GLAAD President Calls Transgender Policy Proposal a 'Civil Rights Crisis'
*By Max Godnick*
The Trump administration has declared it may change the legal definition of gender, but GLAAD's president and CEO thinks that whatever the White House decides, the damage has already been done.
"\[Transgender people\] carry a disproportionate amount of trials and tribulations as a community," Sarah Kate Ellis said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar.
"Merely trying to say that you're trying to write them out and erase them already builds on those stereotypes, that stigma that they live with on a daily basis."
[The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html) reported Sunday that the Department of Health and Human Services is considering basing the definition of sex on a person's genitalia at birth. In a memo obtained by The Times, the agency proposed a new definition of gender that would rely "on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective, and administratable."
Ellis described the proposal as a "civil rights crisis" that threatens to virtually eliminate one of the country's most marginalized communities.
"Essentially it says you don't exist, you don't matter, and you won't be covered or protected," she said.
If approved, the policy would roll back Obama-era decisions that re-framed the understanding of gender as a matter of independent choice that can occur after birth. The new definition would upend the legal status of the 1.4 million Americans who identify with a different gender than the one they were born with.
On Monday, President Trump [responded](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt/trump-says-transgender-policy-seeks-to-protect-the-country-idUSKCN1MW2XE)to the report, confirming that his administration is exploring "a lot of different concepts right now."
Ellis said such a move lacks both a precedent and a proper catalyst.
"It's a solution looking for a problem," she said. "There was no inciting incident, nothing happened."
It did not take long for GLAAD to mobilize in response to the news, organizing protests in New York City and Washington, D.C., in the days following the report.
The hashtag #WontBeErased started trending on Twitter shortly after the Times published its story as organizers arrange more rallies across the country.
Ellis is hopeful that activism may be enough to stop the proposal from enactment.
"If we push back and we're loud enough now, maybe it won't ever come to be," she said.
President Trump has responded to the outrage by insisting his priority is ensuring the safety of Americans, saying, "I want to protect our country."
But Ellis sees things differently.
"I think when you don't protect the most marginalized in the country, you're not protecting the country," she said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/glaad-president-reacts-to-trump-administrations-transgender-policy-proposal).
If some members of Congress have their way, there might finally be a 'TLDR' on sites' terms of service, introduced by the terms-of-service labeling, design, and readability act – or TLDR for short. With this act, users will actually understand what they're agreeing to or the many ways in which their data is being used before pressing 'accept.' J.D. sat down with co-sponsor of the bill and Senator Bill Cassidy, to discuss.
President Joe Biden's first year in office is wrapping up. What has he achieved, and what else remains on the table while the Democrats have control of Washington? Amid an ongoing pandemic and rising inflation, Biden's approval rating is at an all-time low and his party is plagued by infighting. Will he be able to continue pushing key parts of his agenda? Paul Glastris, former Bill Clinton speechwriter & Editor-in-chief of 'Washington Monthly,' joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the president's achievements in his first year, where he's fallen short, and what he must do in order to get more of his agenda signed into law.
Tech giants Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple are faced with a bipartisan antitrust legislation effort underway in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The companies stand accused of promoting their own goods and services over smaller competitors on their platforms, holding too much monopolistic power via their app stores and services. Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a technology industry trade group, joined Cheddar to argue that the bills that are being debated currently could end up hurting consumers, rather than helping.
Concerns over inflation have become one of the biggest worries for executives. A survey from The Conference Board shows that more than 900 CEOs consider inflation a top tier concern, a major shift from last year's survey that had it as a low-level concern. Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President, Human Capital, The Conference Board joined Cheddar's Opening Bell for more.
Jordan Zakarin, Media Producer at A More Perfect Union, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest from Colorado, where at least 8,700 Kroger employees walked off the job in demand of increased benefits and wages.
With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing rapidly approaching, clouds of controversy continue to swirl around China's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority population, its surveillance state, and security for visiting athletes. Phelim Kine, China correspondent for Politico, joined Cheddar to break down the big storylines surrounding the Beijing Games and highlight what he saw as the complete disregard by top corporate sponsors like P&G, Airbnb, Intel, Visa, and Coca-Cola, for the controversies. "They spend $100 million for every Olympics that they sponsor, and they have frankly shown absolute willful indifference to any type of entreaty to essentially be more vocal about their concerns about human rights in China," he said. Kine also touched on the data privacy fears for athletes as visiting contingents are being told to carry burner phones to avoid security risks.
Texas's six-week abortion ban remains in effect after a federal appeals court ruling on Monday. The U.S. court of appeals for the fifth circuit temporarily transferred the case to the Texas Supreme Court, which is expected to leave the dispute in limbo for months to come. Katie Barlow, attorney and media editor of SCOTUSblog, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Hugh Odom, founder and president of Vertical Consultants, shared his expertise on telecommunications with Cheddar on the safety issue raised about 5G deployment by airlines. The installation was partially delayed again on Tuesday as the airlines warned of potentially catastrophic delays in a letter to the Biden administration. Later, both Verizon and AT&T relented and put a pause on some of the implementations. "The first thing the Biden administration needs to do is get everybody in the room and say, look, aviation industry, identify the problem — wireless industry, come up with a solution," said Odom.
Dave Levinthal, deputy Washington Bureau chief at Insider, joins Cheddar News to discuss Gallup's new survey that reveals more Americans leaned Republican by the end of 2021.
