Advocates rally against Trump administration's anti-trans funding cuts in NYC

"The Trump administration can try to blackmail us, they can try to starve our schools of funding, but we will not cower or bend before them, said Councilmember Tiffany Caban, who co-chairs the LGBTQIA+ Caucus. The Trump administration sent letters demanding that New York City and other school districts rescind policies protecting transgender individuals by Sept. 23. When that deadline came and went, the White House said it would cut about $36 million in total funding for Magnet Schools Assistance Program funding in New York City alone, though cuts were also made to school districts in Chicago, Illinois, and Fairfax, Virginia."

"Donna Aceto Mimi Shelton, a board member at Trans formative Schools, a free afterschool program designed for trans, queer, non-binary, and gender-expansive students, said the president's decision to withhold education funding is unconscionable and cruel. Stripping transgender and gender-expansive youth and adults of their dignity and opportunity to exist in public life only works to make transgender students more unsafe in public schools, making them subject to physical and verbal violence, social isolation, and in worst cases, suicidality and self-harm, Shelton said."

State and city lawmakers joined LGBTQ advocates on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan on Sept. 30 to show support for trans rights after the Trump administration announced it would slash tens of millions in funding over trans-inclusive policies. The rally also directed criticism toward Mayor Eric Adams for his earlier public criticism of the city's trans-inclusive bathroom policies. The White House demanded that New York City rescind transgender-protective policies by Sept. 23 and then moved to cut about $36 million in Magnet Schools Assistance Program funding for New York City, with additional cuts elsewhere. Advocates said withholding funding endangers transgender and gender-expansive students by increasing risks of violence, isolation, and mental-health harms.

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