This week, The New York Times reported on an unreleased memo from the Trump administration, which would aim to define sex as, “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” The memo, drafted by the Department of Health and Human Services, would diminish the role of gender identity under the Title IX anti-discrimination law, in favor of this limited definition of “sex.”
This legal change would deny the existence of transgender and gender non-binary people. No matter the subjective experience of individuals, our/their commitment to living their authentic lives, our/their communities of support, and even the legal paperwork affirming trans and non-binary identities—under this memo, people would only be seen as the sex to which they were assigned at birth, rather than how they experience and live their their gender. Without Title IX protections, transgender folks would no longer be able to dispute discrimination when it comes to healthcare, housing, education or violent attack. With respect to employment, the Department of Justice released a memo this past Wednesday, stating that transgender individuals are not protected from discrimination under Title VII, despite some lower courts and the EEOC holding the opposite. With the erasure of these recognitions, transgender people’s lives will be subjected to even more scrutiny and judgement.
We aren’t surprised by Trump’s decision. We have seen this coming ever since his attack on transgender members of the military and the fact that several federal agencies have withdrawn policies that recognize individuals’ gender identity in schools, prisons, and homeless shelters. But that does not make the prospect of erasure any less painful. The myriad of social, financial, physical, mental, and administrative challenges that will ensue because of this change could be catastrophic.
We, the editors of Wellesley Underground, are a diverse group of individuals and part of this diversity includes gender identity. We are here to say we won’t let it happen. We see you and we will not let you be erased. We will not only advocate for and support our transgender and gender non-conforming siblings, but we will also be your accomplices. We know that you have resilience running through your veins, a history of fierceness, community, and love. Transgender, third-gender, and genderqueer people have been a part of history and culture for centuries, and we will outlast this administration and its successors.
We also urge the leadership of Wellesley College to issue a statement in support of transgender and gender non-conforming students, faculty, staff, and employees. Already we have seen calls from current students on Twitter asking the College to take a stance. We are hopeful that College leadership will soon release a statement to the Wellesley College Community, confirming that the college and its leadership is dedicated to uplifting, supporting, and celebrating the transgender community. To stay silent on such an important issue, one that directly affects many students, would perpetuate the threat of erasure.
Lately I’ve been thinking about a corpus of texts that centers on trans
writing. I’m apprehensive about the limitations inherent in
canonization, mainly canon’s inadequate literary representation of
difference as tokenism, and the prohibitive inaccessibility for those
who can’t afford education at the highest levels. So it’s not a canon
exactly, but a corpus. It’s something more like a body: mutable,
evolving, flexible, open, exposed, exposing. It’s the opposite of
erasure; it’s an inscription.
Mohabbat Maqabara, Junagadh, Gujarat, India is a Nawabs royal palace-mausoleum of the late 19th century, a mixture of Indo-Islamic and Gothic architecture
