Civil Rights Groups Reject Bigoted Policies, Call for Full Inclusion of Transgender Students
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Charmaine Riley, [email protected], 202.548.7166
WASHINGTON – As the nation celebrates the start of LGBTQ Pride Month, 60 national civil and human rights organizations today declared their support for transgender students and decried discriminatory state proposals that would harm both cisgender and transgender girls and women. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and partners penned an open letter calling for the full inclusion of transgender students in educational opportunities, including extracurricular activities such as athletics.
“As organizations that care deeply about ending sex-based discrimination and ensuring equal access to athletics for girls and women, we support laws and policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including participation in sports, and reject the suggestion that girls and women who are cisgender benefit from the exclusion of girls and women who are transgender. We firmly believe that an attack on transgender students is an attack on civil rights,” the groups wrote.
The letter also urges state leaders to prioritize closing gender and racial disparities in athletic opportunities and participation and to reject the deeply discriminatory state bills that only harm girls and women in sports.
The full open letter can be found here.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.
###