In a brief filed Feb. 10, the Department of Justice ( DoJ )less than two days after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney generalstarted withdrawing its support for Title IX protections for transgender students.
The DoJ withdrew its request for a partial stay on a Texas court ruling that prohibited the federal government from enforcing a President Obama-related provision that recommended such protections. That stay sought to narrow the scope of the ruling to only apply to the 12 states that participated in the lawsuit.
Sessions ( whose name does not appear on the brief ), a former senator from Alabama, has a history of anti-LGBTQ actions. Among other things, he opposed hate-crimes legislation while in the Senate.
"After being on the job for less than 48 hours, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled his intent to undermine the equal dignity of transgender students," said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement. "Transgender students are entitled to the full protection of the United States Constitution and our federal nondiscrimination laws. It is heartbreaking and wrong that the agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws would instead work to subvert them for political interests."
This article is from the Washington Blade, as part of the National LGBT Newspaper Association.