PARENTS OF
transgender kids seek talks with Trump.
The parents of eight transgender children from across the country have requested a meeting with President Donald Trump and key administration officials to discuss the effects of the decision to withdraw federal guidance explaining what the nation’s public schools must do to protect transgender students.
“We are heartbroken and scared about what this means,” the parents said Friday in a letter to Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “This action exposes transgender students to harassment and discrimination in their own classrooms, places they should feel safe and able to learn.”
A White House spokesman could not immediately say whether Trump had seen the letter, but he said the president has made clear that he’s open to meeting with a variety of people to improve Americans’ lives. An Education Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The letter was signed by parents from Arizona, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Texas and Washington, D.C. They are members of the Human Rights Campaign’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council, and many of them have become leading voices in the effort to raise awareness about and advocate for the needs of transgender people.
They include Debi and Tom Jackson, whose daughter Avery appeared on the cover of National Geographic in January, and Ron Ford Jr. and Vanessa Ford, who have written about their daughter, Ellie, in The Washington Post.
“We are continuing to fight,” Ron Ford said Wednesday, the day Trump withdrew the guidance, at a rally in support of transgender children in front of the White House. Ford’s short speech was captured on video and posted on Facebook. “Everyone needs to be protected in school, in their communities. Just because they rescinded the guidance … doesn’t meant that we all stop. We do not stop.”
The guidance from former President Barack Obama’s administration specified not only that transgender children should be allowed to use restrooms matching their gender identity, but also how schools should navigate questions about which names and pronouns to use and which athletic team a child should be permitted to join. Many parents of transgender children embraced the guidance, saying it made them feel as if Washington cared about — and was willing to protect — their children.
But the guidance also triggered a backlash from parents, activists and elected officials who argued that allowing transgender students access to restrooms matching their gender identity would violate the privacy and dignity of other students. More than a dozen states sued to block the guidance, and in August, a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction temporarily prohibiting the federal government from enforcing it.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded schools, protects transgender students.