Transgender youth ‘loved and welcome here’

White text against black reads, 'To our transgender youth: You are loved and welcome here. - Rev. Peter Morales / UUA President.' UUA chalice-and-flame logo is displayed in red in lower right corner

The Unitarian Universalist Association has declared that transgender youth are “loved and welcome here.”

In a statement, UUA President Peter Morales communicated his dismay that the Trump Administration has rescinded previous guidance by the U.S. Education and Justice Departments, to allow transgender students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity.

The UUA has signed on to an amicus curiae brief in support of transgender rights in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The National Center for Transgender Equality has compiled more information about what can — and cannot — happen at schools with this withdrawal of federal guidance: perhaps most significantly that with or without the guidance, transgender students remain protected under Title IX.

“The guidance itself didn’t change the law or create protections for transgender students that weren’t there before. It just clarified how the Department of Education would be enforcing existing laws. … [T]ransgender students are also protected by the U.S. Constitution and, in many states, by state laws and policies protecting them in schools.”