President Donald Trump, who says that his administration is "running like a fine-tuned machine," (ABC News, 2/17/17), has reversed the Obama Administration's guidelines to school districts throughout the country pertaining to Transgender students' rights to decide which bathroom facilities to use while at school. According to the Obama Administration's guidelines, transgender students were to retain the right to use the bathrooms that matched their gender identity; and nobody in any position of authority was to direct transgender students to use a bathroom other than the one that they choose to use.
Trump Administration's rationale
The rationale of the Trump Administration in reversing the Obama Administration's transgender bathroom usage guidelines was that the guidelines, which cited Title IX, did not specify how such guidelines were consistent with federal law. Even though Trump's reversal of Obama's guidelines no longer call for students to be able to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, the reversal does not affect the anti-bullying component of such guidelines. Consequently, bullying, intimidating, teasing and ridiculing transgender or LGBTQ students still will be prohibited under federal law.
States to take a "primary role" in bathroom laws
In a letter to school districts throughout America, the Justice Department, which is overseen and administered by the Trump Administration, stated that "policy regarding transgender bathrooms should be decided at the state level,"(ABC News, 2/22/17).
The Justice Department continued and strongly suggested that "open and inclusive process" ensue at the state level.
Trump goes back on his word
When asked about the Obama Administration's transgender bathroom usage guidelines last April, Donald Trump said to "leave it the way it is," (ABC News, 2/22/17). Trump, who was in an interview with NBC News at the time he made that statement, went on to say that transgender students "should use the bathroom of their choice," (ABC News, 2/22/17).
Trump has now reversed that stand and relegated the issue to the states and directed his Justice Department to inform the nation's school districts of the new policy. Many observers feel that the President has gone back on his word and not kept his promise to the LGBTQ Community to honor the bathroom usage rights of transgender/LGBTQ students throughout America.
Trump's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has not issued a policy statement on the issue of transgender/LGBTQ bathroom usage. However, she did describe the obligations of all public schools "to protect every student in America," (ABC News, 2/22/17). DeVos then went on to state, "This is not merely a federal mandate, but a moral obligation," (ABC News, 2/22/17).
Trump ordered to disclose names to federal court
Meanwhile, President Trump has been ordered to disclose the names of all travelers whose entry into the United States was blocked by the new administration's Muslim immigration ban. According to Trump, 109 Muslim refugees were prohibited from entering the country by Trump's immigration ban in the hours following the imposition of a restraining order blocking the ban.
A federal court in New York City is requesting that Trump send it the names of all the immigrants who were banned from entering the country by his executive order. The Trump Administration has yet to comply with the order.
