The Trump administration’s Department of Education has launched an investigation into Denver Public Schools (DPS) after students at East High School requested and helped implement an all-gender multi-stall restroom.
The school has said that each stall is designed “for privacy, with 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure comfort and security” and to “serve those who may feel uncomfortable in gender-specific facilities and align with our values of supporting every student.”
In the letter informing DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero of the Department of Education inquiry, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor, stated that the department would be investigating whether the high school’s newly installed facility “discriminates against students on the basis of sex,” in violation of the Trump administration’s anti-trans interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
“Let me be clear: it is a new day in America, and under President Trump, (the Office for Civil Rights) will not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” Trainor said in a news release. Trainor previously worked as Senior Litigation Counsel at the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank founded in 2021 to advance Donald Trump’s policy agenda.
Trainor admitted in the letter that the Department of Education investigation was triggered by local media coverage rather than a formal complaint — a move DPS has called “unprecedented.” The district noted that it is unheard of “for the Office for Civil Rights to admittedly initiate its own investigation, into a single bathroom, as a result of local media coverage rather than in response to a filed complaint requesting their involvement.”
Colorado has increasingly become a refuge for transgender people and their families, and is listed among the “most protective states” by journalist and transgender activist Erin Reed. Reed has said that states she has labeled as “most protective” have gone “above and beyond in safeguarding the rights and well-being of transgender individuals, making them highly desirable places to live for those in search of security.”
The Movement Advancement Project also gives Colorado a high LGBTQ policy score, citing strong protections such as anti-discrimination and anti-bullying laws for trans students, a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth, and a shield law safeguarding access to gender-affirming health care. These laws have contributed to a growing number of transgender people and their families relocating to the state.
However, LGBTQ advocates argue that the Trump administration is attempting to pressure safe states for trans people to comply with his anti-trans orders, endangering the trans people who moved there to escape restrictive laws in other states.
“Trump is weaponizing the federal government to ensure that transgender people are not welcome in society,” LGBTQ legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout. “By threatening schools that have an inclusive environment, Trump is attempting to make it impossible for trans students to be out publicly in schools even in blue states. This will cause the death of transgender students across the United States.”
In addition to weaponizing the Department of Education to target affirming school districts like DPS, Trump has leveraged the Department of Justice to advance his anti-trans agenda, instructing the U.S. Attorney General to shield people who report providers of gender-affirming care, scrutinize organizations under consumer fraud laws for promoting its effectiveness, and take steps to weaken legal protections for transgender rights.
“Trump governs with threats, panic and fear. I hope that DPS and other schools fight back for their students, instead of caving,” Z Williams, Director of Client Support and Operations at the Denver-based nonprofit Bread and Roses Legal Center, told Truthout. “We need to call these actions for what they are. The administration has chosen to bully trans kids and terrify trans communities in order to fan the flames of their base and pose as ‘effective.’”
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