Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), issued the following statement in response to The New York Times’ report that the Trump Administration is considering drastic efforts to undermine the legal status of transgender people:
“Reports that this administration plans to issue a narrow definition of gender represents a deeply misguided and unacceptable attack on the rights and dignity of transgender Americans. To define gender on the sole basis of biological characteristics at birth flies in the face of both established legal precedents and widespread medical consensus, and it threatens to all but erase the federal legal status of approximately 1.4 million Americans. This would constitute a betrayal of our highest ideals and a cynical use of federal power. We unequivocally condemn this decision, and we call on the Administration to reject plans to undermine the full legal status of transgender individuals in our country.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
