This defiance stands in sharp contrast to the elite institutions that have capitulated under federal funding threats.
In recent months, some of the nation’s most elite universities have folded under the Trump administration’s demands to ban transgender students from bathrooms, sports, and even recognition altogether. Hospitals, too, have caved to federal funding threats designed to force compliance with discriminatory policies. But one place has emerged as a bulwark of resistance: local school boards. When faced with the same threats — to lose millions in federal funding unless they betray their transgender students and teachers — these communities have refused to back down. First it was Virginia, then Denver and Chicago. Now, New York City Public Schools, the largest public school system in the country, has joined them, declaring it will not comply with the Trump administration’s demands.
On September 16, Trump’s Department of Education sent a letter to New York City Public Schools outlining six demands that explicitly targeted trans and queer students. Among them: banning recognition of transgender students’ gender identities, barring them from bathrooms and sports, and mandating discriminatory treatment in overnight accommodations. The letter threatened to withhold $47 million in federal grant funding if the city did not comply by the end of the month. Instead, New York City refused — and went on the offensive, filing a lawsuit against the federal government for unlawfully withholding the money.
“With this lawsuit, New York City Public Schools is fighting back against the U.S. Department of Education’s attack on our magnet program and transgender and gender expansive students,” said New York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos.
