How to Fight the Latest Attempts to Erase 鈥淭ransgender鈥�

While you might have been focused in recent weeks on flashier headlines about the latest mass shooting or the Russia probe, the Trump administration has been busy removing any mention of transgender people from federal employment guidelines.

The actions taken by the Office of Personnel Management support the assertion by the Trump administration that federal civil rights law 聽to people based on their gender identity. Many federal courts have disagreed with this position, but the administration鈥檚 actions鈥攅specially the purge of the word 鈥渢ransgender鈥� from its Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights and other websites鈥攁re quite concerning.

In October, a memo leaked to The New York Times 聽the administration鈥檚 plans to define gender as a condition immutably determined by biological sex at birth. This move would not only roll back the steps taken by the Obama administration that encouraged the establishment of gender-inclusive spaces at schools and government buildings, but would also eradicate the legal standing, indeed the legal existence, of transgender people.

Transgender individuals are marginalized, especially those who are nonbinary, nonconforming, or who don鈥檛 pass as their reassigned gender. Anyone who is visibly transgender is more vulnerable to discrimination. That鈥檚 why the Trump administration鈥檚 actions are particularly pernicious and harmful.

I鈥檓 transgender, and there was a time when I thought invisibility would make me safe, when I believed that denying the word 鈥渢ransgender鈥� and distancing myself from it would keep me from feeling marginalized and discriminated against.

When I first came out and transitioned, I was very visible. I was a high school student at a school where I鈥檇 been known as a girl for three years. When I came back for my senior year as a boy, I couldn鈥檛 get away from who I had been. Everyone knew my birth name; everyone was used to referring to me as 鈥渟he.鈥�

I dreamed of leaving this far behind, of going somewhere that would let me be 鈥渏ust鈥� a guy. So I did. After my first year of college in Massachusetts, I went out West, to Wyoming. I told no one I was transgender. Some people raised an eyebrow when I told them I was 19鈥擨 looked like 15. But I passed, and I lived as a guy.

And it was awful. I felt that at any time, someone could discover my secret. And I knew that because I had withheld this information about my past, in some way they would perceive me as having deceived them. And they would be right. I wasn鈥檛 living as who I truly was. I understand that for some transgender people, passing as a man or a woman is the right decision. It wasn鈥檛 for me. Invisibility was terrible.

Remember that everyone has a biological sex and everyone has a gender identity.

I鈥檓 reminded of that feeling, though in a very different way, when I read about the federal government鈥檚鈥渟crub鈥� of transgender from the office of personnel management鈥檚 website, among other places. They are trying to erase us.

By reclassifying all gender-based language to refer instead to 鈥渂iological sex,鈥� the Trump administration is attempting to posit that there is no such thing as being transgender; we are only what we were born as, we are our bodies and no more. This is unacceptable.

Passing as a man doesn鈥檛 make me not transgender. Removing that term from federal websites doesn鈥檛 make transgender people not exist. It just makes those of us in the transgender community more vulnerable, more prone to be misunderstood and mistreated.

How do I resist? I can pass, but I don鈥檛. I challenge forms and paperwork that give me only two options. I resist every opportunity to be read as 鈥渏ust鈥� a man. I let people know that not everything lines up right for me, that I am, happily, off-kilter with what the world expects me to be. In other words, I come out, day after day. I don鈥檛 let people read my external expression of gender and make assumptions about my biology. I make myself visible and legible as a transgender person.

How can allies help? Remember that everyone has a biological sex and everyone has a gender identity. You can assert yours, too. Be cisgender and proud, rather than cisgender and presumptive. Use your privilege and your knowledge to teach this information to others. It can be empowering and informative to think about the ways in which your gender identity and gender expression aren鈥檛 tied to your biology鈥攁ll the things that make you a woman that have nothing to do with your body, all the aspects of your masculinity that are unrelated to your chromosomes.

What can we all do? We can raise this point, again and again. We can work to pass laws in the jurisdictions where we can have influence. Maybe right now we can鈥檛 influence federal policy. Maybe our state legislature is out of reach. But what about the city or town in which we live? What about the place where we work? The church that we attend? It is important for every institution that cares about transgender people to put language about their rights into their codes and policies. This visibility is essential.

Alex Myers holds degrees in Near Eastern Studies and Ancient Judaism and is the author of two books, including Continental Divide, which was released in November 2019.

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