Yesterday, the Trump administration reversed an Obama administration’s “guidance” concerning the rights of trans students attending public institutions. Under the Obama’s administration reading of Title IX, trans students were to be permitted to use the bathroom and locker facilities that are congruent with their identity.
Trump just killed all that citing “states’ rights.”
So, using the neo-Confederate reasoning straight out of the White Supremacist reaction to desegregation, the Trumpsters are throwing trans kids to the literal wolves.
For those of us who care about social justice for all kids, we’re going to be very busy over the next few years, litigating this at the federal level, but also working at state and local levels to pass trans protections in locales that don’t have them, and to be sure they are enforced where we do (like NJ).
BUT, we also need to throw the “states’ rights” justification back in their faces if the feds start demanding information on our undocumented students, etc. etc. If they believe that states *ARE* sovereign in ed, policy, okay. It should cut across every single domain that touches upon public schools.
Stay tuned……
Thinking Queerly: Schools, politics and culture 
I can only imagine the distress this will cause to Trans young people, as if they didn’t already have enough to contend with.
By: Naomi. on March 1, 2017
at 7:13 am