bSchool district stands up for trans students after Trump threatens funding[/b]https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/03/school-district-stands-up-for-trans-students-after-threatens-funding/ 🔗Daniel Villarreal (17 March 2026)
Colorado's second-largest school district has refused to comply with transphobic demands from the Trump administration's Department of Education (ED). The Jefferson County Public Schools district (Jeffco)... is just one of a growing number of educational institutions refusing to bow down to Trump's transphobic threats.
Last Friday, Trump's ED demanded that the school district stop recognizing trans students' gender identities and ban them from accessing the correct restrooms, sports teams, overnight accommodations, and other associated rights.
The ED investigated the district after the anti-LGBTQ+ local parents' rights group, Jeffco Kids First, reported it to the ED. The group claimed that 61 roster positions on girls' sports teams are occupied by students who were assigned a male gender at birth.
Z Williams, a district parent and trans rights activist who is co-director of Bread and Roses Legal Center, said they suspected that the parents' rights group fabricated the numbers.
Nevertheless, the ED gave the district 10 days to revoke its trans-inclusive policies and to issue a public statement saying that it would adopt the Trump administration's transphobic definition of biological sex or face possible enforcement action, including a loss of federal education funding.
However, the district refused the ED's demands. In its refusal, the district said the ED's demands conflicted with state law and district policies.
"Providing equal access to programs and services for all Jeffco students, including those who are transgender, does not violate Title IX," the district wrote. "The Department's interpretation has no basis in the Title IX regulations and is not supported by any binding court decision. It conflicts with a recent U.S. District of Colorado decision which considered the same Jeffco policies. Prior federal administrations have taken the direct opposite view — that Title IX protects transgender students' access to school programs and facilities."
