Common Ground
Student Group
In late October, The New York Times obtained a memo from the Trump administration detailing an effort to establish a definition for gender on the basis of biological sex that erases progress made under the Obama administration.
This document from the Department of Health and Human Services would define gender as either male or female, determined at birth and unchangeable. Regressive and ignorant, this proposal erases the progress made to make America a more accepting country for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.
The memo invalidates the identity of so many in the LGBTQ+ community, and those individuals already feel invisible in the eyes of the law. But the government does not assign people their humanity. Transgender and gender-nonconforming members of our community deserve to be seen, recognized, and have their identities celebrated.
Legislation, or the possibility of legislation, cannot determine one’s identity, for it exists beyond the confines of partisan politics. The richness of transgender and gender- nonconforming identities and history cannot be willed away with the flick of an ignorant, impulsive hand.
When women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were invalidated in the eyes of their community and local laws, they did not retreat quietly into falsehoods—they lifted their fists and voices to combat hatred. We, at Dominican, in the vocal niches across the nation, hear the frustration and fear in the voices of our trans community members. We want to listen, provide platforms for visibility, and create welcoming spaces that champion their voices. Here at Dominican, the community of Common Ground supports our trans and nonconforming peers, and we will continue to send students into the world with the love and acceptance that we work to cultivate.
commonground@dom.edu
