Caitlyn Jenner on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ community, and transgender people in particular, after a leaked document showed that his administration wants to define gender based on a person’s genitals at birth.
Jenner, in an op-ed published by The Washington Post, said that despite the criticism she received from some in the LGBTQ community for engaging with Trump and his administration, she “remained hopeful for positive change.”
“Sadly, I was wrong,” Jenner wrote. “The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this president.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that the Department of Health and Human Services was leading an effort to establish a legal definition of gender under Title IX, the federal civil rights law. The law states that no person can be discriminated against from participating in or receiving benefits of any education program on the basis of gender.
Under the proposal, a person's sex would be determined by genitals at birth, and it specifies only two genders, male and female, which could not be changed in the future.
Trump on Monday addressed the article.
“We have a lot of different concepts right now,” he said. “They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now. You know that as well as I do, and we’re looking at it very seriously.”
The president added that he is “protecting everybody.”
Jenner, a transgender activist and celebrity, is a Republican who has met with a number of GOP lawmakers and voted for Trump in the 2016 election.
Since being elected, Trump has rolled back guidelines allowing transgender students to use public school restrooms based on their gender identity, and he has said that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military.
“The leader of our nation has shown no regard for an already marginalized and struggling community,” Jenner wrote. “He has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity.
“He has made trans people into political pawns as he whips up animus against us in an attempt to energize the most right-wing segment of his party, claiming his anti-transgender policies are meant to ‘protect the country.’ “This is politics at its worst. It is unacceptable, it is upsetting, and it has deeply, personally hurt me.”