Transgender toilets battle to continue
UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked landmark guidance issued to public schools in defence of transgender student rights, reversing course on a signature initiative of Democratic former president Barack Obama.
Obama instructed public schools in May 2016 to allow transgender students to use the toilets matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold federal funding if they forced transgender children to use toilets against their will.
Trump yesterday rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own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 government interference.
The justice and education departments will continue to study the legal issues involved, according to the new guidance that will be sent to public schools across the country.
About 200 people gathered in front of the White House to protest the Republican president’s action, waving rainbow flags and chanting: ‘‘No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.’’
‘‘This is a mean-spirited attack on hundreds of thousands of students who simply want to be their true selves and be treated with dignity while attending school,’’ said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality.
Conservatives such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who spearheaded the lawsuit challenging the Obama guidance, hailed the Trump administration’s action.
‘‘Our fight over the bathroom directive has always been about former president Obama’s attempt to bypass Congress and rewrite the laws to fit his political agenda for radical social change,’’ Paxton, a Republican, said.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the White House was pressed to act now because of a pending US Supreme Court case, GG versus Gloucester County School Board. The case pits a Virginia transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, against officials who want to deny him use of the boys’ toilets at his high school.
The Trump administration’s action also withdrew an Education Department letter in support of Grimm’s case.
Thirteen states, led by Texas, sued to stop the Obama guidelines, calling them federal meddling in what should be a state matter, and a US district judge in Texas temporarily halted their full implementation.
That lawsuit could be rendered moot by the new policy, which also allows public schools to set their own rules without fear of losing federal funds or a lawsuit from the Justice Department. - Reuters