The Trump Administration wants New York City Public Schools to discriminate against transgender children. And Mayor Eric Adams, who is at least technically still a Democrat as of this writing, said earlier this week he wanted to “dig into” the possibility of overturning city anti-discrimination policies for trans students. Legal and political experts have been condemning the move as a blatantly illegal powergrab—both by the Trump Administration and by Adams—but the former has given the city until 5pm EST on Sept. 19 to comply, or else it could face widespread defunding for educational programs.
The deadline has passed, and it seems the city isn’t backing down—whether or not the mayor has the backbone to stand up to Trump. Even more, experts say neither Adams nor Trump have the power to do it.
Whispers began seeping from the Mayor’s Office of trouble on Wednesday, September 17, when Adams went on what appeared to be a stream-of-consciousness diatribe against the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and gender neutral bathrooms during an unrelated re-election campaign stop in Harlem. (Councilmember Zohran Mamdani, who unseated him as the Democratic candidate and likely victor in the mayoral race, is closely affiliated with the DSA.)
“Everyone is just tiptoeing around this,” Adams said, as per reporting from the New York Post, a right-wing tabloid. He denounced trans kids as “boys going into the same bathroom with little girls.”
The next day, at another unrelated press conference—this time outside the United Nations—he doubled down on these comments. “I am going to use whatever power I have to stop it,” he told reporters, in reference to certain protections for trans students.
“Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration,” Mamdani responded on Bluesky. “It's completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.”
Neither the federal government nor the mayor seem to have the power to control such policies, but it is the latest development in Adams’ efforts to cozy up to the Executive Branch. And Trump is taking notice, having wished the mayor “good luck” in his re-election bid—an exceedingly rare, if not foreboding, moment of bipartisan goodwill from the President. Rumors also swirled of Adams taking a potential job within the Trump regime, but he ultimately denied he would pursue such a thing.
A reporter from The Post has since published a full-length letter on Bluesky, dated September 16, which may illuminate what triggered Adams’ initial comments: A letter sent by Craig Trainor, the federal Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, to Gregory Faulkner, Chairperson of the Panel for Educational Policy at the New York City Department of Education.
The document is nearly identical to letters sent out to other constituencies, as per the New York Times, which would require K-12 public schools to ban trans students from equal access to bathrooms and single-gender spaces, remove trans girls from women’s sports teams, and use what the federal government calls "biology-based” terms for “male” and “female” for all intents and purposes—although these supposedly “immutable” definitions appear to shift frequently depending on Republicans’ desired outcome.
The order as decreed by Secretary Trainor can be seen here:
The letter says that if NYC Public Schools fail to comply, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and other discretionary fund grants could be stripped from city schools.
But New Yorkers aren’t taking Trumpian threats lying down. “Let’s be clear: the mayor has no authority to ban trans students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman told The Gothamist. “Such a move would be illegal under New York State and New York City laws and an affront to our shared values.”
Current NYC policies broadly allow trans students equal access to school facilities (bathrooms, locker rooms), sports, and any other gender-based opportunities or accommodations, as enshrined under city and state anti-discrimination clauses. Laws also strongly back equal access to gender affirming care. When hospitals capitulated to anti-trans threats from the Trump Administration, state Attorney General Letitia James warned hospitals would either need to resume care or face potential legal action.
No formal steps have been taken to enact the Trump’s threat against schools at this time, and despite the deadline, NYC schools have invaluable assets on their side: backing from local officials (save Adams), strong equal protections state laws, and a history demonstrating NYC schools’ ability and willingness to tell the feds: “No.”
These weirdos are super obsessed with trans bodies.
…maybe they should do some introspection??
I'm interested to see how they plan to do this after New York State had changed its constitution to protect gender identity. NYS needs to do a better job of upholding its own constitution.