WASHINGTON (October 22, 2018)—The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reportedly considering changes to the federal definition of gender, and wholly misrepresenting science in an attempt to justify its actions. This change could threaten the civil rights of transgender and other people and should be rejected, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Below is a statement by UCS Executive Director Kathleen Rest.

“This proposed change pushes pseudoscience. It could enable greater discrimination against transgender people in employment, education, housing and health care access.

“It’s baseless and wrong for HHS to distort science to try to rationalize this change. It’s a charade, not a real argument. This administration has repeatedly misrepresented or rejected science on numerous public health issues, and there’s no scientific justification for this redefinition, either.

“It’s unacceptable to write anyone out of our society, and especially odious to rely on baseless pseudo-scientific arguments to do so. We stand in support of transgender people against the administration’s attempts to marginalize them.”