Trump-Aligned Nonprofits Are Turning Local Fights Over Transgender Students Into Federal Investigations

As Trump’s influence over education grows, conservative nonprofits are finding a partner in the Department of Education on transgender students in sports.

Trump holds up a signed executive order alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Getting the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate a complaint has never been a speedy process. Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, however, right-leaning nonprofits targeting transgender athletes are finding their complaints jumping to the front of the line.

Steadily, the Department of Education has been churning out investigation after investigation on instances of alleged noncompliance with Trump’s directives on Title IX. A number of these investigations originate from complaints made by conservative nonprofits like the Defense of Freedom Institute and America First Legal, which was founded by White House political adviser Stephen Miller.

At a February high school basketball game in Washington state’s Tumwater School District, a student who refused to play opposite a transgender athlete was reportedly told there would be no discrimination based on sexual identity in accordance with state and local laws.