State Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, and Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, on Oct. 24 jointly condemned efforts by the Trump administration to roll back federal civil rights protections for transgender people.

Their actions were prompted by news that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is attempting to impose a restrictive definition of gender as a biological, immutable condition determined at birth and limited to “male” or “female.” Doing so would remove protections available to transgender people under current civil rights laws such as Title IX, which bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government assistance.

“This administration is attempting to legislate transgender men and women out of existence. But it doesn't work that way. People won't feel differently about their own bodies and lives just because [President Donald] Trump tells them to,” said Frankel, who is co-chairman of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.

Sims said, “The Trump administration's proposal is designed to erase the legal identities of transgender Americans by destroying decades of American jurisprudence and precedent that unquestionably recognizes the scientific and medical reality of transgender existence. This is an abhorrent and dehumanizing attack on the transgender community that will undoubtedly cause millions of Americans to suffer.”

Sims said the Trump administration's planned action makes it urgent for the General Assembly to pass the Fairness Act, which would include sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in the types of discrimination banned statewide in the workplace, housing and public accommodations.