The concept of gender has recently begun to change to be more accepting of LGBTQ people, specifically transgender people. However, the Trump administration wants to change that by defining gender by genitalia at birth, specifically in Title IX.

Title IX protects people in educational institutions from being discriminated against based on their gender and essentially states that no matter one’s gender, the denial of benefits or discrimination against anyone under any educational program funded by the government is unacceptable.

By changing the definition of gender within the law, schools would be permitted to deny and discriminate against transgender students simply because they want to. The Trump administration is essentially telling transgender people, ‘we don’t care about you and we will not protect you,’ which goes against the government’s promise to serve and protect its people. 

President Donald Trump and his administration are going to allow transgender students to be denied the same rights as cisgender people, simply because they refuse to acknowledge transgender people exist. Scientists have acknowledged transgender people exist by contributing and performing surgeries to alter gender and help people feel comfortable in their bodies. The world is finally starting to acknowledge that transgender people exist, yet the current administration wants to throw it all out the window.

In what world does changing a law to allow a group of people to potentially lose their chance at an education based on their true identity make sense? Transgender people exist, whether the Trump administration likes it or not. They cannot define transgender people out of existence, because transgender people will always be here.

Transgender people are people, believe it or not, and all people deserve rights. The government is in place to protect its people. Even if the Trump administration doesn’t believe or want to believe that transgender people exist, denying them of their rights is a step away from equality that should have never been taken.

Simply telling a group of people that their government will no longer protect them is a heartbreaking scenario that should not be happening in this day and age. The Trump administration is going back in time to when LGBTQ people were unheard of and their existence was unacknowledged. They have existed forever and they will continue to exist.

If the Trump administration wants to deny transgender people of their basic rights, which minority that they disagree with comes next? This path cannot continue. This is an issue and it must be remembered.

We need to add this to the endless list the Trump administration will make of throwing minorities to the wind and allowing them to be less than an American citizen.

Protect those the Trump administration wants to ignore. Protect transgender people because they exist and they matter. I’m not telling you that you have to agree, that you have to support them. I’m telling you that they exist, that they’re people and that all people deserve to have equal rights in the United States of America and the Trump administration is trying to change that.

Supporting our country does not mean supporting an administration that stops protecting its own people. Supporting our country means protecting those who need it most and fighting for what’s right. So support the country. Take a step back and look at the state of the world and realize how far behind the United States is compared to other first-world countries. I challenge you to acknowledge that people who aren’t cisgender and white exist too, and they matter. Think about it and realize that things need to change.

Learn more about Title IX and how it affects the LGBTQ community here.