According to an LGBT rights advocate,
the Trump administration is preparing to rescind Obama-era guidance
on transgender students.
Mara Keisling, executive director of
the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the Washington
Blade on Monday that she's heard from “reliable sources” that
President Donald Trump has approved a plan to rescind guidance issued
last year by the Education Department. The guidance on allowing
transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice had the
backing of the Justice Department.
“This is the first day of the
president's second month in office and he is now fully coming after
LGBT people,” Keisling
said. “I’m angry; I’m outraged. This is about kids who
just want to go to school who just want to be themselves, and to hear
the president a week or two ago talk about how supportive he is of
LGBT people, it’s just outrageous that he’d go after trans kids
this way.”
When asked about the guidance on
Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer did not deny that it
might be rescinded.
“The president has maintained for a
long time that this is a states' rights issue and not one for the
federal government,” Spicer told reporters. “So while we have
further guidance coming out on this, I think that all you have to do
is look at what the president’s view has been for a long time, that
this is not something the federal government should be involved in,
that this is a states’ rights issue.”
The
Supreme Court next month will hear arguments in a related case.