White House condemns ‘hateful’ anti-LGBT+ bills as Education Department ‘well positioned’ for civil rights probe

Jen Psaki says ‘Don’t Say Gay’ puts ‘parents and LGBT+ kids in a very difficult, heart-breaking circumstance’

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law reflects “misinformed, hateful policies that do absolutely nothing to address the real issues” as LGBT+ students and families

“Parents across the country are looking to national, state and district leaders to support our nation’s students, to ensure that kids are treated equally in schools, and this is not a reflection of that,” she said on 4 April.

Ms Psaki responded to a series of questions from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked whether Joe Biden’s administration believes it is “fair” that “biological males are competing against women” in university sports, and “at what age does the White House think that students should be taught about sexual orientation or gender identity.”

He also asked whether the White House supports classroom instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity before kindergarten; Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law prohibits classroom instruction sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” in other grades.

Proponents of the measure, including Governor Ron DeSantis, have repeatedly claimed that the law only applies to younger students, despite its text. The bill’s own author admitted the law applies in all grades.

“Do you have examples of schools in Florida that are teaching kindergarteners about sex education?” she replied. “I think that’s a relevant question. I think this is a politically charged, harsh law putting parents and LGBT+ kids in a very difficult, heart-breaking circumstance.”

She said the US Department of Education is “well positioned and ready to evaluate what to do next,” following statements from Secretary Miguel Cardona suggesting that Florida’s law could violate federal civil rights law, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

A group of Florida LGBT+ advocates, civil rights attorneys, students and families have sued the state, also alleging Title IX violations as well as violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The US Department of Justice also issued a letter to all state attorneys general last week reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender people from discrimination.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that all children are able to live free from discrimination, abuse and harassment,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

The letter “reaffirms state and local officials’ obligation to ensure that their laws and policies do not undermine or harm the health and safety of children, regardless of a child’s gender identity,” she said.

Last week, Ms Psaki criticised four bills signed into law in Arizona and Oklahoma targeting abortion rights and transgender athletes as “extreme and harmful”.

“These laws are unacceptable and we won’t stop fighting for justice and equality,” she said on Twitter.

At least 29 measures across the US look to prohibit gender-affirming medical care for transgender young people, or criminalise such healthcare by charging parents and health providers with child abuse for approving it, according to legislative trackers from the ACLU and Freedom For All Americans.

More than 50 bills seek to ban transgender athletes from school sports.

In 2021, nine states banned transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender.

At least four similar bans were signed into law or passed through state legislatures in Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Utah in March alone.

In a signing ceremony on 30 March surrounded by children holding signs reading “save women’s sports,” Governor Stitt said Oklahoma’s law is “just common sense.”

“When it comes to sports and athletics, girls should compete against girls. Boys should compete against boys,” he said. “That’s all this bill says.”

In its 2019 national school survey, LGBT+ anti-discrimination organisation GLSEN found that a “vast majority” of Oklahoma students heard anti-LGBT+ remarks, with roughly one-third of respondents regularly hearing homophobic remarks from school staff and nearly half negative remarks about someone’s gender expression.

Most respondents (60 per cent) never reported the incident to school staff, and only 21 per cent of LGBT+ students who reported incidents said it resulted in effective staff intervention, according to the report.

Nicole McAfee, executive director of advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, said LGBT+ residents are “exhausted, terrified, angry.”

“It’s unacceptable,” they said in a statement. “Trans girls are girls. Nonbinary Oklahomans exist. Having representation of gender and sexual diversity available to young folks is not obscene, but efforts to not only censor it but criminalize it certainly are.”