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Education secretary Betsy DeVos is learning two quick lessons about her new position courtesy of a fight over the rights of transgender students: 1) It's really difficult to be more repugnant than Attorney General Jeff Sessions when it comes to civil rights issues; 2) It's still a man's world inside the ossified gut of the Trump administration.
Yes, Jeff Sessions has reportedly managed to cast Betsy DeVos as an unlikely champion of protecting transgender students. DeVos initially refused to sign off on Sessions' order reversing Obama administration guidance that allowed transgender students to use the restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender, writes the New York Times.
Mr. Sessions, who strongly opposes expanding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, fought Ms. DeVos on the issue and pressed her to relent because he could not go forward without her consent. The order must come from the Justice and Education Departments.
Mr. Trump sided with his attorney general, these Republicans said. And Ms. DeVos, faced with the choice of resigning or defying the president, has agreed to go along. The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.
As of Wednesday, the final language was still being worked out. Sessions' order apparently rescinded the bathroom protections and yet failed to even toss in a bone about protecting trans students from bodily harm.
The draft also contains language stating that schools must protect transgender students from bullying, a provision Ms. DeVos asked be included, one person with direct knowledge of the process said. “Schools must ensure that transgender students, like all students, are able to learn in a safe environment,” the letter says.
The new order cites confusion arising from President Obama's original guidance as the justification for scrapping it.
“School administrators, parents and students have expressed varying views on the legal issues arising in this setting,” the draft says. “They have also struggled to understand and apply the statements of policy and guidance” in the Obama orders.
It's an interesting case to make since the Obama administration said a big part of why they issued the directive was because school systems across the country were seeking clarity on the matter. Maybe it wasn’t so much that they “struggled to understand” the policy as much as red staters just opposed protecting the civil rights of any new group of people. Go figure.
Per usual, Trump has staked out every position possible on transgender rights—from inviting Caitlyn Jenner to use whichever bathroom she deemed appropriate at Trump Tower to suggesting that the issue should be left up to the states.
That's left Sessions—the nation's top law enforcement officer and supposed protector of civil liberties—to do as much damage as possible on the issue. Betsy DeVos seemingly made an actual effort to protect trans students from Sessions' heavy hand. Don't be surprised when Sessions' uses his newly acquired power to roll back as many civil rights protections for as many groups of people as possible.
Transgender protections were simply an early entrant on the chopping block given that filing deadlines are approaching on pending legislation, specifically in the case of Virginia teen Gavin Gimm's effort to use the boy's bathroom at his school.