Reaction to Trump rescinding Obama’s transgender bathroom rules
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Local school districts will now decide which bathroom transgender students must use. This comes after the Trump administration rescinded a directive first issued by President Obama.
Obama’s guidelines allowed students to decide and use the bathroom in which they felt most comfortable.
This not only applies to bathrooms, but also locker rooms.
Trump says the directive from Obama was too over-reaching, advocates though say those directives were saving lives.
“I feel like it’s only going to get worse from here,” said Ariel Laukins, a onbinary transgender student at Butler University. “In May, I felt protected. I really did. Those guidelines were put in place to protect people like me.”
Obama issued his guidelines in May of 2016.
Laukins says their work has now gotten harder.
“We’ve been working hard here and then to see nationally that going backwards and to know that if we don’t continue to work hard here that it could get taken away from us is really scary. There’s no reason other than to attack us to do that,” said Laukins.”
The administration sees it differently.
“This issue was a very huge example of the Obama administration’s overreach to suggest one-size-fits-all Federal Government approach,” said Betsy DeVos, the US Education Secretary while speaking at CPAC.
The ACLU of Indiana says it will use this as a teaching moment.
“It is our hope that schools and educators around the country will understand that they must stand with these young heroes who only want to live their lives with dignity and safety,” said Kit Malone of the ACLU of Indiana.
Laukins who started TRANSform at Butler University, a transgender advocacy group, says this is a setback but says they’ll forge on.
“It’s tough to fight for yourself and to fight for other people and when people push back so hard against it,” said Laukins.
Regarding the recension, Indianapolis Public Schools and Wayne Township say they will work to make sure students’ needs are met.