About 1.4 millon Americans are now transgender, but it looks like the Trump administration has decided it wants to erase them from officially existing in the eyes of the government. Protests are underway and the hashtags  #TransRightsAreHumanRights and #wewillnotbeerased are trending after The New York Times broke news that said:

 The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.

A series of decisions by the Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care, recognizing gender largely as an individual’s choice and not determined by the sex assigned at birth. The policy prompted fights over bathrooms, dormitories, single-sex programs and other arenas where gender was once seen as a simple concept. 

It’s a policy that some call “pure evil.” Yahoo points out:

A memo released by the Department of Health and Human Services showed an effort to narrow the definition of gender to male or female, and for that assignation to be unchangeable from birth.

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” read the memo. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

Transgender actress Laverne Cox states, “Example of the brutality of colonialism. This latest administration effort to legislate trans folks out of existence is yet another example of why the fight for gender equity must be intersectional and necessarily must include trans folks. Trans folks need everyone to stand with.”

The ACLU adds, “If the Trump administration dares to move forward with these hateful and hurtful policies against trans people, we’ll see them in the courts and in the streets. We’ll fight back against any efforts to use trans people as political pawns.”

Senator Bernie Sanders writes, “The cruelty and bigotry of this administration truly has no limit. We should be doing everything we can to protect our transgender brothers and sisters.”

Protesters are indeed doing what they can, quickly mobilizing. Last night they gathered in New York City and today they will protest in front of the White House to make their message known.

For those questioning the timing of this David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, points out this is clearly a political move tweeting, “It isn’t subtle. With two weeks left, @is madly pushing every culturally divisive button he can to try and spur his voters to the polls.”