title:  The Justice Department Just Said It’s Legal To Discriminate Against Transgender People
text: In the Trump administration s ongoing war on the LGBTQ+ community, the president has no greater champion than one Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, the head of the Justice Department. The Attorney General has a long history of animosity toward anyone outside his own tiny window of experience, including women, non-English speakers,  colored  folk, and especially those he has casually referred to as  ho-mo-SEK-shals  in court briefings (assuming he types in his own accent).Back in July, Sessions attempted to argue, in the same vein as the unsuccessful attempt in Loving v. Virginia to maintain a ban on interracial marriage, that discrimination against gays and lesbians was constitutionally protected because it applied equally to men and women.Now Sessions has narrowed his focus to the  T  part of his least favorite acronym: Transgender people. Early Thursday, the DOJ issued a memo stating their official position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect transgender workers from discrimination for the same reason: Because employers wouldn t be discriminating based on gender, since transgender people of any biological gender could be equally discriminated against.Through spokesman Devin O Malley, Trump s Justice Department issued a statement on the reason for the reversal of an Obama-era memo which stated Title VII does apply, saying that the government can t expand the meaning of a law beyond what Congress intended when it was passed: Unfortunately, the last administration abandoned that fundamental principle, which necessitated today s action. You catch that? Necessitated. As in, we had to correct this, lest some weirdo think we might protect them when we don t want to. Sessions and the DOJ felt it was necessary to clarify that transgender workers don t have the same civil rights as everyone else, because you know, they ve got nothing better to do. They re certainly not focusing on the growing Nazi movement in America.I wish I could say that I was confident the courts would strike this asinine decision down, but I m just not. It s hard to have faith in a Justice system that continues to protect white supremacists, gun fanatics, religious extremists, and anti-choice activists  All as they throw the most vulnerable among us to the wolves.Featured image via Zach Gibson/Getty Images