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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBetsy DeVos Says "Discrimination on basis of sexual orientation 'unsettled' law"
After declining last month to say how she would handle allegations of private school discrimination under a federally-funded school voucher program, DeVos was pressed Tuesday on the topic by Democrats at a Senate hearing. President Donald Trump's budget proposal sets aside funds to create a school choice program, but provides few details about how it would be run.
The education secretary repeatedly said that any school "receiving federal funding is required to follow federal law," but said federal law is unclear on protections for LGBTQ students.
"On areas where the law is unsettled, this department is not going to be issuing decrees," DeVos said. "That is a matter for Congress and the courts to settle."
Later in the questioning, DeVos said she is broadly opposed to discrimination, but did not specify how she would handle cases brought to her attention.
"Discrimination in any form is wrong. I don't support discrimination in any form," she said.
Whether federal law protects LGBTQ students has become a hot-button issue. The portion of a 1972 education law known as Title IX bans discrimination "on the basis of sex," but interpretations differ. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a transgender student and Title IX.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/betsy-devos-discrimination/index.html
So let me get this straight. One minute she says it's perfectly OK for schools to discriminate. The next she says "fuck it, let Congress and the courts decide.". Fail. Worst secretary of education ever.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)Best_man23
(4,898 posts)Ignorance is Strength
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Initech
(100,081 posts)Matthew28
(1,798 posts)freaking hypocrites.
GallopingGhost
(2,404 posts)about what I expected Twitler to appoint to the Dept. of Education.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Ms. Toad
(34,076 posts)Marriage discrimination is settled law. Employment isn't, right to use bathrooms matching one's gender, etc., are not settled law.
One of the reasons the move to remove domestic partner benefits by many companies is premature. It requires a couple to marry (creating a public record) in order to obtain health care coverage. That's ok for the spouse who works someplace that willingly provides same-gender coverage (now considering dropping it absent a marriage) - BUT - creating that public record puts the other spouse, who may well be employed by a bigot, at risk because the rest of the antidiscrimination law is not settled as to LGBT individuals.
YCHDT
(962 posts)Ms. Toad
(34,076 posts)"On areas where the law is unsettled, this department is not going to be issuing decrees," DeVos said. "That is a matter for Congress and the courts to settle."
The status of LGBT individuals is, for the most part, not settled law. What is settled is the right to marry - a significant, but not comprehensive portion of LGBT rights. The right to nondiscrimination in employment, or in bathroom access, for example, is not settled (absent state statutes that declare otherwise).
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)But the panel's chairman, Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, came to DeVos' defense, citing a contrast with between her and the department leadership under President Barack Obama.
"Your predecessor wanted to write his own federal law. My impression is that's not what you want to do," he said.
Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, This is on you, not Obama, so fuck you!
Initech
(100,081 posts)I'm sick of this administration not owning up to their mistakes and blaming the other guy, which is what the GOP does. We need to start kicking them in the balls every time they do this.