A campaign with a protest outside the White House was mobilized by L.G.B.T. activists on Monday in response to an unreleased Trump administration memo. The draft memo, the latest effort by the Trump administration to retract the recognition of transgender people, proposes a definition of gender based on a person’s genitalia at birth.
Within hours of the news about the memo, the hashtag #WontBeErased was trended on social media. Two rallies one on Sunday and another on Monday took place in Washington relating to the issue. The rally by several hundred people was seen as a cry against the proposal and the activist continuously repeated the phrase ‘We will not be erased’ while referring to the upcoming midterm elections and encouraging people to vote.
Masen Davis, the chief executive of the bipartisan group, Freedom for All Americans stated that the memo was a way of scoring political points in the upcoming election. Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign deputy director said that there about 10 million L.G.B.T.Q voters and a million more voters who support them. Brown also added that they only have three words to say which is ‘November is coming’ referring to the upcoming midterm elections.
Roger Severino, Civil Rights department Director declined to answer any question regarding to the memo. The new definition which defines sex as either male or female would eliminate the recognition of 1.4 million Americans who belong to L.G.B.T.Q community.
L.G.B.T. media advocacy group, Glaad’s President and chief executive Sarah Kate Ellis, said that they will not withstand any move taken against them and that the rally against the massive attack which tries to eradicate trans from the society was one such intolerance. Executive director of National Transgender Equality Center, Mara Keisling, commented that the policy doesn’t make any scientific sense. Ms. Keisling being the creator of the hashtag #WontBeErased said that the memo makes the trans community to feel like they don’t exist as if they are invisible.
This has created a split in the public, with eight out of ten Republicans saying that the gender assigned to them at birth can’t be changed while 64 percent of Democrats differ from that opinion. Social Media was submerged with photos of transgender people and their family with the hashtag #WontBeErased within seconds of the memo news. A transgender advocate, Chelsea Manning, who was recovering from a surgery tweeted that they (trans) determine their existence regardless of the government’s definition about gender.
The policy proposal was seen as a effort to reverse the gender identity defined by tha Obama administration. The Trump administration has already taken many steps against transgender by debarring them from serving in the military. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan,a senior attorney who works with Lambda Legal, an organisation that fights for L.G.B.T. rights said that in practice, transgender people would be protected under the law of sex discrimination and only the struggles of transgender people would be much harder, he added.
Source 1: www.nytimes.com
Source 2: flipboard.com
