Days after The New York Times reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is leading an effort to define gender as purely biological under federal law, Leiker showed up to a rally outside the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City to assert her identity.
“They’re trying to legislate us out of existence,” said Leiker, who’s transgender. “And it’s not going to work.”
In a memo reviewed by The Times, the Health and Human Services Department argued that government agencies should adopt a definition of gender based “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.