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WATCH: Betsy DeVos Says Obama Guidance Directing Protections for Transgender Students Was ‘Huge Overreach’
Says Transgender Rights Are ‘Issues That Are Best Dealt With and Solved at a Personal and a Local Level’
Betsy DeVos says the Obama-era guidance on transgender schools was “a very huge example of Obama administration overreach.” Her remarks, made at a Thursday afternoon on-stage interview after her speech at CPAC contradict reports that said she objected to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ desire to revoke the guidance. Wednesday night the Trump administration did just that.
The Obama administration guidance included a “how-to” manual for school districts that reflected current Title IX civil rights law that has been upheld in the courts for years
Echoing Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comments that President Trump thinks the civil rights of transgender students are a “states’ rights” issue, DeVos characterized that guidance as “a one-size fits all, federal government approach, top-down approach to issues that are best dealt with and solved at a personal and a local level.”
Civil rights are always federal, not state-level issues.Â
Sean Spicer had stated she was “on board” with revoking the Obama transgender guidance “100%.”
She goes on to talk about protecting children and to provide “personal freedoms,” but doesn’t say for whom.
Here is the full 8-minute interview:
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