The co-director of a New Mexico nonprofit that advocates for and serves transgender people said Wednesday that a possible change in the way the government defines gender is a political maneuver timed to distract people ahead of the mid-term election and to motivate the Republican voter base.
“We are in the crosshairs of this big slight of hand,” said Adrien Lawyer, co-director of the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico.
Lawyer spoke at Mountain Middle School in Durango three days after The New York Times reported that a memo it obtained revealed the Department of Health and Human Services is heading an effort to create a narrow legal definition of sex under Title IX, the law that prohibits gender discrimination in educational activities that receive governmental assistance. If successful, the definition would define gender by the genitalia an individual has at birth and not recognize those who identify otherwise.
Mountain Middle School had invited Lawyer to speak months before the recent news about the government’s effort. He was asked to educate school staff, students and parents about a range of transgender-related topics.
Amy Hackmeier, the school’s behavioral health specialist, said some students at the school identify as transgender. It was one reason Lawyer was invited to give his educational talk.
Students at the school are “fired up” about the federal government’s potential gender definition change, and they want to see transgender identity become more normalized and to have a greater conversation about it, Hackmeier said.
His talk, “Transgender 101,” included explanations of transgender terminology, history and etiquette.
For example, a transgender person has an internal gender that is different from the one they were assigned at birth, based on their genitalia, Lawyer said.
If there is a question about a person’s preferred gender pronoun, it is acceptable to ask the individual or to offer yours up first while you introduce yourself so the person feels comfortable sharing how they would like to be addressed.
“It is better to ask than not ask,” Lawyer said.
He emphasized that transgender identity is not a contemporary issue.
“There’s archaeological evidence of transgender people; there’s historical evidence of trans people,” Lawyer said.
People who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth are “cisgender.”
Using cisgender, a value-neutral term, rather than saying people who identify as the sex they were assigned at birth are “normal,” is key to help end discrimination, he said.
“We need this value-neutral language because it’s one of the things that’s going to lead us out of this dark era ... it’s normal to be transgender, and it’s normal to be cisgender,” he said.
By age 4, children may know their gender identity is different from their sex, and it is important for adults to support children in their gender from the day they start talking about it, he said. Schools can meet with those children to set up a support plan for them so teachers and administrators know how children want to be recognized, he added.
A 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality of 27,715 of transgender people found 40 percent of them had attempted suicide. Support from family and social circles can significantly lower an individual’s risk of suicide.
The survey also found transgender people encountered high rates of mistreatment and discrimination of all kinds. Notably, almost 50 percent were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, the survey found.
Often, transgender students are afraid to use the bathroom during the day at school so they will go without food or water to avoid using a restroom, Lawyer said.
Transgender people “are not predators in the bathroom,” he said, “they are prey.”
Lawyer called on those in the audience to vote, participate in the public comment period that would proceed the definition change and work to ensure state rules that protect transgender individuals stay in place.
To comment on the federal rule change, sign up to be notified about the comment period at protecttranshealth.org
mshinn@durangoherald.com
