US Department of Education ends support for trans students
Programmes benefitting trans students will be removed. (Getty)
The US Department of Education has told its employees that it will end all programmes and remove policies that “fail to affirm the reality of biological sex” to comply with the Trump Administration’s crackdown on trans rights.
In an email seen by ProPublica, the Department did not specify which programmes or policies in particular would be affected but the new plans could target mental health services for trans people or extra support for those that had become homeless.
“These corrective measures will include thorough review and subsequent termination of Departmental programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices,” it read.
This would not be limited to students under the Department of Education’s purview but would also affect employee programmes, with staff across various branches of government already having been told to remove their preferred pronouns from email signatures.
The email – which was unsigned – said: “Employee resource groups that promote gender ideology and do not affirm the reality of biological sex cannot meet on government property or take place during official work hours.”
“The deliberate subjugation of women and girls by means of gender ideology — whether in intimate spaces, weaponised language, or American classrooms — negated the civil rights of biological females and fostered distrust of our federal institutions,” the email continued.
This is a direct result of executive orders signed by President Trump targeting “gender ideology”. Many federal departments have already been forced to comply with the rulings.
Federal agencies have been ordered to remove any reference to transgender people from its documents and policies, while the State Department has suspended applications for passports that reflect a person’s gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth.
Trans people have also been banned from serving in the military while another order has attempted to remove trans women from female federal prisons to male facilities instead.
Most recently, trans athletes will no longer be able to participate in women’s sports. As a result, the Department of Education has already announced investigations into two universities relating to transgender athletes while the NCAA has changed its transgender athletes policy to also prevent trans women from competing in women’s sports.
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