Transgender bathrooms: Trump administration to issue new guidance
The Trump administration is expected to issue new guidance Wednesday on whether public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
President Trump has long held that transgender bathroom laws should be left to states.
Mr. Trump believes that “certain issues like this are best not dealt with at the federal level,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer
said. And his position will not change, Spicer added. He also confirmed that the Justice Department and the Department of Education were reviewing the existing guidelines and had “several areas of concern, both legal and procedural.”
The White House will update the guidance issued by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education under the Obama administration. Spicer said there were legal and procedural problems with the Obama administration guidance. Back in May, the Obama administration issued guidance to U.S. public schools that they were required to treat transgender students according to their gender identity, even if that’s different than their birth identity. A study from The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School estimates that there are approximately 150,000 13- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. who identify as transgender.
