Thank Your Governor for Standing Up for Transgender Students’ Rights

Yesterday, over the objections of Secretary of Education DeVos, President Trump revoked Obama-era protections that have allowed transgender students unfettered access to bathrooms and locker-rooms matching their gender identity in schools.

The governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, immediately spoke out against this cruel and uncalled for change to federal education guidelines:

If your governor has made a similar statement, please consider thanking him or her for the public support. If your governor has not, this letter is easily adaptable to allow you to let him or her know that it’s time to stand up for the people of your state, regardless of gender identity, sexuality, or whatever else.

Dear Governor ____________,

Thank you for your public support for transgender students in light of President Trump’s withdrawal, on Wednesday, of federal guidance requiring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms matching their gender identity. Education, and — frankly — dignity, are basic human rights, guaranteed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And the fact that the current administration seems ambivalent about both education and dignity is all the more reason for Pennsylvanians to step in and defend both.

That said, I would ask you to please be clear that human rights are emphatically not a matter that should be left to the states. If we are a nation of equals, it is outrageous that a human being should have more or fewer rights and protections based on an accident of geography. The point of rights is that they are universally applicable and irrevocable.

Speaking out on this issue is invaluable. But even better would be to speak out in concert with other governors around the nation to tell President Trump that transgender rights, gay rights — all our rights, regardless — must be protected at the federal level.

Best,

______________________