Donald Trump: States Should Decide Transgender Bathroom Issue
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | May 14, 2016
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said Friday that states should decide whether transgender students can use the bathroom of their choice.
“I think this should be a states' issue,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News' Fox & Friends. “It's become a huge story and yet it affects – and everybody has to be protected, if it's one person – but it's a tiny, tiny portion of the population, and it's become a massive story. I think this should a states' issue.”
Trump was referring to guidelines issued by the Obama administration that advise public schools, colleges and universities to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that they identify with.
“It's a new issue,” Trump said. “Right now, I just don't have an opinion.”
Trump, however, did have an opinion last month, saying that transgender people should be able to “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate” and inviting Caitlyn Jenner to use the bathroom of her choice in his properties. Jenner took him up on his offer.
JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), called Trump's position “reckless.”
“Donald Trump’s dangerous bluster would allow governors to bully transgender students and should be deeply alarming to the majority of Americans who support LGBT equality. Here's the reality, Mr. Trump. Teachers and schools are asking for the federal government's help because politicians like you and [North Carolina] Governor Pat McCrory are putting transgender students at risk. Transgender youth face a heightened risk for bullying, harassment and violence, which is exactly why it is inexcusable that anyone running for president would try to take a pass on protecting all students,” Winterhof said in a statement.