Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Administration Mulls Rule That Would Eradicate Government Recognition Of Transgender Americans
The New York Times: ‘Transgender’ Could Be Defined Out Of Existence Under Trump Administration
The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. A series of decisions by the Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care, recognizing gender largely as an individual’s choice and not determined by the sex assigned at birth. The policy prompted fights over bathrooms, dormitories, single-sex programs and other arenas where gender was once seen as a simple concept. Conservatives, especially evangelical Christians, were incensed. (Green, Benner and Pear, 10/21)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Health Department Takes Aim At Transgender-Rights Rules
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services had sought to push through changes to Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting gender discrimination in education, according to a story Sunday in the New York Times. While Title IX doesn’t directly govern sex discrimination beyond education, other civil rights laws generally base their definition of such discrimination on Title IX. But Education Department officials have been drafting their own changes to Title IX, focused on the process for adjudicating campus sexual assault. And those officials, particularly Secretary Betsy DeVos, have resisted including a broad redefinition of gender in those changes, preferring to keep the focus limited. (Armour and Hackman, 10/21)
