Shock and sickness produced a heaviness in my body that kept me pinned under the covers all Sunday.

Moments after waking up that morning, I saw the notification on my partner’s phone. There among the night’s e-mails and missed messages, one word stood out with urgency: “transgender.”

By now, many people have read and responded, in words and actions, to the New York Times article revealing a Trump administration memo that directs federal agencies to “define sex as male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with,” the Times reported.