Trump's Rollback of Transgender Rights Extends Through Entire Government
Nicolas Talbott, a graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio who is transgender, was told in May that because of President Donald Trump’s transgender ban in the military, he would no longer be eligible for placement as an Army officer. He could continue participating in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, but the benefits that he joined for — health insurance and student loan forgiveness — were no longer available to him.“Everyone else would walk away with a job in the United States Army, and I would walk away with just more student loan debt,” Talbott said.
Talbott’s experience is just one version of a broader story unfolding across vast portions of the federal government as the Trump administration has rolled back a wide array of protections for transgender people, many of them put in place during the Obama administration. The Obama White House used its powers to declare that legal and legislative efforts to defend against sex discrimination should apply to gender identity. The Trump White House called that executive overreach — and reversed course wherever it could.
Across the country, transgender people and groups that are advocates for them have wrestled with the effect of that shift as they have learned of policy changes from the departments of Education and Labor to the departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, from the Pentagon to the Justice Department to the Office of Personnel Management.
Last month, a federal district judge struck down a Health and Human Services Department rule that would, among other changes, expand the protections for health care workers who refuse to treat transgender patients if it clashed with their beliefs, the third judge to do so.
But so many similar regulations are in place or pending that advocates for transgender rights are hardly relieved.
“We’ve been a priority for this administration since the day they got in the door,” said Gillian Branstetter, a former spokeswoman for the National Center for Transgender Equality, who is transgender.
The Education Department has rescinded Obama-era rules that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice or participate in sports corresponding with their gender identity.
The Defense Department has established restrictions on transgender troops that largely prohibit them from transitioning while in uniform. Transgender people who came out before the policy, which went into effect in April, may continue to serve, but that will depend on how four lawsuits play out.
And while the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed “conscience” rule regarding health care workers was just rejected by its third court, another proposal from the department would replace Obama-era safeguards that banned discrimination against transgender medical patients and health insurance customers under the Affordable Care Act.
The Justice Department has moved to roll back protections for transgender people in federal prisons, while the Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying to reverse protections for transgender people in homeless shelters. The Office of Personnel Management has suspended protections for transgender employees of federal contractors.
Last month, the Education Department drafted a “statement of interest” with the Justice Department to defend a Christian private school in Maryland that was kicked out of a state voucher program in part because it says “God immutably bestows gender upon each person at birth as male or female to reflect His image.”
Administration officials and their allies say they are protecting the rights of people who do not want to share bathrooms or sleeping accommodations with transgender people, while safeguarding the religious and moral freedoms of medical professionals and others. Civil rights cuts two ways, and the administration is merely shifting the emphasis, supporters say.
“I think that’s a principle that all Americans benefit from: not being forced to violate their conscience,” said Emilie Kao, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The administration’s policy changes keep coming. Beyond withdrawing bathroom protections, the Education Department also scrapped Obama-era guidance that told schools to interpret federal civil rights protections as covering gender identity.
The judicial setbacks for the Health and Human Services Department rule to help health care workers who refuse to help transgender patients did not stop the department from proposing last month to scrap regulations that currently prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in programs that receive grants from the department. The public comment period is still open.
Before announcing its plan to weaken protections for transgender people who are homeless, the Department of Housing and Urban Development removed links to documents that listed best practices for emergency shelters serving transgender people. Ben Carson, the housing secretary, repeated concerns from advocates who expressed worry in September that “big, hairy men” pretending to be women would try to get into women’s shelters, The Washington Post reported.
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-rollba...201233021.html
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Originally Posted by Working Poor
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