SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
discrimination
Michiganders Vow to Fight Trump Attacks on LGBTQ+ Youth as DOJ Probes Public Schools
"We urge federal officials to focus on real threats to student well-being like gun violence, funding cuts, and staffing shortages rather than singling out districts that work to support all children," said one advocacy leader.
Feb 20, 2026
Denouncing the Trump administration's probes to determine whether three public school districts "have included sexual orientation and gender ideology" content in courses as "part of a broader attack on our rights as Michiganders," the head of one progressive group pledged Friday to keep fighting to ensure that "all of our kids can thrive at school free from bullying, harassment, and other unfair treatment."
The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday that its Civil Rights Division is investigating Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, and the Lansing School District. The DOJ is examining content for pre-K through 12th grade courses, opt-out policies, and whether the districts "limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex."
In a Friday statement, Justin Mendoza, executive director of Progress Michigan, emphasized that his state's "civil rights laws explicitly protect LGBTQ+ students, and our state must enforce them to the fullest extent."
Mendoza condemned not only the Trump administration's efforts to harm "the most vulnerable and historically marginalized among us," but also Republicans at the state and federal level who "are trying to limit honest conversations about our nation's history, while fighting each and every attempt to create safe, inclusive schools for our children."
"Attorney General Pam Bondi is setting a terrible example for younger generations—considering the way she behaved at a recent congressional hearing where she name-called members of Congress—and now she's going a step further by throwing nondiscrimination policies into the dumpster," he said. "People of all genders, races, and backgrounds benefit from strong nondiscrimination policies."
"From Marquette to Monroe, teachers, students, and their families are committed to having an educational system that reflects the diversity of the world they live in," Mendoza continued. "Classrooms deserve to have age-appropriate conversations about health, identity, and respect, and if parents choose to opt their children out of participating in these conversations, they are already allowed to by Michigan law."
"The Trump Department of Justice is truly looking to invent problems instead of actually fighting crime and violence towards youth," he concluded, "and Michiganders won't take this intrusion into our education system."
"The Trump Department of Justice is truly looking to invent problems instead of actually fighting crime and violence towards youth, and Michiganders won't take this intrusion into our education system."
Other state and nationwide groups have also spoken out against the administration's probes and targeting of LGBTQ+ youth this week. Brian Dittmeier, director of LGBTQI+ equality at the National Women's Law Center, blasted the investigations as a "blatant attempt to discourage inclusive education."
Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, told Chalkbeat that "this is an attempt to harass and bully districts into discriminating against trans kids and into erasing the existence of LGBTQ people."
Equality Michigan executive director Erin Knott said that "LGBTQ+ youth are among the most vulnerable young people in our state. They face higher rates of bullying, harassment, and mental health challenges. Inclusive education policies are not 'ideology,' they are evidence-based efforts to ensure that every student feels safe, respected, and seen in their own school community."
"All kids deserve an education that reflects the diversity of the world they live in," she stressed. "Age-appropriate discussions about health, identity, and respect help create safer classrooms for all students. We urge federal officials to focus on real threats to student well-being like gun violence, funding cuts, and staffing shortages rather than singling out districts that work to support all children."
State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko was similarly critical of the federal administration in his response, saying Thursday that "the Michigan Department of Education strongly supports all students and supports the school districts that have been targeted by the US Department of Justice."
Maleyko continued:
If we want to put Students First and make sure children can learn, we need all students to be healthy and safe and feel included. The much-needed updates to health education guidelines—which the Department of Justice falsely said are state requirements—help local districts make decisions on how they can support student health.
As required by state law, MCL 380.1507, local school boards set health curriculum with input from local sex education advisory boards. Local control remains in place. Parents retain the right to decide whether their children should participate in sex education instruction.
The Michigan Department of Education strongly supports and will work closely with the three districts' efforts to select a curriculum that best supports the needs of their students, consistent with state standards and guidelines. We remain committed to protecting the rights of all students and to upholding Michigan’s constitutional guarantee of access to a free public education for every child.
"The breadth and scope of the federal requests, premised on a mischaracterization of the Michigan Health Education Standards Guidelines adopted by the State Board of Education, place a significant administrative burden on local districts and risk diverting time and resources away from the core mission of educating students," Maleyko added.
As for the targeted districts, a spokesperson for the Detroit schools declined to comment, while Guillermo Lopez, the Lansing school board president, told the Detroit Free Press that parents in his district are informed that "they can opt out of certain classes."
Arnetta Thompson, superintendent of Godfrey-Lee schools, told Chalkbeat that her district will provide information requested by the DOJ and "is not facing any charges or findings of wrongdoing. We remain committed to complying with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and have consistently operated in accordance with those laws."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Honoring Jesse Jackson, Who Helped Create the America Trump Wants to Destroy
Jackson's "rainbow coalition" helped open the doors for Blacks, Hispanics, Arab and Muslim Americans, and the LGBTQ community while sharing a powerful populist economic message at the height of Reaganism.
Feb 18, 2026
It would be hard to overstate Jesse Jackson’s importance in opening up American politics and society, not just to Black Americans, but also to Hispanics, and the LGTBQ community. It is probably difficult for younger people to imagine, and even old-timers like myself to remember, how bad discrimination was in the not very distant past.
When Jackson ran the first time in 1984, and even the second time in 1988, there was not a single Black governor in the United States. There had been no Black governors since the end of Reconstruction. There were also no Black senators.
The only Black person to serve in the Senate since Reconstruction was a Republican, Edward Brooke, who was elected in Massachusetts. When Carol Mosley Braun got elected to the Senate from Illinois in 1992, it was widely noted that she was first Black women to be elected to the Senate. She was also the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate.
It wasn’t just in politics; Blacks were largely excluded from the top reaches in most areas. I recall when I was a grad student at the University of Michigan in the 1980s. There we just two Black tenured professors in the whole university. There was a similar story in corporate America.
This was a period of serious upward redistribution and the losers, as in most people, were not happy campers. Jackson spoke to those people.
Jackson’s campaign didn’t turn things around by itself, but it certainly helped to spur momentum for larger changes. Back then people seriously debated whether a Black person could be elected president in the United States. Jackson’s campaign raised that question in a very serious way.
Barack Obama (the second Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate) answered that question definitively two decades later. While President Obama is obviously an enormously talented politician, without Jackson’s campaigns it is hard to envision Obama ever having been a serious presidential contender.
And Jackson was serious about a “rainbow coalition.” He also helped open the door for Hispanics, for Arab and Muslim Americans, and for the LGBTQ community. At a time when there were no openly gay or lesbian members of Congress, and even liberals were afraid to be associated with anyone who was openly gay, Jackson stood out in offering a welcome mat.
Jackson also pushed a powerful economic message. At a time when Ronald Reagan was busy cutting taxes for the rich and cutting back social programs, and trade was devastating large parts of the industrial Midwest, Jackson was advocating a populist agenda that focused on building up the poor and the working class. His message resonated with many white workers who felt abandoned by the mainstream of the Democratic Party, and even many farmers who were devastated by over-valued dollar in the early and mid-1980s.
There is a bizarre revisionism that has gained currency among people who pass for intellectuals that says the baby boomers grew up in Golden Age in the 1970s and 1980s. The unemployment rate averaged over 7% from 1974 to 1992. The median wage actually fell from 1973 to the mid-1990s. This was a period of serious upward redistribution and the losers, as in most people, were not happy campers. Jackson spoke to those people.
I had the opportunity to work in Jackson’s campaign in Michigan in 1988, and I still remember it as one of the high points of my life. Even though Jackson had vastly outperformed anyone’s expectations in the early primaries (probably even his own), he was not taken seriously in the Michigan race. Most of the pundits considered it a race between the frontrunner Michael Dukakis and Congressman Dick Gephardt, who had strong union support. As it turned out Jackson handily beat both, getting an absolute majority of the votes cast in the state.
In my own congressional district, which centered on Ann Arbor, all the party leaders lined up for Dukakis. The Jackson campaign was composed of a number of people who worked in less prestigious jobs, like salesclerks and custodians, and grad students like me. It really was a multiracial coalition.
We managed to totally outwork the party hacks. First, because it was a caucus and not a primary, it meant that people would not go to their regular precincts to cast their votes. We made sure that our supporters had a neatly coded map that told them where their voting site was.
Also, since it was a caucus and not a primary, the state’s usual rules on being registered 30 days ahead of an election did not apply. We had a deputy registrar at every voting site who would register people who had not previously registered.
We also made a point of having all our workers knocking on doors on election day and offering to drive people to the polls who needed a ride. The Dukakis people were all standing around the voting sites, handing out literature with their big Dukakis buttons, apparently not realizing that anyone who showed up had already decided how to vote.
I remember talking to a reporter late that night after the size of Jackson’s victory became clear. Up until that point, there had been numerous pieces in the media asking, “What does Jesse Jackson really want?” as though the idea that a Black person wanting to be president was absurd on its face.
I couldn’t resist having a little fun. I pointed out that with his big victory in Michigan, Jackson was now ahead in both votes cast and delegates. I said that I think we have to start asking what Michael Dukakis really wants.
Anyhow, the high didn’t last. The party closed ranks behind Dukakis, and he won the nomination. He then lost decisively to George Bush in the fall. His margin of defeat was larger than in any election since then.
All the gains of the last four decades are now on the line, as Donald Trump and his white supremacist gang look to turn back the clock. We have the battle of our lives on our hands right now.
But Jesse Jackson was a huge player in the changes that created the America that Donald Trump wants to destroy. He had serious flaws, like any great political leader, but for now we should remember the enormous impact he had in making this a better country.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Resisting Authoritarianism by Exhaustion: Why We Must Fight Trump’s New Travel Ban
Despite affecting far more people than the 2017 ban, Trump's second ban passed almost without notice: no airport protests, no sustained outrage, and little public awareness that it had happened at all.
Jan 15, 2026
Just a week after Donald Trump first took office as president, he signed Executive Order 13769—his first travel ban. It halted refugee admissions and suspended entry into the US for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. All of these countries have a Muslim majority. Because of that, and also because Trump had previously said that he intends to ban Muslims from the US, critics referred to the order as a “Muslim ban.”
The backlash was immediate and broad, coming from Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as US diplomats, business leaders, universities, faith groups, and international organizations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. Protests erupted in airports and cities across the US. A friend and I—both of us immigrants to the US ourselves—spontaneously drove to the international airport in Houston to express our outrage, along with hundreds of other protesters. I remember I felt hopeful. Surely, even people who didn’t come out to the airport would recoil once they learned what the order was actually doing to real human beings—for example, to the 78-year-old Iranian grandmother, certainly not a threat to national security, who came to the US with a valid visa to visit her children, as she did every year. She was detained for 27 hours at LAX, denied access to lawyers, and fell ill before finally being allowed to enter the country.
Today, nine years later and one year into the second Trump presidency, I’m less hopeful. On the first day of 2026, a proclamation signed by Trump took effect, expanding an earlier travel restriction to 39 countries. Citizens of these countries, as well as holders of travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, are generally barred from obtaining visitor, student, exchange, or immigrant visas. Turkmenistan is a partial exception: Its citizens may obtain nonimmigrant visas such as tourist, student, or exchange visas, but immigrant visas remain suspended. The other countries subject to the ban are Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, the Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Together, they make up about 20% of the world’s countries.
Despite affecting far more people than the 2017 ban, this one passed almost without notice: no airport protests, no sustained outrage, and little public awareness that it had happened at all. This is partly because it has become impossible to keep up with the incessant noise coming from the White House, which Trump’s former chief political strategist Steve Bannon has explained is strategic: “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” As the noise about the Nobel Peace Prize, the “War on Christmas,” shower pressure, and wind turbines causing cancer absorbs public attention, Trump advances a steady program of norm breaking and lawlessness. The ongoing extrajudicial killings of people on boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the illegal abduction of Nicolás Maduro, the threats against Greenland, the masked federal agents terrorizing communities across the US, the separation of families and disappearances of people to inhumane prisons at home and abroad, and the cuts in foreign aid that have already cost countless lives are just some examples. In normal times, none of these would be partisan issues. But these are not normal times.
Entire populations are labeled as dangerous or undesirable, reinforcing discrimination and social exclusion both inside and outside the US.
As understandable and human it is that many of us are worn down by a sustained state of outrage, we must pay attention and cannot allow exhaustion to harden into indifference. Silence is complicity, and complicity is not an option.
On a human level, the January 1 travel ban means this: Students who earned admission to US universities and secured funding after years of studying and planning are now barred from enrolling, losing scholarships and life-changing educational opportunities. Students who already started academic programs in the US and traveled home to renew their visas cannot return to finish their degrees. Parents with lawful status in the US are unable to have their children abroad come and join them, leaving families indefinitely separated. Children are prevented from traveling to the US to sit with a dying parent, attend a funeral, or provide end-of-life care. Married couples, fiancés, and partners are forced into separation. Patients who rely on specialized or lifesaving treatment available only in the US are prevented from entering. Professionals and academics are unable to attend conferences. Entrepreneurs and businesspeople are blocked from attending critical meetings or negotiating deals. Entire populations are labeled as dangerous or undesirable, reinforcing discrimination and social exclusion both inside and outside the US.
This is not an exhaustive list, but merely a snapshot of the devastating and entirely predictable consequences of Trump’s new travel ban. Like its predecessors, it is not a security measure. It is a choice to inflict harm on ordinary people, and this choice is deliberately cruel. As I’m writing this, the Trump administration has announced a further escalation: the suspension of immigrant visas for 75 countries, a move that primarily affects families by closing the door on reunification. If we meet such policy choices with silence, authoritarianism has already won.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular