Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, isn’t just committed to taking money away from public education. She has other causes, too! Like the religious right—something that could be dangerous for LGBT kids:
Perhaps the most troubling group DeVos supports is Focus on the Family, which champions so-called gay “conversion therapy,” a practice discredited by medical professionals as misleading and harmful, and with no medical basis. The group ran an “ex-gay” ministry called Love Won Out from 1998 until 2009, when that program merged with another “conversion therapy” program, Exodus International.
DeVos’s support of school vouchers and conservative Christian groups is more connected than you might think—many, many school vouchers are used to send kids to Christian schools on public money. But even if she doesn’t bring conversion therapy directly to the nation’s public schools, she could hurt LGBT students:
Civil rights and LGBTQ rights groups are also concerned that a Department of Education headed by DeVos would likely backtrack on letters and guidances that the department has issued in recent years taking a strong position against transphobic and homophobic policies in school districts nationally.
Those guidances aren’t legally enforceable, but school districts with contradictory policies faced the threat of losing federal funds and legal action from LGBTQ students, who would have the favorable department guidance on their side in a court battle.
Even that small protection could disappear under DeVos and Trump. Just as a stopgap measure while they figure out how to send all the public education money to Christian schools that straight-up favor conversion therapy.