Owen Flaherty scrambled early Monday to change the sex listed on his Illinois birth certificate, the last legal document that did not reflect his identity as a transgender man. He rushed around Denver: to a health clinic, to a notary, to the post office to mail the paperwork overnight to his native state.

The next day, 11 people gathered at Out Boulder County‘s Longmont offices to discuss living as transgender people. People were afraid, facilitator Ravyn Wayne said, and the fear had swelled the weekly gathering usually attended by just three or four people.

Flaherty’s rush and the larger-than-normal support group are among the ripple effects in Colorado following a report that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering strictly defining the term “sex” in federal law, a change that could eliminate recognition of transgender people and erase their protections against discrimination.

Reading news about the proposed change Sunday morning was a gut punch, Flaherty said.

“For me, it’s the pointed cruelty of the measure, to tell people you’re not going to honor their existence,” said Flaherty, who works in communications for the GLBT Community Center of Colorado. “That you’re not going to honor our civil rights, you’re not going to honor our health care.”

The New York Times published a story Sunday reporting that Trump’s administration is considering defining “sex” in federal programs as an unchangeable, biological status determined by a person’s genitals at birth. If the definition is made final, it could eliminate recognition in federal government of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who are transgender, an umbrella term that includes all people whose gender identity is different than the sex they were assigned at birth. The proposed policy also would jeopardize protection of the group under federal anti-discrimination laws in housing, employment and health care, advocates said.

The story and fear of its implications immediately spread Sunday morning among LGBTQ communities in Denver and Boulder, trans people and LGBTQ advocates told The Denver Post. Disbelief grew as they grappled with what the definition would mean for their own lives if it were to become reality.

About 20,850 transgender adults live in Colorado, according to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Wayne hadn’t even drank his first cup of coffee Sunday morning when he saw the news, minutes after the story had been posted online. His immediate reaction was visceral.

“You don’t get to erase people,” Wayne, who is a transgender man and is on the board of Out Boulder County, said. “You don’t get to turn rights into privileges.”

Legal ramifications

It’s unclear to many in Colorado how the potential change would affect day-to-day life for transgender people here.

The state has strong civil rights law forbidding discrimination against transgender people in many arenas, but it’s hard to tell where state laws wouldn’t protect Coloradans, said Denise Maes, public policy director at the ACLU of Colorado.

If the change is made effective, federal employees who live in Colorado who are transgender would not be protected by state law against discrimination at work, she said. Those who use Medicaid or Medicare also could be affected.

“Part of it all really depends on what the final rule is, so it’s hard to guess what could happen,” Maes said.

Colorado law forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, including transgender identities, in public places and businesses, employment and housing, said Paula Greisen, a Denver civil rights attorney who represents LGBTQ people in civil rights cases, including in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. State regulations also forbid private health insurance companies from selling policies in Colorado that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

But some federal agencies do not have a comparable state agency that provides the same service such as Medicaid and Medicare, Greisen said.

The proposed definition would be written into Title IX laws, according to The New York Times article. The federal civil rights law protects people from sex discrimination in schools and educational programs that receive federal funding, but does not define “sex.” In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued guidelines that said the law specifically protected against discrimination based on a person’s gender identity, including if they are transgender.

The proposed change would reverse that guideline. Staff members at Colorado State University’s Title IX Programs are waiting for more information about the proposal before evaluating how the change would effect school policy, said Dwight Burke, the school’s Title IX coordinator.

Officials at the University of Colorado System don’t believe the strict definition of “sex” would change their policies or students’ experiences, CU spokesman Ken McConnellogue said. The system’s regent laws would maintain the protection of transgender students, he said.

If the administration attempts to make the new definition a law, the change is likely to get tangled in the courts if it were ever finalized, Greisen and Maes said.

But Greisen also noted that Trump has appointed a number of federal judges who may agree with his administration’s suggestion.

“His judicial appointments have far-reaching effects, more so than any particular policy position,” she said.

If finalized, the administration’s decision would have a broader impact outside of the legal world, Greisen said.

“When the president and the federal agencies make decisions, it has the effect of encouraging and emboldening others, including the private industry, to follow that decision,” she said. “It sends a societal message that we don’t have to treat these individuals fairly.”

Felt personally

Colorado’s protections are part of the reason Flaherty and his partner moved to Denver in 2014. When he arrived at work at The Center on Monday, the organization already had started seeing an influx of people asking for referrals to mental health professionals, he said.

More transgender people also have been having conversations about suicidal ideation in the wake of the report, said Mardi Moore, executive director of Out Boulder County. More people are afraid to leave their homes, she said. More people are attempting to have their gender changed on their passports and other legal documents.

Trans Community Support groups GLBT Community Center of Colorado: The Center will be hosting a support group for transgender people to discuss the Trump administration’s proposed changes at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at 1301 E. Colfax Ave. Out Boulder County: The organization hosts two weekly peer support groups for transgender people. The group meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the organization’s office in Longmont at 630 Main Street and every Thursday at 7 p.m. at Boulder Pridehouse, 2132 14th Street, Boulder.



Trans Lifeline, a national organization that helps trans people in crisis, wrote on Instagram that its hotline had received quadruple the normal number of calls in the days following the news story.

“It’s a hell of a thing to say that part of what defines you as an individual is now up for debate,” Moore said.

The announcement also has come among a dramatic rise in hate incidents for LGBTQ people in Boulder County, Moore said. Seventeen hate incidents have been reported to the organization between June 6 and Oct. 1. That’s more than she’s seen in her previous four and a half years with the organization combined, she said.

“My fear for the world is because there has been such voice given to hate, that hate crime will continue to increase, even if policies are stymied,” she said.

“When does it end?”

The proposed policy would not be the first time the Trump administration has attempted to rescind protections for trans people.

In February 2017, Trump undid previous guidelines that required schools to allow transgender students to use school bathrooms that matched their gender identity. In October 2017, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that federal civil rights law does not protect transgender people from discrimination at work. In July 2017, Trump wrote on Twitter that transgender people would not be able to serve in the military, though the decision has faced legal and military pushback. In May, the Department of Justice rescinded a policy that allowed transgender people to be housed in federal prison facilities according to their gender identity.

The latest news hit particularly hard because it attacked the core of trans peoples’ identities, Moore said.

“The other ones said ‘You can’t participate, you can’t use bathrooms, you can’t be in the military,’ ” she said. “This one says ‘You don’t exist.’ ”

But trans people are incredibly resilient, Flaherty said. The LGBTQ community is pulling together in support. And people outside the group are stepping up to advocate for them, he said.

“I’m a son. I’m a brother. I’m an uncle. I’m a husband. I’m a friend,” he said. “Regardless of government policy, I will exist, I won’t be erased.”

Even so, Flaherty said the continuous onslaught of attacks on transgender peoples’ civil rights can be exhausting. It’s hard to retain hope that one person can make a positive change, he said.

Wayne compared the continuous rollback of rights to falling into an endless well.

“When does it end?” he said. “How much further does this pit go? Every time we feel like we’ve hit rock bottom, and every time the bottom falls out.

“The light at the end just seems to get further and further away.”