Press Release for Immediate Release
October 25, 2018
Based on news reports over the weekend, the Trump administration is working to dramatically roll back protections for transgender students by narrowing the definitions of sex and gender under Title IX that our courts have used to provide protections for LGBTQ+ people. It is reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is moving towards defining sex as solely male or female based on “immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”
The Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) stands with community partners to remind this Administration that they do not get to define or erase a person’s innate humanity. We will fight alongside our transgender family to ensure that their rights are protected from targeted attacks and discrimination. Our transgender friends and family cannot and will not be erased.
SAAF’s Executive Director, Wendell Hicks, offered the following statement: “We are saddened to see more of these attacks from the Administration on the lives and the very humanity of people who do not identify with outdated and narrow definitions of gender. At SAAF we welcome our transgender friends and family. We treat all persons with dignity, respect and love. It is our goal to ensure that the transgender community be welcomed in all corners of society.”
While no administration can ever erase transgender people out of existence, we must take action to reject these continued attacks on the lives of our transgender friends and family. We stand with transgender people. We stand for a “healthy and stigma-free community.”
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About the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF):
The mission of the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) is to cultivate a healthy and stigma-free society through transformative action. Collectively, through its predecessor agencies, SAAF has served the community for more than 30 years by providing services to enhance the health and quality of life for those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and to assist people in preventing HIV, substance abuse, hepatitis C, and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). SAAF continually works to meet the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, and focuses on evidence-based prevention programs to reach at-risk populations.
Contact:
Wendell Hicks, Executive Director
Travis Craddock, Director of Development
(520) 547-6105 or tcraddock@saaf.org