The Obama administration issued a directive threatening to deny funding for schools with policies singling out transgender students. Delaware is ahead of the curve, it passed a law in 2013 that provides protections for transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations.
The directive made waves in states like North Carolina, which has its own “bathroom bill” that, in part, requires students to use the restroom of their assigned sex at birth.
Sarah McBride is with the Center for American Progress, which is a nonpartisan policy institute for progressive ideas. She said the guidance from the administration will be implemented swiftly and immediately not only in Delaware schools, but most schools across the nation.
“This guidance helps to ensure that the protections that we passed in Delaware not only are firm and clear in our own state but in states across the country,” McBride said.
She said she expects the guidance to be implemented swiftly in most schools across the nation.
The directive makes it clear that schools must allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room that coincides with their gender identity. Schools that do not follow the new guidelines risk losing Title IX funding.
“There’s no question that this guidance helps to build on the progress that a number of states, including Delaware, have made in the several decades on LGBT equality and Transgender equality in particular,” said McBride.
