According to the New York Times, the letter from the Education and Justice Departments will outline what schools must do to avoid discriminating against transgender students.
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In a suit filed late Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the DOJ alleged a “pattern or practice of employment discrimination on the basis of sex” against the state over the law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate.
“Transgender youth are already at heightened risk of experiencing violence, bullying, and harassment, and North Carolina’s action exacerbates those risks by creating a hostile environment in one of the places they should feel the safest”, said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow.
Obama’s decree says schools can not force students to use a bathroom “inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so”, the Times reports.
The move comes as the Department of Justice and the state of North Carolina are suing each other over House Bill 2.
“When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity”, reads the guidance document.
The Pilot spoke with all five divisions in South Hampton Roads about the issue last month.
North Carolina officials also filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, calling its position a “radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act”. Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. described that campaign as a continuation of the civil rights era that brought equal rights to African-Americans.
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“We stand with you”, she said. Today’s guidance will be instrumental for school districts to understand their legal obligations in light of the legal response to North Carolina’s harmful and regressive HB2. Ted Cruz of Texas charged that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, “both agree that grown men should be allowed to use the little girls’ restroom”.
