Trump rescinds Obama order on transgender bathroom use
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Wednesday rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind.
In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and the Education Department rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice.
That directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy”.
The question of how to address the “bathroom debate”, as it has become known, opened a rift inside the Trump administration, pitting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sessions, who had been expected to move quickly to roll back the civil rights expansions put in place under his Democratic predecessors, wanted to act decisively because of two pending court cases that could have upheld the protections and pushed the government into further litigation.
But DeVos initially resisted signing off and told Trump that she was uncomfortable because of the potential harm that re- scinding the protections could cause transgender students, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the internal discussions.
Sessions, who has opposed expanding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, pushed DeVos to relent. After getting nowhere, he took his objections to the White House because he could not go forward without her consent. Trump sided with his attorney general, the Republicans said, and told DeVos in a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he wanted her to drop her opposition. And DeVos, faced with the alternative of resigning or defying the president, agreed to go along.
DeVos’s unease was evident in a strongly worded statement she released on Wednesday night, in which she said that she considered it a “moral obligation” for every school in America to protect all students from discrimination, bullying and harassment.
She said she had directed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate all claims of such treatment “against those who are most vulnerable in our schools”, but also argued that bathroom access was not a federal matter.
Individual schools will remain free to let transgender students use the bathrooms with which they are most comfortable. And the effect of the administration’s decision will not be immediate because a federal court had already issued a nationwide injunction barring enforcement of the Obama order.
Gay rights supporters made their displeasure clear. Outside the White House, several hundred people protested the decision, chanting, “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.”
Social conservatives, one of Trump’s most loyal constituencies, applauded him for honouring a pledge he had made to them during the campaign. They have argued that former President Barack Obama’s policy would allow potential sexual predators access to bathrooms and create an unsafe environment for children.
“The federal government has absolutely no right to strip parents and local schools of their rights to provide a safe learning environment for children,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
But supporters of transgender rights said the Trump administration was acting recklessly and cruelly.
“The consequences of this decision will no doubt be heartbreaking,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
“This isn’t a states’ rights issue, it’s a civil rights issue.”
Bathroom access emerged as a major and divisive issue last March when North Carolina passed a bill barring transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the sex on their birth certificate. It was part of a broader bill eliminating anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues became a point of attack for opponents of DeVos’s nomination last month, as Democrats questioned her about the extensive financial support that some of her relatives – part of her wealthy and politically active Michigan family – had provided to anti-gay causes. DeVos distanced herself from her relatives on the issue, saying their political activities did not represent her views.
While Wednesday’s order significantly rolls back transgender protections, it does include language stating that schools must protect transgender students from bullying – a provision DeVos asked for, one person with direct knowledge of the process said.
“All schools must ensure that students, including LGBT students, are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment,” the letter said, echoing her comments at her confirmation hearing.