A group of transgender and gender non-conforming students are calling out the Trump administration for reportedly banning words and phrases from certain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration told CDC policy analysts that seven terms ― “fetus,” “transgender,” “diversity,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “evidence-based” and “science-based” ― could no longer appear in documents used to prepare the agency’s budget, The Washington Post reported Dec. 16.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, called the report “a complete mischaracterization.” But that hasn’t stopped a number of prominent human rights groups from speaking out against any such ban.
In a new video released Thursday, members of GLAAD’s campus ambassador program joined the chorus of outraged voices. For these young activists, the idea of banning those words from CDC documents is one they take very personally.
“This ban makes me feel so upset and angry that people still want to continue to erase knowledge and education and identities that are not theirs,” University of Colorado student Briannah Hill declares in the “Say the 7” clip, which can be viewed above. Delaney Perkins of Pennsylvania’s Lycoming College adds, “We cannot be deleted. We cannot be erased.”
Though the LGBTQ community has faced a number of setbacks under President Donald Trump, the video’s participants remain determined to live their lives authentically.
“Regardless of what this administration says or does to attack us,” Western Connecticut State University student Leah Juliett says, “they will never silence the brilliance, complexity and resilience of the community.”
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told HuffPost that she was extremely proud of the students in the video for “bravely speaking truth in the face of the ongoing transphobia of the Trump administration.”
“[They] are sending a strong signal to all of us on how to speak out and resist hate,” Ellis said.
