Chicago Public Schools Defy Trump, Reject Trans Bathroom Ban Demands

The school system has refused to capitulate, despite Trump pulling back millions in federal funds.

The Trump administration has pulled out every stop to target schools and hospitals that support transgender people. Lacking the law on its side, it has leaned on federal funding threats to enact bans on bathrooms, healthcare, and recognition itself—an attempt to erase trans people by dictate alone. Prestigious institutions like Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Penn have already bowed to the pressure, choosing to capitulate rather than fight. But resistance is building at the local level. This week, Chicago Public Schools became the latest district to defy the administration outright, declaring it will support all of its students, including its transgender students.

“I want to emphasize our district’s continued commitment to CPS policies that have been called into question recently by the federal government,” said Macqueline King, interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools. “This school year alone, the U.S. Department of Education has threatened to withhold $12 million in grant funding unless CPS dissolves our Black student success plan and reverses our policies around transgender and gender-nonconforming students. We are confident that our policies do not violate federal law, and we find the government’s actions deeply disappointing. That said, CPS will not back away from our commitment to Black, transgender, or any other student groups. We will continue to consider diversity among our greatest strengths, and we will move forward with protecting the rights of all students. Our district will not back away from doing what we know is right.”

The statement came after CPS blew past a federal deadline to enact the Trump administration’s demands targeting Black and transgender students. Those demands included abolishing the Black Student Success Plan, imposing bathroom and sports bans on transgender students, and stripping recognition of trans students’ identities from all official policies. In a letter, the administration warned that failure to comply by Friday would cost CPS millions in federal grant funding. Instead, the district has now rejected the demands outright.

Department of Education Demands

Chicago Public Schools is not alone in rejecting the administration’s demands. In recent weeks, districts across the country have stood up for their transgender students. Denver Public Schools announced it would “not waver or back down” from its policies. In Virginia, five districts went further, taking the Trump administration to court over the same threats. Together, these schools risk losing more than $100 million in federal funding—money that underwrites everything from magnet programs to lunch for low-income kids.

Meanwhile, the resistance mounting in local school districts stands in stark contrast to elite institutions and hospitals that have capitulated to Trump’s demands. Brown University accepted mandates for a sports ban, a bathroom ban, and restrictions on equal housing. Columbia and Penn followed suit with many of the same policise. Harvard dismantled an LGBTQ+ student program and stripped transgender protections from its athletics handbook after funding threats. More than 20 hospitals have shuttered gender-affirming care programs for trans youth—not because any law requires it, but out of fear of Trump’s threats. Where these institutions have cowered, local school boards have become the fiercest battleground of resistance.

Schools and hospitals aren’t the only battlegrounds. Nationally, the government is hurtling toward a shutdown, with Republicans demanding dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ riders—from bathroom bans on military bases to a sweeping federal funding ban on transgender care that could gut access nationwide. The fight hit a breaking point two days ago when Trump canceled negotiations with Democrats, citing in part their refusal to enshrine anti-trans discrimination into law. Where that standoff ends is uncertain. What’s clear is that local school boards are offering a lesson Democrats in Washington: you don’t have to comply, even when the demands are hard.