 So, before the Supreme Court announced their landmark ruling, which basically prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, we got some pretty bad news that I think a lot of people missed. Donald Trump's administration just made a move to basically make it acceptable for healthcare providers to discriminate against transgender people. So I mean, we make a couple of steps forward, we move a few steps back. I mean, it's clear that progress doesn't move in a linear direction, this is a constant battle, but nonetheless, let's talk about what Donald Trump decided to do. As CNBC reports, the Trump administration Friday finalized a regulation that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in healthcare. The policy shift, long sought by the president's religious and socially conservative supporters, defines gender as a person's biological sex. The Obama administration defined gender as a person's internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination. LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex reassignment treatment and even for transgender people who need medical care for common conditions such as diabetes or heart problems. Behind the dispute, over legal rights is a medically recognized condition called gender dysphoria, discomfort or distress caused by a disrepancy between the gender that a person identifies as and the gender at birth. That's incorrect, but we'll talk about that later. Consequences can include severe depression. Treatment can range from sex reassignment surgery in hormones to people changing their outward appearance by adopting a different hairstyle or clothing. Women's groups say the new regulation also undermines access to abortion, which is a legal medical procedure. No one should fear being turned away by a medical provider because of who they are or their personal health decisions they have made. Said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women's Law Center, raising the threat of a court challenge. The ACLU has also said it would sue to overturn the Trump rule. So there's a lot to unpack here, but the first thing that we have to notice is the error in this article that the author made, which I think is a common error that we see, which really it drives a lot of transphobia. It's just misinformation, it's ignorance, it's a misunderstanding of the difference between sex and gender. So they say here that gender dysphoria basically is this discrepancy between the gender that you identify as personally and the gender you have at birth, except nobody is born with a particular gender. Gender is a social construct, right? You're ascribed to gender at birth, but you are not born with a gender, right? It was society who has determined that blue is for boys and pink is for girls and that women are supposed to wear dresses and have long hair and act feminine and men are supposed to have short hair and act masculine and be strong. Those are all qualities that society has determined should be attributed to men and women. You're not born with those expectations in a real biological sense. So that's why I think this article is incorrect and that's why we have to correct people when they don't know because it's an honest mistake, but I think that if we don't correct this, then this will lead to people not necessarily understanding what it means to be transgender, right? Now, furthermore, if we're just trying to figure out what this means, functionally speaking, what this means is that healthcare providers can discriminate against transgender people on the basis of their gender identity. And the reason why this goes deeper than just saying, well, I don't want to give you hormone treatment is because they can now say, well, I don't want to treat you because you're transgender and I think that being transgender is immoral. Therefore, I'm going to, you know, object on the basis of my religiosity. That's what this opens the door to. This is going to kill trans people. It may not happen, you know, in big cities, in liberal cities, but in rural areas where healthcare is a huge issue for members of the trans community, this is going to kill trans people. This is very serious. So it's frustrating because, you know, we get this really huge landmark ruling where discrimination against trans people is outlawed at the federal level. But now, you know, just before Trump decides to do this. Now, I don't know what motivates Donald Trump, but I can only speculate and say that since he's not doing too well, I think that he's trying to throw red meat to his base. He's been constantly doing this, right? Because when he first took office, what was one of the first things he did? He chose to institute this disgustingly bigoted ban on transgender people serving in the military. And he's doing this to appease the evangelicals. And lately, because of his, you know, photo op that stunt where he gassed or his attorney general gassed peaceful protesters so he can go in front of a church and take a photo, that's actually losing him a lot of support. That publicity stunt backfired. And even Pat Robinson said, that's not cool. So what is he trying to do maybe to, you know, right the wrongs that he made or, you know, the political missteps he's made? He's trying to throw trans people under the bus. Now, I could be wrong about his motivations. Maybe he just thinks that this is an important move to make because he doesn't think that trans people deserve equal access to healthcare. But either way, this is wrong. And the motivation doesn't matter. It's a distinction without a difference. I don't care why he chose to do it. I care that he did it and this is morally reprehensible. It's bigoted and we have to call this out. Now, what's interesting to me is that when Donald Trump was first elected, I had a lot of people that I argued with on Facebook in my personal social circles who assured me that we had nothing to worry about because Donald Trump, he held up a rainbow flag. So he's not going to discriminate against people. So even if you voted for someone who has a history of bigotry against LGBTQ Americans, he was against marriage equality. Still is, I'm assuming. Now he's doing this. So you can't be an ally to members of the LGBTQ community if you are going to support politicians who hurt us. You can't. This is harm. We made progress and Trump is undoing that progress. What little progress we've made, he's turning it back. And that's disgusting. Trans people should not have to be fearful of being denied service by their healthcare provider. If you are in the industry of healthcare, you should just offer that to everyone. You should want to help people. But now this opens the door to discrimination. And I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing cases pop up because this will be challenged. And now after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the LGBTQ community when it comes to workplace discrimination, I think they'd probably err on the side of LGBTQ activists if this were challenged. So I think this should be challenged. I hope that the ACLU sues and I hope this is overturned because this is so disgusting. And an issue is that it's already really difficult putting bigotry aside for trans people to find healthcare. Like if you talk to anyone in the trans community, they will tell you that just finding a doctor in general that addresses their very specific needs is really difficult depending on where they live. It's kind of the thing that we see with abortion. Sure, it's technically illegal to ban abortion, but Republican controlled states have effectively done just that by defunding Planned Parenthood, for example, and making it really difficult to find clinics that offer abortion. So they're going to try to do the same thing to trans people. And this is going to kill trans people. There's no other way to sugarcoat it. This is going to lead to trans people dying. And that's really disgusting when they're already under threat, right? They're discriminated against culturally. And when it comes to healthcare, they shouldn't have to worry about that as well. But they were already worrying about healthcare before this and now they have to worry that much more. So I mean, this is really grotesque. And I hope that people are paying attention because I'm assuming Trump is doing this, one, because he actually is bigoted, but two, because he thinks there's going to be some sort of political payoff, at least when it comes to his base of evangelicals. But, you know, he can't be rewarded for this. This is absolutely disgusting. Speak up about this, spread the word, because people need to know that if they support Donald Trump, they're hurting their friends and family who are trans and LGBTQ. You could support the Humanist Report at patreon.com slash humanistreport. But trust me, I'd have way more supporters at Patreon if that was my podcast said.