This week in the Trump chronicles, Betsy Devos has announced that the department of education is no longer willing to listen to complaints about transgender bathrooms in their schools. This flood of complaints began to come in after Devos and Sessions had taken away Obama’s previous law allowing students to use the bathroom that they felt aligned with their gender identity, instead of the one found on their birth certificate. Many transgender students were holding onto the hope that the Trump administration would continue to have their back when they were openly discriminated against or faced with serious issues, even if the law was no longer in place. However, as of last week, Devos has made it clear that that will no longer be the case.
How is this possible? Doesn’t Title IX protect students rights against discrimination? The short answer is yes, however, the White House has decided that trans students bathroom needs do not fit their interpretation of the law. As the Department of Education spokeswoman stated, “In the case of the bathrooms, however, longstanding regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX”. Interestingly, even Hill, the department spokesperson, does not outright deny that it is discrimination to not allow students to choose which bathroom to enter, just that it is not strictly specified as discriminatory in the Title IX law.
So why does this matter? Well, for one, taking away the protections of an entire group of students, is showing them that you do not belief they are important enough to deserve protection. Then to state that you will no longer hear their situations of blatant oppression in court systems is telling students that they are not even worth your time. It is sad when we see any form of regression in our government, but truly disgusting when those elected to protect the good of America pick and choose which Americans are important enough for protection.