CEC Chair Takano Speaks on Supreme Court Cases; Clashes with Education Secretary

Washington, DC — During oral arguments at the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, two cases with potentially huge ramifications for the rights of transgender Americans, Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Takano addressed supporters rallying for transgender rights outside of the court and called out Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was speaking at the same time at an anti-trans rally nearby. Below are Rep. Takano's remarks as delivered:

Well, good morning, everybody. Good morning. I'm Mark Takano. I'm Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

Now, I want to tell you, long before I had all this gray hair, I was once a teenager. A long, long, long, time ago. As a 17-year-old grappling with same sex attractions in 1978, I watched Orange County State Senator John Briggs lead a crusade to ban gay and lesbians from being public school teachers. His initiative would fail narrowly, but fail, it did.

It was important for this gay teenager to see the adults around him, reject the political weaponization of hate and bigotry, and for him to know that gays and lesbians could be teachers in the state of California.

Now, 10 years later, in 1987, I would be training to be a public-school teacher in the very middle school I attended, in my hometown of Riverside, California. I was a gay teacher that John Briggs failed to ban from teaching. Nobody really knew I was gay at the time.

Now, one of the 180 students assigned to me that year was a transgender student. Existence was very difficult for this kid. Relentless bullying and taunting by other students. As a brand-new teacher, I had no training or tools or laws to protect this student as that student should have been.

The word transgender, and what it means to be trans, were less understood then. And though it is still misunderstood now, we have a duty as decent human beings to recognize that trans lives exist. And to proclaim that trans lives matter!

This court, whose building that we stand before this morning, did something quite remarkable 6 years ago. It did the humanely decent thing, and legally correct thing. In the Bostock decision, the Supreme Court said that trans employees exist. It said that trans employees matter. It said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on sex, and that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. It recognizes that trans people have workplace rights and that their livelihoods cannot be denied to them, because of who they are as trans people.

Today, we ask this court to be consistent.

If trans employees exist, surely trans teenagers exist. If trans teenagers exist, surely trans children exist. If trans employees have a right not to be discriminated against in the workplace, trans kids have a right to a free and equal education in school.

Did you hear that, Secretary McMahon? Trans kids have a right to a free and equal education. Restore the Office of Civil Rights! Did you hear me Secretary McMahon? You will not speak louder or speak over me or over these people.

And furthermore, Secretary McMahon, surely the meaning of the word "sex" in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 can be consistent with the meaning of the word "sex" in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Be consistent, Supreme Court! Be consistent, Secretary McMahon!

A free and equal opportunity for a publicly supported education cannot mean a blanket exclusion from sports participation of trans youth. The Supreme Court is hearing two cases that ask whether states can impose blanket bans on transgender students participating in school sports. On their faces, these cases are about sports. Examining beneath the surface of what these cases are about, we discovered that what is at stake is whether the law gives permission to single out trans kids and, tell them they do not belong.

Blanket bans do not look at individual students. Blanket bans do not look at individual sports. Blanket bans are absolute, arbitrary, and unreasonable. We asked this Court to do for trans kids in school what it did for trans people in the workplace: declare that trans kids exist; declare that trans kids matter.

I end with a message to trans youth who need to know that there are adults who reject the political weaponization of hate and bigotry. To you, I say: you matter. You are not alone. Discrimination has no place in our schools. It has no place in our laws, and it has no place in America.

Thank you. God bless. Thank you.