Dear Reader,
In an effort to thwart the rise of AI, I am choosing not to use a computer to write this week’s column. I am, instead, writing it by hand using both manmade and natural materials. You will notice various shades of green and a certain American Flag Blue throughout.
That’s right. I am writing on peeled scraps I’ve salvaged from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool in D.C. as well as whatever algae I could scrape from the surface of the water. It is both my most ambitious and most politically charged column to date.
I am, of course, kidding. I am nowhere near the Reflecting Pool geographically. And even if I were, I don’t get paid enough to write this column to go through that kind of trouble (sorry, editors).
But Donald Trump would like us all to believe that there are some antifa agitators wading in the water, slicing through the newly redone bottom of the pool with large blades while others hurriedly dump algae into the pool.
“WOW, who would do such a thing?” Trump posted to Truth Social on June 21. “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!”
But, of course, the sick and deranged people who vandalized the Reflecting Pool are the people he paid millions of dollars to “fix” it. The Reflecting Pool, which Trump was in such a hurry to beautify before his big July 4th celebration, will not, in fact, be ready in time for America’s 250th anniversary. So many millions of dollars literally poured down the drain.
In case there’s any doubt, it’s his fault. Obviously. The Reflecting Pool is just more blatantly obvious proof that Trump is corrupt, ignorant and incapable of accepting accountability.
And we’re not even halfway through his second term. He’s literally just getting started.
But don’t worry. Trump isn’t so busy destroying Washington D.C. landmarks that he can’t find time for other policy priorities. Like making lives as hard as possible for transgender people.
Trump may be intent on dismantling the Department of Education Department, but as long as it’s still around, he’s keeping it busy investigating school districts that dare treat transgender students as fully human.
The latest schools targeted are in Michigan. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating Ann Arbor Public Schools, Monroe Public Schools and the Chippewa Valley School District.
“OCR will determine whether the Districts violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) by allowing athletes to participate on boys’ and girls’ athletic teams and use locker rooms based on their self-professed ‘gender identities,’” states a department press release. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
That’s right. OCR is being deployed against these schools for the crime of transgender kids playing sports. Is this OCR’s purpose? To go after already marginalized kids? No.
According to NPR, “OCR’s staff of civil rights lawyers are tasked with protecting students in K-12 schools and universities from discrimination based on disability, gender, race and national origin.”
Or they were before Trump, anyway. OCR clearly has other priorities now. Like policing kids’ bodies.
They are literally investigating these school districts based on just a few kids.
“The government said it had received a complaint that Ann Arbor schools allowed a transgender girl to compete on one of its volleyball teams for girls and also allowed the girl to use female-only locker rooms,” reports the Detroit Free Press.
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re this kid. Or this kid’s family. And the full weight of the federal government is coming down on you for the crime of playing volleyball.
It’s a disgusting act of intimidation and abuse of power. But that’s what Trump does best.
It’s the same story in Monroe. The district is being investigated because their girls volleyball team played against another team that included a transgender player. And that player used the locker room. Oh, the horror.
And in Chippewa Valley, a transgender athlete was also apparently allowed to use a locker room.
Given the small number of transgender students involved in this investigation, it’s quite possible that the same trans student is the subject or each one of these complaints. That’s how small the pool of trans high school athletes is in this country.
The Department of Education under Trump has decided that their most important role is not to protect the civil rights of students or to ensure that students with disabilities get the education they are entitled to. No. The purpose of this department is to terrorize transgender kids under the guise of protecting girls and girls sports.
May Trump, his entire administration and all who enable them wade into the Reflecting Pool and never again emerge.