Beyonce breaks social media hiatus to defend trans students as Trump administration scraps school guidance
Beyonce has broken a silence on social media to call out the Trump administration on its revoking of previous guidelines protecting trans students’ bathroom rights.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration officially revoked guidance protecting transgender students in public schools.
The guidelines had been introduced by the Obama administration, but were rescinded by the White House on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court and the nation’s public schools were notified by letter late on Wednesday that the guidance was changing.
Taking to her Facebook page which sports nearly 65 million followers, Bey linked to the US-based LGBT+ advocacy schools group GLSEN.
“LGBTQ students need to know we support them,” she wrote, adding: “Share your support to protect trans youth.”
The link she added pointed to GLSEN’s ‘100 Days of Kindness’ social media campaign.
Others, including Laverne Cox and Ellen Page also posted as the guidelines were rescinded.
Previously, as introduced by the Obama administration, public schools were instructed to allow trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity.
Title IX was used in drafting the guidelines, which were seen as an interpretation of the federal non-discrimination law.
But the new letter from the White House states that the previous guidelines did not “contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX, nor did they undergo any formal public process.”
But the Trump administration revoked that guidance, the letter stating that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will not “rely on the views expressed in that guidance, and instead will consider further and more completely the legal issues involved.”
Despite the administration having officially rescinded the guidance, the letter will have no immediate impact as the guidelines were blocked by a federal court after they were issued.
But as expected, the letter claims that “there must be due regard for the primary role of the States and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”
The US Supreme Court is set to hear the case of Gavin Grimm on 28 March. The trans student sued his school board after he was denied the right to use the boys’ restroom.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, had said that the new guidelines would be in line with Trump’s previous assertion that “he is a firm believer in states’ rights and that certain issues like this are not best dealt with on the federal level.”
Donald Trump will roll back Barack Obama’s orders on LGBT rights, his Vice President Mike Pence said in December.
Officials in the Trump administration went ahead to scrap anti-discrimination protections just days after the President intervened, as he was branded a “hypocrite” by LGBT rights campaigners.
Last week the President said he would not repeal Obama’s executive protections for LGBT people, with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner said to have convinced the Presidentto ignore his strategists on the issue.
