US President Donald Trump said on Monday that transgender issues were in flux and he aims to protect the country after a report that his administration was considering defining gender as male or female based on genitalia at birth drew widespread condemnation.
"We have a lot of different concepts right now. They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now," Trump said amid a protest outside the White House and outpouring of criticism on social media about the proposal.
Asked about a campaign promise to protect the LGBT community, Trump said: "I'm protecting everybody. I want to protect our country."
Under a proposal first reported by the New York Times on Sunday, the Trump administration would narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth and it would be unchangeable later in life.
The move would remove recognition of and protections for transgender people under US civil rights laws promoted by the prior administration of President Barack Obama in health care, schools and the military.
About 1.4 million US adults identify as transgender, according to a 2016 estimate by the Williams Institute, a research center at UCLA Law School focused on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.
The reported proposal comes little more than a week after New York City created a gender-neutral "X" option for birth certificates, joining California, Oregon, Washington state and New Jersey in offering a third gender category on the government-issued identity documents.
Medical experts said on Monday that defining gender based on genitalia at birth is scientifically inaccurate and may harm patients' health.
Dr. Joshua Safer, executive director of Mount Sinai Hospital's Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, said the Trump administration's definition is "not consistent with current western medicine or science in terms of how we actually operate or define sex of individuals."
"Sex of individuals is not correlated always with their genitals at birth, or with their chromosomes," said Safer, who also serves as president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health.
Most transgender people live with a profound sense that the gender assigned to them at birth was wrong and transition to the opposite sex, while others live a non-binary or gender-fluid life.
"We urge the administration to ensure all public health policy is firmly rooted in science, and to keep discrimination and political interference out of our nation’s health,” said Dr. Lisa Hollier, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Beyond the broader issues raised by the administration memo, doctors said the new policy would be impossible to apply to "intersex" babies who are born with ambiguous genitalia or reproductive organs.
"Trump's definition does not even take this entire group of patients into consideration," said Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family medicine and LGBT care specialist in Phoenix.
If the administration's recommended definition is adopted, these patients will likely be assigned a male or female sex at birth, which can have devastating long-term psychological and health consequences, she said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Thousands took to the streets of Madrid Saturday to protest violence against women, just as Spain reels from a grisly trial over an alleged gang rape.
Shouting "We're not scared," they marched in the Spanish capital on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
At least 45 women have been killed in Spain so far this year by their partner or ex-partner, according to the government's gender violence department.
Protesters held signs reading "how many more must die," shouting "they're not deaths, they're murders."
"I want to show how much I reject the situation in this country," said Jorge Aranda, 40, who works in a health centre, pointing to the 45 deaths this year alone.
"This is unacceptable."
The protest comes as powerful men in the United States and beyond have fallen from grace following allegations of sexual misconduct, starting with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
It also coincides with the trial in Spain of five men accused of gang raping a woman, then 18, in July 2016 during the famed Pamplona bull-running festival, a case that has shocked the country.
The men, aged 27 to 29, allegedly filmed the rape and then bragged about it on a WhatsApp messaging group where they referred to themselves as "La Manada", or "The Pack" in English.
Public prosecutors have asked that the five be sentenced to 22 years in prison each. The men say the woman consented to the sexual encounter but have admitted to stealing her mobile phone.
The judge's decision to admit as evidence details about the victim's private life gathered by a private detective -- including her presence at a party a few days after the alleged rape -- has added to anger over the case.
"In Fuenlabrada, sister, your pack supports you," read one large banner in the protest. Fuenlabrada is a town in the Madrid suburbs.
Another read: "You're not alone, I believe you."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
RIO DE JANEIRO - The United Nations on Monday voiced concern over a bill under consideration by Brazil's congress that would ban access to all abortions, even in cases of rape and women whose lives are in danger.
The bill "poses an increased risk to women's health," the UN Population Fund's Brazil office said in a statement.
Women in Brazil currently only have access to abortions when the pregnancy is a result of rape, their health is at risk, or in cases of the fetus having severe medical defects such as anencephaly, when most of the unborn child's brain is missing.
The new bill, which was green-lighted by a congressional committee two weeks ago, is seen as a "Trojan horse" by pro-choice activists.
Its initial goal was to extend maternity leave for mothers of premature babies, but ultra-conservative members of congress linked to evangelical churches inserted a clause stipulating that the right to life should be "inviolate from the moment of conception," which would deny access to abortions even for women who currently qualify.
The revised version of the bill "denies women the opportunity to decide on issues relating to matters that involve serious violations of their most basic rights ... doubly penalizing victims of sexual violence or women in vulnerable positions," the UN statement said.
The organization also denounced it as a "step back" which "distances Brazil from its international engagements" in terms of women's rights, and noted that backstreet abortions are "one of the leading causes of death in mothers in Brazil and around the world."
The bill is currently making its way through congress but faces a series of hurdles before it can become law. It must first be debated once again by the committee before a full vote in the lower house of congress, where it will need to gain the support of three-fifths of law-makers.
Demonstrations against the bill took place last week in a number of major cities in Brazil.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
