"I don’t know which is more disgraceful – the Trump administration ripping funding away from students’ educations in order to further its own transphobic agenda, or Mayor Adams feeding that bigotry and wishing he could rewrite it into our laws.
"Young people deserve to be safe and feel safe in schools – and the mayor and president are making trans and gender non-conforming kids less safe. They’re punching down at vulnerable people – vulnerable kids – to score political points with the far right. Instead of moving thoughtful dialogue and policies forward, this pulls progress back. These actions and rhetoric will do nothing to help any student, anywhere. It will likely only contribute to a longstanding mental health crisis where trans teens are much more likely than their peers to consider or attempt suicide, at a time when the White House has also cut LGBT+ suicide prevention resources. Transgender individuals already face otherizing, exclusion, and bullying, and now they’re being bullied by two powerful, egotistical, deeply insecure men.
"Sending signals that he will embrace exclusion and transphobia may help the mayor get his next job. Right now, it’s just another example of him selling out vulnerable New Yorkers. He knows the harm that fanning the flames of transphobia will cause, and still he seems not to care. Once again he is showing that he will put himself above all: above trans kids, above their teachers or classmates, above New Yorkers as whole."