The Oh, Hello and

welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood.

Two guests today.

Amanda Armstrong will discuss trans politics,

why the right is obsessed with the issue and other issues of gender and sexuality,

and at the bottom of the hour, Alfredo Sad Philo returns to discuss the prospects for Brazil

after the fascist Jayir Bolsonaro won the presidential election.

What are we to make of the Trump administration's attempts to reverse protections for

trans people that were promulgated by Obama a couple of years ago?

Many people have greeted this move as a distraction, an attempt to

rile up an already enraged base even further in the run-up to the midterm

elections. Is that right? I don't think so. I think issues around gender and

sexuality are core to the rights worldview and as we'll hear the next segment this was highly visible in the Brazilian presidential election as well and as we heard a couple of weeks ago it was central to the rights appeal in the provincial elections in Quebec.

For a closer look at these issues, here's Amanda Armstrong.

She is a historian of labor, gender and social protest who teaches at Fordham University.

Amanda Armstrong.

These Trump administration proposals, what will they do?

What will the practical effects be on trans people?

It's hard to know kind of how far they'll go and what effect they will have,

but essentially potentially any federally mediated interactions will involve trans people sort of not having

access to rights that they would have if trans existence were recognized legally.

And so that can take the form of interactions with various state bureaucracies, welfare agencies,

...