However, as a coalition of civil rights groups pointed out in a recent memo presented to the administration, the “overwhelming majority of courts” have validated the Obama administration’s understanding “that anti transgender bias constitutes sex discrimination under federal laws like Title IX.” Regardless of how “sex” is defined, transgender advocates say the federal law still offers them the same protections. For example, on 13 May 2016 the Department of Education’s Civil Rights office released a “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” stipulating that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (which prohibits sex discrimination at institutions of higher education that receive federal financial aid) also applied to discrimination based on gender identity:

Along with similar rules articulated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with respect to Obamacare, such recognition represented the final stage in the evolution of how the federal government recognized transgender civil rights during the Obama administration. The Trump administration may move to rigidly define gender as a fixed status determined biologically by the genitalia a person is born with, reversing Obama-era policies that granted federal recognition to transgender individuals, according to a Sunday report from The New York Times. The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence,” the Times reported the memo as saying. "This administration is willing to disregard the established medical and legal view of our rights and ourselves to solidify an archaic, dogmatic, and frightening view of the world," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement Sunday. Human Rights Watch has called on Congress to pass legislation that makes explicit the civil rights of trans people assumed under the Obama administration:

The new rules from HHS and the Department of Education, yet to be released officially, will likely be challenged in court if they are implemented.
The Trump administration through the United States Department of Health and Human Services plans to include a legal definition of gender in the federal civil rights Title IX law. The proposed alteration to the law would define gender as an unchangeable anatomical and genetic condition determined at birth. Members of the LGBT community plan to contest the move, which they state would largely end protections for transgender Americans.