On Wednesday (Feb. 22), the Trump administration reversed a policy from the Obama administration, that was designed to protect transgender students at schools, and reduce discrimination. This policy was originally issued last May. The Obama administration made the policy so that transgender students can use facilities that correspond with what gender they identify as.
The letter that changed everything was a two-page “dear colleague” letter from the Trump administration. Some of the reasons that the Trump administration claims to have to revoke this policy is that it did not “contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX, nor did they undergo any formal public process”. The letter doesn’t offer any more guidance, but it rather just withdrew the Obama administration’s policy. It also stated that a policy regarding transgender bathrooms should be decided at a state level. This new reversed policy makes it much harder for transgender students to use the bathroom or locker rooms of their gender identity, nationwide.
This is a huge win for those who are transphobic, but a huge loss for transgender students across the country. It’s not only a huge loss, but it could cause more discrimination throughout schools, even though the letter claims that “it does not leave students without protections from discrimination, bullying, or harassment”. But the fact that the President and his administration just discriminated against transgender students, makes that statement seem redundant. Because of this discrimination, many might think “If the President can do it, so can I.” If they wanted to leave students with protections from discrimination, they shouldn’t have reversed this policy in the first place.
For a president that claimed to support the LGBTQA+ community, reversing this policy that didn’t allow discrimination of transgender students in schools, is pretty hypocritical.
The Trump administration is against the LGBTQA+ community.
As much as they said they were for the LGBTQA+ community, actions speak louder than words, and this action speaks much louder than those words.
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