The Trump administration is revoking a rule made by Barack Obama that gave transgender students the rights to use bathrooms based on the gender they identify with. The issue with this topic is whether Title IX protects students based on their sex or gender identity.
Civil rights groups are now worrying that President Trump’s new order could lead to bullying against the transgender community, especially in schools across the country. With 150,000 young individuals from ages 13 to 17 identifying as transgender, this is a monumental and dramatic occurrence that could lead to major changes in schools.
The change Trump is attempting to make would also overturn a Supreme Court case involving Gavin Grimm, a student in Virginia arguing that the bathroom policy is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment and violates Title IX, a law prohibiting sex discrimination by schools.
Trump’s order will reverse the Obama administration’s statement made in May 2016, which also said that schools that eluded the recommendation could lose federal funds.
March 28 is the date in which the Supreme Court is going to hear arguments in the Grimm case. Grimm has already been in this situation before. In August of last year, the justices in the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that the school board did not have to allow Grimm to use the restroom of his choice.