Harper Jean Tobin

Yesterday, advocates gathered outside the Department of Education’s headquarters to read stories from survivors of campus sexual violence and call on call for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to keep critical 

Despite claims by President-Elect Trump he would “support” and “protect” LGBT people, the Trump administration appears poised to attack millions of LGBT Americans instead, along with numerous other communities.

For some time now, NCTE has been asking the federal government to update its policies for updating gender on US passports, green cards, Social Security records, and other key documents. Not long ago it was impossible for most transgender people to obtain documents that matched their identity and daily life because of policies that required proof of surgical procedures. When those policies were improved a few years back, it made a big difference for many trans people, but not everyone.  

In the last two weeks, two different federal courts in Ohio and Wisconsin have held that the federal Title IX protects transgender students from discrimination, including being forced into a separate restroom. Both cases involved students who had struggled with their schools over multiple school years before turning to the courts.

Yesterday a group of U.S. Senators sent a letter urging the Veterans Administration to eliminate its blanket ban on medically necessary transition-related surgeries for transgender veterans.