Senate Dems Demand Sessions Reinstate Trans Rights

The Hill reports:

Senate Democrats are demanding that the Justice Department reinstate discrimination protections for transgender individuals that Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back last month.

In a letter to Sessions dated Nov. 2 and signed by 44 Democratic and independent senators, the lawmakers write that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition against sex discrimination applies to gender identity and that Sessions’ actions have put some of “the most vulnerable Americans” at risk of discrimination.

“Actions that roll back the rights of LGBTQ Americans are not consistent with the values of equality and dignity or with Congress’s goals in passing the Civil Rights Act,” the letter reads. Early last month, Sessions reversed the department’s policy on discrimination protection for transgender individuals, arguing that the Civil Rights Act does not encompass gender identity.