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Photo: Josean Rivera 

The US government is considering defining gender as a biological condition, immutable and determined by birth genitalia, The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition . This is the most drastic move against the transgender community since Donald Trump took office, who, from the beginning of his term, has opposed the rights and protections for transgender people governed by federal civil law.

During Barack Obama's presidency, the concept of gender in federal education and public health programs aligned with the demands for LGBTQ+ rights, and gender was considered a matter of personal freedom, not tied to the sex assigned at birth. However, conservative resistance, especially from evangelical Christians, was significant.

[READ ALSO: Historic elections for the trans community in the United States]

Now the Department of Health and Human Services is pushing a policy to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs that receive government funding, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.

The Department argued in that document that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender determined “by a clear, science-based, objective, and manageable biological basis.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as male or female, unchangeable and determined by a person’s genitals at birth. Any doubt about a person’s sex would be clarified using a genetic test.

The most significant advance against the trans population

The new definition will eradicate federal recognition for some 1.4 million transgender or non-binary Americans.

“With this, what the medical community understands about its patients—or what people understand about themselves—is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” Catherine E. Lhamon, who headed the Obama administration’s Department of Civil Rights Education and helped write the trans guide that is being scrapped, told The New York Times.

If implemented, this would be the most significant advance against the trans population, aimed at excluding them from the civil rights passed during the Obama administration. The Trump administration sought to ban trans people from military service and jeopardized programs that protect them within the healthcare system.

In addition, funding was withdrawn from public policies that recognized gender identity in schools, prisons, and homeless shelters. There was even an attempt to remove the self-identified gender option from the 2020 census.

#TheyWillNotEraseUs

Following this news, the LGBT community mobilized quickly and forcefully on Sunday. Within hours, the hashtag #WontBeErased dominated social media, and there was a demonstration in New York, with another planned for today in Washington.

“The response is massive because this attack is basically trying to erase the trans community from the face of this country,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, an organization that fights for the rights of LGBT people.

We are out here in force. We are not going back. @realDonaldTrump , #transgenderpeople #WontBeErased !​ pic.twitter.com/kLJIrktYRd

— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) October 21, 2018

This is my daughter. She exists. She will not be erased. Vote as if her life depends on it. It does. So many lives depend on it. #wontbeerased #transequalitynow #thisiswhattranslookslike pic.twitter.com/pyC7YdE9ZF

— Jamie Bruesehoff (@hippypastorwife) October 21, 2018