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Published On: Tue, Feb 13th, 2018

Trump’s Education Department no longer interested in transgender bathroom complaints

The Trump Administration’s Education Department confirmed to the press that it will no longer investigate or take action on complaints filed by transgender students who say they are being discriminated against by being told to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological gender.

photo courtesy of LC.org

On Thursday, Liz Hill, a spokesperson for the agency, responded to BuzzFeed  “yes, that’s what the law says” when asked again if the Education Department holds a current position that restroom complaints from transgender students are not covered by a 1972 federal civil rights law called Title IX.

Asked for further explanation on the department’s position, Hill said Friday, “Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”

She added that certain types of transgender complaints may be investigated — but not bathroom complaints.

“Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX,” Hill said. “In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.”

Critics will say the bathroom rule is the Trump administration’s latest step to rescind and undermine LGBT protections.

Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration, said the new school-restroom policy is legally dubious.

“Until now, the official position of the Department has been that Title IX protects all students and that they were evaluating how that protection applies to the issue of bathroom access,” she said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “This new categorical bar of civil rights protection for transgender children required to attend schools every day ignores the text of the law, courts’ interpretation of the law, the stated position of the Department to date, and human decency.”

The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts, which held that Title IX guarantees transgender students’ access to restrooms matching their gender identity.

Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told BuzzFeed News, “It marks a shift in position for the Education Department that is particularly remarkable in light of case law.”

For the department to neglect those decisions, Tobin said, is to “ignore the law in favor of their ideology.”

Life Site News counters that “Parents, however, who have had to fight school boards so that their daughters will not have to shower with biological boys who think they are ‘girls’ will likely welcome the news.”

Related…

North Carolina repeals bathroom bill, GLAAD still unhappy

Virginia bathroom bill dismissed, student graduates without incident

Pennsylvania students sue over privacy violations linked to transgender locker room, bathroom policies

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About the Author

- Roxanne "Butter" Bracco began with the Dispatch as Pittsburgh Correspondent, but will be providing reports and insights from Washington DC, Maryland and the surrounding region. Contact Roxie aka "Butter" at theglobaldispatch@gmail ATTN: Roxie or Butter Bracco

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