The definition of the term “transgender” according to Dictionary.com is “a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.” When Barack Obama was in the presidency, he actively fought for transgender rights, including publicizing that a federal law known as Title IX protects the right of transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities. Now, however, the new U.S. President Trump is actively revoking transgender rights. I believe that this is blatant partisanship and should never have been allowed to get this extreme.

According to a survey from the Williams Institute, over 1.4 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender. Many more youths are not included in that. It is very difficult to believe that today, even after how far America has come, we are now backpedaling in history. I can not understand why that even after learning about the mistakes of the past, we are making them yet again by revoking a minority’s rights.

The Trump administration has reversed transgender protections that directed public schools to allow students to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identities. This means transgender students are forced to use the restroom of the sex there were assigned at birth, not of the gender they identify with. Genderqueer students will also have to use the restroom of the sex they were assigned at birth, unless the school has a unisex restroom, which many do not. This displaces students and is degrading.

The Kansas Republican Party has also voted to “oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.”, according to Kansas.com. They openly oppose same-sex marriage, and are completely against the LGBTQA+ community. It baffles me how fellow citizens of Kansas allow these people to continue to run our state. They are taking away people’s right to be themselves and express themselves freely just because they don’t personally agree with how people are expressing themselves.

The biggest blow that has been afflicted to the transgender community is monumental. The word “transgender” could be completely defined out of existence under the Trump Administration, according to the New York Times. Millions of people across the United States would be told that they aren’t real, that they aren’t heard. The effect that this would have on transgender individuals would be unacceptable. Getting jobs, getting healthcare, going to school, and just walking down the street would be even harder for transgender citizens if this memo is enacted.

I believe that to fix this, the government needs to keep their personal opinions out of politics. Everyone has the right to their own opinions, and so do government officials. But they need to realize that taking away someone else’s way of life and expression just because they don’t agree with it is bigotry and it is not ok. I think that the government has more pressing matters than taking away the rights of transgender Americans, and that no one should be punished or denied that they exist.