US Department of Education will no longer act on trans bathroom complaints

The US Department of Education will no longer act on or investigate into complaints made by transgender students about bathroom access.

The DoE made its decision to scrap investigating complaints about trans discrimination citing the reason as Title IX only prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity.

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Hill, a spokesperson for the agency, told BuzzFeed that the 1972 title of the Education Amendments does not specify discrimination in relevance to facilities such as bathrooms.

She said: “Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX.

“In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.

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“The secretary would contend that it is the job of Congress or the courts, not the bureaucracy, to determine whether or not the term ‘sex’ under Title IX encompasses ‘gender identity,” Hill added.

The Trump administration’s interpretation of Title XI scraps the definition by the Obama administration completely.

Guidance issued under the 44th president in 2016 stated that public schools must allow students to use the bathroom that resonated with their gender identity.