National
States urged to ensure bathroom access for trans kids under Title IX
Schools warned that nothing has changed
A coalition of groups is urging states to ensure transgender students like Gavin Grimm have access to school restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD)
With the Trump administration giving up its authority to ensure transgender kids have access to the school restroom consistent with their gender identity, a coalition of 50 advocacy groups is turning to the states to enforce federal law on the issue.
In a letter dated July 18 and sent to state education officials in all 50 states, the groups maintain Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex, prohibits schools from denying transgender kids access to the bathroom according to their gender identity.
“We are concerned,” the letter says, “that the withdrawal of the Title IX guidance might lead some schools to believe that transgender students are not entitled to access bathrooms or other single-sex facilities consistent with their gender identity, or that the law or their obligations under Title IX to protect transgender students have somehow changed. That is simply not the case.”
The letter — spearheaded by the D.C.-based legal group Public Justice — is signed by Lambda Legal, the National Women’s Law Center and 47 other signatories that support transgender rights. Also among the signers is Anurima Bhargava, the former chief of the Educational Opportunities Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under President Obama.
It comes on the heels of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos revoking Obama-era guidance in February that informed schools that discriminating against transgender students, including denying access to the bathroom they think is best for them, amounts to a violation of Title IX.
Last month, the Education Department issued new Title IX rules, informing administration officials that discrimination against transgender kids in schools may in fact amount to a violation of the law, although claims of being denied to restrooms may be dismissed as a complaint.
Adele Kimmel, senior attorney for Public Justice, said in a statement even though a new political party is in control of the White House, the rules under Title IX remain the same.
“Our letter is an important reminder to schools that, regardless of whether the Trump Administration enforces it, Title IX requires that every student — including transgender students—be respected, protected and treated equally under the law,” Kimmel said. “This was true before the Obama Administration issued its guidance on schools’ obligations to protect transgender students. And it remains true, even though the current Administration withdrew that guidance.”
The Obama administration’s assertions that Title IX protected transgender students formed the basis of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of Gavin Grimm, who as a high school student sued his Virginia school for access to the restroom consistent with his gender identity. However, courts have reached the decision Title IX assures transgender kids bathroom access consistent with their gender identity even without relying on the guidance.
It should be noted that states were an impetus to the withdrawal of the guidance under the Trump administration. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during the Obama administration spearheaded a lawsuit filed by 12 states against the guidance, which led to a federal judge enjoining enforcement of it. Litigation led by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson on behalf of 10 more states was also filed against the guidance.
Kimmel told the Blade enforcement of Title IX for trans kids isn’t about states’ willingness to uphold the law, but their obligation to do so.
“Title IX and the U.S. Constitution apply to public schools in every state,” Kimmel said. “Public school districts, colleges, and universities in every state must comply with Title IX and the U.S. Constitution. When they don’t, they may be sued by the injured parties. They may also be sued in an enforcement action by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, but that’s unlikely in the Trump administration.”
Kimmel said Public Justice hasn’t yet received any responses from states in response to the joint letter from the organizations.
The Washington Blade has placed a request with the Education Department seeking comment on the demands made to states in the letter.
Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief States School Officers, is quoted in the Associated Press as saying his organization didn’t oppose Obama’s guidance, but believes disputes on bathroom access for transgender students should be resolved at the local level.
“These decisions need to be made between states and school districts. It’s not so much a single decision that a state can make,” Minnich reportedly said. “Every kid in those schools needs to feel welcome.”
New York
Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced
One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant
A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.
NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.
John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.
The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.
Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources
Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.
“These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.
It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”
The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question.
A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.
Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.
“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.
“Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says.
Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”
Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”
Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.
“As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from the Washington Blade.
“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said.
The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”
It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”
The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society.
The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections
Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has struck down guidelines by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission designed to protect against workplace harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The EEOC in April 2024 updated its guidelines to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination against transgender people constituted sex-based discrimination as proscribed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
To ensure compliance with the law, the agency recommended that employers honor their employees’ preferred pronouns while granting them access to bathrooms and allowing them to wear dress code-compliant clothing that aligns with their gender identities.
While the the guidelines are not legally binding, Kacsmaryk ruled that their issuance created “mandatory standards” exceeding the EEOC’s statutory authority that were “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.”
“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” he wrote in the opinion.
The case, which was brought by the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, presents the greatest setback for LGBTQ inclusive workplace protections since President Donald Trump’s issuance of an executive order on the first day of his second term directing U.S. federal agencies to recognize only two genders as determined by birth sex.
Last month, top Democrats from both chambers of Congress reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive protections against discrimination into federal law, covering employment as well as areas like housing and jury service.
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