Vermont officials are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender students from competing in girls’ sports.
The Vermont Agency of Education and the Vermont Human Rights Commission have asserted that they will uphold the protections for LGBTQ students enshrined in state law. And the Vermont Principals’ Association, the body that governs school sports, said it has no plans to change its guidelines allowing student athletes to play on teams that align with their gender identity.
Trump’s executive order, issued on February 5, says schools that allow transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams are ineligible to receive federal funding. The order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” states that allowing trans athletes to compete on girls’ teams is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
But in a statement released on Friday, the Vermont Human Rights Commission wrote that treating students differently because of their gender identity is illegal in Vermont.
The commission’s statement urges school boards, administrators and staff to continue to include “the broad diversity of students” in all school-related activities, including sports. Furthermore, it says it is “prepared to take all action that Vermont law authorizes to protect students and to enforce Vermont’s anti-discrimination statutes.”
Earlier this month, the Vermont Agency of Education sent a similar message to superintendents about Trump’s executive order.
“We want to assure you that protections for LGBTQIA+ students are enshrined in Vermont law and have not been diminished in any way by this federal action,” the agency wrote in an email to school leaders.
The email said that Vermont Agency of Education guidance titled “Continuing Best Practices for Schools Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students” is still in effect, as are laws that prevent hazing, harassment and bullying.
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In another email to Vermont Principals’ Association executive director Jay Nichols, an Agency of Education lawyer noted that Trump’s executive order “creates the risk of reactive investigative actions by the federal government, that may or may not come to pass.”
The agency will continue to “protect all students and their ability to access the full educational experience, including sports participation,” the email said.
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A statement from the office of Attorney General Charity Clark provided to Seven Days also references Vermont’s antidiscrimination laws that protect trans and nonbinary youth.
The Office of the Attorney General does not have authority over schools, the statement says, but Clark “will do everything in her power to protect Vermonters, especially trans youth, from any unconstitutional or illegal executive orders and other actions taken by the Trump administration.”
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