Trump Rescinds Rules on Bathrooms for Transgender Students
By JEREMY W. PETERS, JO BECKER and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
FEB. 22, 2017 - The New York Times
WASHINGTON
— President Trump on Wednesday rescinded protections for transgender students
that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity,
overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in
the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave
behind.
In
a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and
the Education Department rejected the Obama administrationfs position that
nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the
bathrooms of their choice.
That
directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, gwithout due
regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in
establishing educational policy.h
The question of how to address the gbathroom debate,h as
it has become known, opened a rift inside the Trump administration, pitting
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mr.
Sessions, who had been expected to move quickly to roll back the civil rights
expansions put in place under his Democratic predecessors, wanted to act
decisively because of two pending court cases that could have upheld the
protections and pushed the government into further litigation.
But Ms. DeVos initially resisted
signing off and told Mr. Trump that she was uncomfortable because of the
potential harm that rescinding the protections could cause transgender students,
according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the internal
discussions.
Mr. Sessions, who has opposed expanding gay, lesbian and
transgender rights, pushed Ms. DeVos to relent. After getting nowhere, he took
his objections to the White House because he could not go forward without her
consent. Mr. Trump sided with his attorney general, the Republicans said, and
told Ms. DeVos in a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he wanted her to
drop her opposition. And Ms. DeVos, faced with the alternative of resigning or
defying the president, agreed to go along.
Ms. DeVosfs unease was evident in a strongly worded
statement she released on Wednesday night, in which she said she considered it a
gmoral obligationh for every school in America to protect all students from
discrimination, bullying and harassment.
She said she had directed the
Education Departmentfs Office for Civil Rights to investigate all claims of such
treatment gagainst those who are most vulnerable in our schools,h but also
argued that bathroom access was not a federal matter.
Gay rights supporters made their displeasure clear.
Outside the White House, several hundred people protested the decision,
chanting, gNo hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.h
Individual schools will remain free to let transgender
students use the bathrooms with which they are most comfortable. And the effect
of the administrationfs decision will not be immediate because a federal court
had already issued a
nationwide injunction barring enforcement of the Obama order.
The dispute highlighted the degree to which transgender
rights issues, which Mr. Trump expressed sympathy for during the campaign,
continue to split Republicans, even as many in the party argue that it is time
to move away from social issues and focus more on bread-and-butter pocketbook
concerns.
Within the administration, it also threatened to become
another distraction for Mr. Trump after a tumultuous first month in office. And
it showed how Mr. Trump, who has taken a more permissive stance on gay rights
and same-sex
marriage than many of his fellow Republicans, is bowing to pressure from the
religious right and contradicting his own personal views.
Social conservatives, one of Mr. Trumpfs most loyal
constituencies, applauded him for honoring a pledge he had made to them during
the campaign. They had argued that former President Barack Obamafs policy would
allow potential sexual predators access to bathrooms and create an unsafe
environment for children.
gThe federal government has absolutely no right to strip
parents and local schools of their rights to provide a safe learning environment
for children,h said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
But supporters of transgender rights said the Trump
administration was acting recklessly and cruelly. gThe consequences of this
decision will no doubt be heartbreaking,h said Chad Griffin, president of the
Human Rights Campaign. gThis isnft a statesf rights issue; itfs a civil rights
issue.h
Bathroom access emerged as a major
and divisive issue last March when North Carolina passed a bill barring
transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the sex on their birth
certificate. It was part of a
broader bill eliminating anti-discrimination protections for gay and
transgender people.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues became a
point of attack for opponents of Ms. DeVosfs nomination last month, as Democrats
questioned her about the extensive financial support that some of her relatives
— part of her wealthy and politically active Michigan family — had provided to
anti-gay causes. Ms. DeVos distanced herself from her relatives on the issue,
saying their political activities did not represent her views.
While Wednesdayfs order significantly rolls back
transgender protections, it does include language stating that schools must
protect transgender students from bullying, a provision Ms. DeVos asked for, one
person with direct knowledge of the process said.
gAll schools must ensure that students, including L.G.B.T.
students, are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment,h the letter said,
echoing Ms. DeVosfs comments at her confirmation hearing but not expressly using
the word transgender. Ms. DeVos, who has been quietly
supportive of gay rights for years, was said to have voiced her concern
about the high rates of suicide among transgender students. In one 2016 study by
the Cincinnati Childrenfs Hospital Medical Center, for instance, 30 percent
reported a history of at least one suicide attempt.
Mr. Trump appears to have been swayed by conservatives in
his administration who reminded him that he had promised during the campaign to
leave the question of bathroom use to the states.
But he had given conflicting signals on the issue, and on
gay rights more broadly. He said
last April, for instance, that he supported the right of transgender people
to guse the bathroom they feel is appropriate,h and added that Caitlyn Jenner,
perhaps the most famous transgender person in the country, could use whichever
bathroom at Trump Tower she wanted. He has also called the Supreme Court
decision legalizing same-sex marriage settled law. gAnd Ifm fine with that,h he
told CBS News after the November election.
Despite his personal views, Mr. Trumpfs decisions in
office have been consistently conservative on social issues. And he has shown considerable
deference to the religious right, naming many religious conservatives to top
cabinet posts and pledging to fight for religious freedom protections and
restrictions on abortion.
The Justice Department is eager to move quickly in laying
out its legal position on transgender policy, to avoid confusion in cases moving
through the courts.
The dispute has underscored the influence that Mr.
Sessions, an early and ardent supporter of Mr. Trump, is likely to exercise over
domestic policy. As someone who has a long record of opposing efforts to broaden
federal protections on a range of matters under his purview — immigration,
voting rights and gay rights, for example — he has moved quickly to set the
Justice Department on a strikingly different course than his predecessors in the
Obama administration.
Eric Lichtblau and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.