FOIA Request: Trevor Project and National Center for Transgender Equality Demand Documents To Prove Department of Education is Protecting LGBTQ Youth

The Trevor Project and National Center for Transgender Equality today sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the U.S. Department of Education to shine a light on its legal responsibility to protect the civil rights of transgender and other LGBTQ youth in schools across our nation.

This request comes after the Trump Administration rescinded the Department's guidance on providing a safe and nondiscriminatory environment for transgender students, and the Department refused to produce documents in response to a request by 30 US Senators on how the change would impact ways the Department protects vulnerable students across the country.

"Schools have an obligation to provide a safe and nondiscriminatory environment for all students, and the Department of Education must ensure that they do so," said Amit Paley, CEO and Executive Director of the Trevor Project. "Our letter today is a step toward holding the government accountable on behalf of transgender students and all LGBTQ youth across the country."

According to Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, "Transgender students and their families deserve to know that the U.S. Department of Education will honor its mandated responsibility and moral duty to ensure all students can safely attend schools. We need the Trump Administration to be clearer about whether and how they will do that."

Read the full letter here.

The Trevor Project is the leading and only accredited national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people under the age of 25. The Trevor Project offers a suite of crisis intervention and suicide prevention programs, including TrevorLifeline, TrevorText, and TrevorChat as well as a peer-to-peer social network support for LGBTQ young people under the age of 25, TrevorSpace. Trevor also offers an education program with resources for youth-serving adults and organizations, a legislative advocacy department fighting for pro-LGBTQ legislation and against anti-LGBTQ rhetoric/policy positions, and conducts research to discover the most effective means to help young LGBTQ people in crisis and end suicide. If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless or suicidal, our Trevor Lifeline crisis counselors are available 24/7/365 at 866.488.7386.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is the nation's leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people.