skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Chief Justice John Roberts pauses order for Trump admin to pay $2 billion in foreign aid by midnight; NM Legislature advances appropriations bill with funding for wildlife corridors; Group warns livestock manure making MI Great Lakes not so great; Volunteer lobbyists to press Colorado lawmakers on homelessness.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The House has passed a budget outline. Elon Musk attends first Trump cabinet meeting. And federal workers leave jobs despite litigation allowing them to stay.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

U.S. farmers in limbo due to federal funding freeze worry their projects will go unrealized, mass firings could wreak havoc on tourists visiting public lands this summer, while money to fight wildfires in rural areas is also jeopardized.

ACLU: Transgender Discrimination at Illinois School Could Have National Effects

play audio
Play

Wednesday, October 14, 2015   

CHICAGO - A Chicago-area transgender student who identifies as female again is being denied access to a school locker room by district officials even though the federal Department of Education ordered the school to give her full access to the girls' locker room.

John Knight, director of the LGBT and HIV Project with the ACLU of Illinois, said the district clearly is discriminating against the student.

"This is the first the Department of Education has ruled on a case of this sort," he said, "and they are the experts, and their determination that this is a violation of federal law should have an impact nationally."

The student, whose name has not been released, first raised a complaint over District 211 with the federal goverment about a year and a half ago. The district is arguing that it's protecting the school's other students' right to privacy by giving the transgender student her own changing room.

Knight said she and other transgender students across the country already are facing undue hardships, such as bullying and being ostracized at school.

"A policy like District 211's is something that places these vulnerable students in even greater risk of harm," he said.

So far, the Department of Education hasn't made any public comments on the issue, but Knight said it's likely the department soon could force the school to follow the federal civil-rights mandate.

"What the department's asking for is fair and equal treatment for our client," he said, "and the school has absolutely refused to do so; that would mean she's given the same options that the other girls are given."

If the school district continues to deny the transgender student full locker-room access, it could lose about $6 million in federal funding.

An ACLU press release is online at aclu-il.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
National parks such as Yosemite are bracing for the busy season even as they lose staff in the Trump administration's plan to reduce the federal workforce. (Greg Pickens/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A lawsuit to halt the firing of probationary federal workers gets a hearing before a district court judge in San Francisco this afternoon, even as …


Environment

play sound

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has approved a permit to expand Ridge Breeze Dairy in Salem despite hundreds of local objections…

Social Issues

play sound

Environmental projects are restarting as advocates praise Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for suing the Trump administration, leading to the release …


Social Issues

play sound

Coloradans who want to help move the needle on homelessness can still sign up for a lobbying day next Tuesday at the State Capitol. Cathy Alderman…

The 34 accredited tribal colleges and universities served by the American Indian College Fund have a combined enrollment of nearly 22,000 students across 13 states. (Adobe Stock)

play sound

A new report says North Dakota's five tribal colleges contribute nearly $170 million to the state's economy. But any positive news is overshadowed by …

Social Issues

play sound

More than 14,000 incarcerated people in Washington are not able to vote and two bills in Olympia aim to change it. One bill would make voting more …

play sound

Environmental advocates are waiting for results from legislation passed last year, regulating the use of industrial sludge from flowing into …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021