For Immediate Release
October 26, 2018
Contact: Bobbi Elaine Strang
410-422-9313
GLAA Responds to Trump’s Proposed Title IX Change
GLAA President Bobbi Elaine Strang states:
“GLAA opposes the proposed definition of sex and gender authored by the Trump administration. Not only is it an arbitrary standard created in a vacuum devoid of morality and science, it is dangerous to transgender individuals and reminiscent of the last days of the Weimar Republic.
“Under this new policy, a person’s gender would be assigned by their external genitalia at birth as indicated on their ‘original’ birth certificate. Not only is this definition reductive, it would also nullify the legal identities of transgender individuals. By referring to the ‘original’ birth certificate, anyone with a revised birth certificate would find it a legally meaningless document. Any transgender individual with a passport that reflects their actual gender would find their passports have suddenly become invalid – and potentially revoked. Any transgender individual with a REAL ID that reflects their actual gender would also have their ID invalidated by the change. This would not only leave trans people unprotected from discrimination, it would leave trans people without a legal identity and potentially stateless. This is reminiscent of October 5, 1938 when the passports of Jewish people living in Germany were invalidated.
“While GLAA has historically been non-partisan, the circumstances in which we find ourselves require us to take a partisan stance in urging all our allies and the LGBTQ community to support Democratic candidates for every election for partisan office in which they can legally cast a vote. If we as a nation fail to change the majority party in at least one house of Congress and as many state governments as possible, this reckless drive towards authoritarianism will continue unabated.”
Founded in 1971, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. (GLAA) is an all- volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization that defends the civil rights of LGBTQ people in the Nation’s Capital. We are the nation’s oldest continuously active civil rights organization serving the LGBTQ community.
###