Aldermen condemn Trump's 'blatant discrimination' against transgender community

After an emotional appeal from the mom of a transgender fifth-grader, Chicago aldermen demanded Wednesday that President Donald Trump "cease and desist" his "blatant discrimination" against 1.4 million Americans who identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth.

"I'm 100 percent certain that my gender, your gender and my child's gender is for the person to decide. Otherwise, I don't think my kid would be transgender because we really tried," said the mom, who identified herself as Rachel.

"My daughter is a girl because she knows she's a girl. The most important organ for her gender identify is her brain. Her soul is female. Her spirit is female. Just like my spirit would be female even if an accident took away some of my female body parts, God forbid."

The policy change was outlined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a memo disclosed last month by The New York Times.

It urged federal agencies to define a person's sex as either male or female and base that designation on a person's genitals at birth. If there's confusion, genetic testing would be the determining factor.

On Wednesday, the city council's Committee on Human Relations approved a resolution condemning the policy change after an emotional hearing featuring Rachel's testimony.

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