One Law Gives A Clear Sign Of How Life For LGBTQ+ Teens Will Be Under Trump

The election of Donald Trump made a lot of people anxious about LGBTQ+ rights under the new administration.

A month into the presidency, tangible pieces of evidence are emerging about what, exactly, Trump is planning to change about those rights.

LGBTQ+ citizens saw a lot of improvements under Barack Obama (although, of course, there's still a ways to go, particularly when it comes to state discrimination laws). Most notably, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country.

But at the moment, the worry for the LGBTQ+ community is focused on students.

This week, information has come out about plans for trans students' rights from the Trump administration.

Last year, Obama sent out a letter to public schools saying that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathrooms matching the gender with which they identify.

This effectively ended the arguments over public school bathrooms that had been emerging as similar arguments went on at the state legal level.

Obama's letter said that trans students have to be respected. It read,

The Departments treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex for purposes of Title IX and its implementing regulations. This means that a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.

But the Trump administration is reportedly looking to take away those protections for transgender students.

A draft document would undo the Obama 2016 letter. The final document could be released on Wednesday.

Trump has said that it should be up to the states to decide what to do about bathrooms.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Trump-appointed new members of the administration, butted heads on the document, according to the New York Times.

DeVos was apparently not comfortable with taking away the Obama rights, while Sessions argued for doing it.

A draft of the letter obtained by the New York Times says,

School administrators, parents and students have expressed varying views on the legal issues arising in this setting. They have also struggled to understand and apply the statements of policy and guidance.

The draft does, however, include a statement that trans students have to be protected from bullying.

Federal rules on LGBTQ+ rights have human effects.

A new study released this week showed that the rate of teen suicide attempts decreased after same-sex marriage was legalized nationally.

The drop in rates meant there were 134,000 fewer suicide attempts.

That decrease was especially pronounced when it came to teenagers who identify as LGBTQ+.

Citations: Reuters, New York Times