Trump inauguration singer asks to ‘enlighten’ him on transgender rights
Jackie Evancho, who sang the US national anthem at President Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, has asked him to sit down with her and her transgender sister to learn about the challenges for students struggling with gender identity.
Evancho, 16, requested the meeting in a public Twitter message to the president late on Wednesday, minutes after his administration revoked landmark guidance to public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice.
“I am obviously disappointed in the @POTUS decision to send the #transgender bathroom issue to the states to decide. #sisterlove,” she wrote from her account, @jackieevancho.
Trump “gave me the honor” of singing at the inauguration, she added. “Pls give me & my sis the honor 2 meet with u 2 talk #transgender rghts.”
The White House had no immediate comment.
Trump’s administration revoked guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice, reversing a signature initiative of former Democratic president Barack Obama.
Reversing the Obama guidelines stands to inflame passions in the latest conflict in America between believers in traditional values and social progressives, and is likely to prompt more of the street protests that followed Trump’s November 8 election.
Obama had instructed public schools last May to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. Transgender people hailed the step as victory for their civil rights.
Trump rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference.
As of Thursday morning, more than 6,300 Twitter users had liked the request by Evancho, a classical crossover singer who rose to fame on the TV show America’s Got Talent.
Evancho was the first performer announced for Trump’s inauguration ceremony, an event that many other entertainers had shunned because of the president’s views.
Trump, an enthusiastic Twitter user, has not responded to the request, Evancho said on Thursday during an appearance with her sister Juliet on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“I just want to enlighten him on what my sister – I’ve seen her go through every single day in school,” she said.