The trump administration rescinded the transgender restroom privilege which the Obama administration issued last year. The Department of Justice and the Department of Education announced the withdrawal of the policies and procedures that provided transgender students the privilege to use the restroom according to their gender identity and not according to their sex at birth.
The basis for the proclamation is the lack of legal explanation of the Title IX upon which last year’s policy was taken from. There are reports that even the education secretary was not comfortable on reversing the directive.
LGBTQ supporters rallied against rolling back the protection
Since its announcement on Wednesday, the reversal of the transgender restroom protection faces several protests saying the move was a violation of human rights.
Many activists consider Trump a bully and believe that this order will only promote more discrimination among students in many schools all over the United States.
Mara Keisling, Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Rachel Tiven, Lambda Legal CEO, both mentioned that the policy reversal will put hundreds or thousands of students in danger all over the country.
Many transgender students are disappointed with the Trump administration saying that the withdrawal of the transgender restroom order is a move against them.
Reversal of the transgender restroom policy may affect pending cases
Some transgender students, including Gavin Grimm who sued the Gloucester County School for not allowing access to the boy’s bathroom, now face a dilemma if the removed protection will affect their filed cases or not. Courts guarantee that a thorough and correct interpretation of Title IX will be used for cases such as this.
The debate is still up of whether the ruling should only affect certain states and not all of the states. The state-imposed transgender rights are still under several arguments and this is one of the issues on the hot seat.
Other groups applauded the revised directive
While many refused to accept the Trump order, there are groups which commended the government for it.
One is the Family Research Council which considers this a victory.
Those who support the Trump administration with this revision believe that their children are put at risk when both genders are allowed to use the same restroom in schools.
Civil rights groups also cited the announcement to remove the transgender restroom protection for about 150,000 identified transgender youths in the U.S., is what Title IX legally means, and cannot be changed.
