News and Press Releases

February 20, 2026

PWDF Joins Disability Rights Advocates Across US to Protest Proposed HHS Rule Change on Gender Dysphoria

 

On February 20, 2026, People With Disabilities Foundation (PWDF) joined 148 other disability rights organizations by signing a petition, originated by the National Women’s Law Center, in opposition to a proposed regulation change by the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) that would remove gender dysphoria from a list of protected disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

In a letter to HHS’s Office for Civil Rights, the petitioners strongly objected to the department’s “attempts to weaken nondiscrimination protections for people with gender dysphoria” and called the proposed change “unjustified, unwarranted and contrary to the spirit and letter of the law.”

In December 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as part of an overall campaign by the Trump Administration to target the transgender community for elimination of health care services and equal protection under the law, proposed revisions to the implementing regulations for Section 504 to exclude gender dysphoria from the definition of a protected disability.

Gender dysphoria, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5-TR) “…defines gender dysphoria in adolescents and adults as a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and their assigned gender, lasting at least 6 months, as manifested by at least two of the following:

• A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics.)
• A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics.)
• A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender.
• A strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender.)
• A strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender.)
• A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender) ….”

This proposed regulation change, if enacted, could cause significant harm to people with gender dysphoria, due to its stigma, by removing protections from discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The intent of Section 504 and its implementing regulations, along with several court decisions, support the position that an individual with gender dysphoria may have a disability under Section 504. To prevent, limit or interfere with their access to care due to their gender dysphoria diagnosis violates Section 504.[1]

                                                                            # # #

[1] http://bit.ly/4siRhsT, last visited on April 2, 2026, American Psychiatric Association