OutCenter Disturbed By Gender Definition Report

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The OutCenter in Benton Harbor is blasting some reported plans of the Trump administration regarding transgender Americans. The New York Times reported last weekend on a memo from the Oval Office to the Department of Health and Human Services directing that department to define gender as either male or female, as assigned at birth. The OutCenter’s Mary Jo Schnell tells WSJM News this is another in a series of blows to transgendered Americans.

“It’s traumatizing transgender kids,” Schnell said. “It’s traumatizing adults. It’s traumatizing the families of transgender kids. It’s jeopardizing any number of resources.”

Schnell says the move would disenfranchise those born without an easily-identifiable gender and those whose physical gender, as identified at birth, mismatches their brain or internal gender. She says since late 2016, there’s been an uptick in violence against marginalized groups, and this does not help.

“It has to stop,” Schnell said. “The language has to stop. This kind of horrible promotion of it has to stop. Lives are at risk.”

The OutCenter says it will “continue to fight for every individual’s right to live their own truth and to relate to the world as their authentic selves.” Anyone looking for support can visit or give the OutCenter a call.