The Trump administration is weighing a change that would require individuals to identify as male or female based on their genitalia at birth, tightening gender definitions that had offered more leeway to transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed in a memo obtained by the news outlet that government agencies adopt a definition of gender that is determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”
The change would would base sex on the genitals a person is born with.
“The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence,” the memo states, according to The Times.
The change in policy would roll back protections for members of the trans community, affecting roughly 1.4 million Americans, the Times reported.
LGBTQ advocacy groups are expected to oppose any formal proposal.
The change in how the government defines gender marks the latest effort from the administration to undo Obama-era rules that granted more freedoms to people who are transgender.
The administration announced a similar policy in May that required the Bureau of Prisons to use “biological sex” as the basis for assigning facilities and bathrooms.
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Trump admin may narrow definition of gender, in major threat to transgender protections: report https://t.co/NgUqyy0yyD pic.twitter.com/Rz94jmXwpE
— The Hill (@thehill) October 21, 2018
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