond the binary and folks who we would call trans today held sacred places in those cultures. Western colonialism drove those trans folks to the margins but we have always been here. Marginalizing trans folks is another
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) October 21, 2018
us in this fight, to let our government know this is not who we are. We need the citizens of Massachusetts to #VoteYesOn3 Nov. 6 to send a strong message that you value the lives of your trans friends, family and neighbors. Trans people have been under attack by this
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) October 21, 2018
In addition to the hashtag, protestors gathered in Washington Square Park in New York City Sunday night. A rally in Washington, D.C. will take place on Monday in front of the White House.
We will always protect our transgender brothers and sisters. We must transcend hate every day. And we must transfer power on Election Day. https://t.co/4EWrgooA38
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) October 21, 2018
“You saw such a massive response because this attack on the trans community is essentially trying to erase the trans community from the face of this country and we’re not going to stand for that,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of GLAAD, told the Times.
“Once again this administration is attempting to strip transgender and gender-nonconforming people of their identities and rights,” Debra Hauser, President at Advocates for Youth, said in a statement. “This egregious attack on civil liberties is a step backward for this country and a decision that will endanger the lives of the almost 1.5 million people in this country that do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, including many trans young people who are particularly vulnerable to attacks. This regressive and unscientific definition of gender is another attempt by Trump to roll back Title IX protections that prevent discrimination against transgender people and takes a step further to deny their existence entirely.”
We are out here in force. We are not going back. @realDonaldTrump, #transgender people #WontBeErased! pic.twitter.com/kLJIrktYRd
— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) October 21, 2018
Under the Obama administration, gender in federal programs became recognized as an individual’s choice and not assigned by a person’s biology at birth. But now, the Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly seeking to change that, by leading an effort to narrowly define sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bars gender discrimination in education programs receiving government funding, according to a memo obtained by the Times. The new legal definition would limit sex as either male or female, and immutable, with disputes clarified by genetic testing.
The National Center for Transgender Equality said in a statement: “This proposal is an attempt to put heartless restraints on the lives of 2 million people, effectively abandoning our right to equal access to health care, to housing, to education, or to fair treatment under the law. This administration is willing to disregard the established medical and legal view of our rights and ourselves to solidify an archaic, dogmatic, and frightening view of the world.”
I can’t begin to express the rage I feel toward an administration that is trying to redefine me out of existence. Just another gift for his small minded base, terrified of the diversity that has always made America exceptional! #Vote https://t.co/OrAPEnaK9r
— Chaz Bono (@ChazBono) October 21, 2018
