ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 22 October 2018

1. Various of protest in front of White House

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality:

"That building right there is our White House this is our government. This is our administration. These are our laws. We are protected as transgender people by these laws, they are trying to cut us out of and they cannot make the laws go away. And NCT and a lot of the other organizations represented here will fight in court. We will fight in administrative agencies and hopefully soon we'll be able to fight in Congress."

3. Various of protesters

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Masen Davis, CEO Freedom for All Americans:

"This is not reflective of where America is. I don't even believe it's reflective of where Republicans are for the most part. I think it's reflective of a small minded outdated perception of who we are and what is going to get and score political points in an election. This is, this proposal is contrary to the will of Americans. And we don't need it. It's not right and it doesn't reflect who we are."

5. Various of protesers listening and holding signs

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - MUST CREDIT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Washington DC - 22 October 2018

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rea Carey, National LGBTQ Task Force:

"Dehumanizing those you do not like is the hallmark of an authoritarian government. But the Trump administration's cruelty only further unites the voices of progress that stand here today and across the country. We have the law on our side. We have the medical community on our side. We have morality on our side and we have decency on our side."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 22 October 2018

7. Cutaway of protest in front of White House

LGBT leaders reacted with fury Monday to a report that the Trump administration is considering adoption of a new definition of gender that would effectively deny federal recognition and civil rights protections to transgender Americans.

"This is our administration. These are our laws. We are protected as transgender people by these laws, they are trying to cut us out of and they cannot make the laws go away," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Rights.

"A lot of the other organizations represented here will fight in court. We will fight in administrative agencies and hopefully soon we'll be able to fight in Congress."

Keisling was joined by more than a dozen activist leaders in Washington Monday to have their voices heard.

The activists, who spoke amid posters reading "#Won'tBeErased", also participated in a protest march to the White House.

The Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged months ago that it was working to rewrite a federal rule that bars discrimination in health care based on "gender identity." It cited a Texas-based federal judge's opinion that the original rule went too far in concluding that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of sex discrimination, which is forbidden by civil rights laws.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the agency was circulating a memo proposing that gender be defined as an immutable biological condition determined by a person's sex organs at birth. The election-year proposal would define sex as either male or female, and any dispute about one's sex would have to be clarified through genetic testing, according to the Times' account of the memo.

The department was terse in its response, saying it did not comment on "alleged leaked documents." It did release a statement from Roger Severino, the head of its Office for Civil Rights, saying his agency was reviewing the issue while abiding by the 2016 ruling from the Texas-based federal judge, Reed O'Connor.

LGBT-rights leaders viewed it as the latest Trump administration attack on transgender Americans.

Among the others are an attempt to ban them from military service; a memo from Attorney General Jeff Sessions concluding that civil rights laws don't protect transgender people from discrimination on the job; and the scrapping of Obama-era guidance encouraging school officials to let transgender students use school bathrooms that matched their gender identities.