New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that transgender students would not lose protections in his state despite the Trump administration’s decision to repeal guidelines allowing children to use school bathrooms according to their preferred gender identity, the Hill reported.
“The misguided action taken by the federal government last night runs contrary to the New York promise of individual freedoms,” Cuomo said in a statement Thursday.
“Today, I am urging the State Education Department to issue a directive to all school districts making it clear that — regardless of Washington’s action — the rights and protections that had been extended to students in New York remain unchanged under state law,” he added.
Cuomo’s released his statement along with a letter to MaryEllen Elia, the commissioner of the New York State Education Department.
In the letter, Cuomo tells Elia to issue a statewide directive making sure transgender students are “expressly protected from discrimination.”
The Trump administration reversed Obama-era protections for transgender students Wednesday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the former guidelines violated Title IX, which bars discrimination due to one’s sex.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos opposed changing the Obama-era policy on transgender students, saying her department would provide safeguards for all students.
Sessions persuaded her, with Trump’s help, to support reforms on the Obama transgender policy.
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