LGBTQ Students Civil Rights Decline

A new report shows that the Department of Education (ED) has drastically scaled back enforcing civil rights for our LGBTQ students according to data obtained by the Center for American Progress. Records obtained from the ED through Freedom of Information Act requests show that since the start of the Trump administration Title IX complaints related to sexual orientation or gender identity were more than nine times less likely to result in corrective action than they were during the Obama administration. Shabab Ahmed Mirza, co-author of the report & a research assistant at CAP stated, “This administration’s failure to protect the civil rights of LGBTQ students should not come as a surprise to anyone. But the nine fold decrease in the rate of corrective action is a shocking indicator of the scale of the problem.” Frank J. Bewkes, co-author of the report & a policy analyst for the LGBT Research & Communications Project at the CAP concluded, “Betsy DeVos claims the Department of Education is committed to ensuring that all students have access to their education free from discrimination. But these data show that she is failing. There is an clear disregard for the rights of LGBTQ students under Title IX.” This appears to be part of a disturbing pattern under DeVos’ leadership the report says. One of her first acts as secretary of education was to revoke Obama-era guidance that affirmed protections for transgender students. Last year DeVos said the department was no longer investigating complaints from transgender students regarding access to bathrooms & locker rooms as well as a range of other complaints of anti-transgender discrimination.
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