On Monday, Donald Trump announced his selection for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights: Harmeet Dhillon, a far-right California lawyer with a track record that could pose significant threats to transgender Americans. Dhillon, known for her staunch opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, has represented Chloe Cole, a prominent anti-trans detransitioner who has called puberty blockers a “gateway drug” and testified in favor of numerous state-level trans bans. Cole’s lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente is just one example of Dhillon’s alignment with far-right anti-trans movement. With the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division at her disposal, Dhillon’s appointment signals an alarming shift that could make life increasingly difficult for transgender people nationwide, including those who have sought refuge in blue states to escape anti-trans legislation.
Harmeet Dhillon’s most prominent work includes founding the Center for American Liberty, a legal organization that focuses heavily on anti-transgender cases in blue states. The organization’s “featured cases” section highlights several lawsuits, such as Chloe Cole’s case against Kaiser Permanente; a lawsuit challenging a Colorado school’s use of a transgender student’s preferred name; a case against a California school district seeking to implement policies that would forcibly out transgender students; and a lawsuit against Vermont for denying a foster care license to a family unwilling to comply with nondiscrimination policies regarding transgender youth. With Dhillon’s potential new role at the Department of Justice, these cases may gain renewed significance, as she is given the ability to leverage the department’s power against states that protect their transgender residents.
The attorney herself has openly advocated for overturning blue-state laws that protect transgender individuals. For instance, in response to Maine’s designation as a refuge for trans people fleeing anti-trans crackdowns in red states, Dhillon claimed such a law would be unconstitutional. Safe-state laws like Maine’s have grown increasingly common, explicitly preventing care provided within the state from being subpoenaed by out-of-state actors seeking to prosecute individuals under laws that do not apply in blue states. These laws safeguard residents from interstate legal attacks over actions such as traveling to access gender-affirming care, abortions, or other reproductive healthcare. As of December, 17 states have enacted “shield laws” designed to protect their transgender residents from these efforts to eliminate access to care, even in jurisdictions where bans do not exist.
Such laws have taken on heightened importance this year as officials like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton attempt to access medical records of transgender individuals across state lines. Paxton issued subpoenas to healthcare providers in states as far away as Georgia and Washington, seeking information on transgender patients from Texas who received gender-affirming care. In Washington, a robust shield law effectively blocked his out-of-state legal efforts.
Dhillon has repeatedly expressed extreme anti-transgender views on social media, often engaging with and praising the Libs of TikTok account — an account whose posts frequently precede bomb threats targeting schools and hospitals. In one such post, Dhillon commented on a school in Idaho respecting a transgender student, stating, “We are talking IDAHO, folks. Not coastal California. I’m telling you this predatory gender madness is everywhere!” In another post, she responded to Glenn Beck by calling gender transition a lie, writing, “Make it unsafe for American doctors to destroy young American lives through the lie of sex change aka ‘gender transition.’ Expand the statutes of limitation. Make insurance paying for these procedures also pay for detransition. Make it stop.” In that interview, Dhillon doubled down, declaring that hospitals providing gender-affirming care must be “made unsafe” to do so.
If Dhillon is confirmed, she will have an array of tools at her disposal to reshape the legal landscape for transgender people. She could direct the Department of Justice to intervene in lawsuits against hospitals or states that provide protections for transgender residents. Schools that affirm transgender students could become targets of federal scrutiny. Existing civil rights laws might even be reinterpreted under her guidance to mandate discrimination against transgender people rather than shield them from it. Dhillon has previously expressed support for such interpretations, stating, “Title IX was passed by Congress to protect women’s rights, not the rights of men pretending to be women in sports and equal treatment in our educational institutions.”
The position must be confirmed by the Senate. To contact your senator to speak about the pick you can use Datamade’s lookup to find the correct contact information.
This piece was republished with permission from Erin In The Morning.
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