Dive Brief:
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The Obama administration is expected to issue a formal directive instructing schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice Friday afternoon.
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Schools and universities will be required to provide transgender students with adequate restrooms and locker rooms suitable to their gender identities.
- The announcement, expected Friday afternoon, follows a week-long battle with the state of North Carolina that resulted in a frenzy of lawsuits between state officials and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Department of Education has already threatened to withhold federal funding from institutions in states enacting prohibitive legislation, and with the latest directive, the administration continues to prove it does not intend to back down on issues of LGBT equality.
But while the war wages on with North Carolina, some institutions are already ahead of the curve. Ohio State University, for example, has had gender neutral restrooms for years. And as more corporations move to implement the same, and as federal pressure continues to ramp up, there will likely be an increasing number of public higher ed institutions — not to mention public K-12 districts — striking down the rigid gender binaries around restroom and locker room access.