Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Time Magazine recently asked: What Could Happen If the Federal Government Redefined Gender? It's an interesting question on a number of levels but it needs to be asked if anyone—including the government, can redefine something so concrete as gender. The headline implies that the Trump administration is trying to redefine gender. But as you dig into the story, it becomes clear that the Trump administration is working to restore the traditional understanding of gender as something that is determined by biology and determined long before we were born. The federal government's understanding of gender changed under the Obama administration which covered sex-change surgeries for Medicaid recipients and for soldiers. The issue of gender dysphoria is confusing enough as it is, but Time's recent story confused the matter even more.