{"id":239442,"date":"2025-09-19T17:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239442\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:31:14","slug":"eric-adams-if-i-can-reverse-nycs-trans-inclusive-school-bathroom-policy-i-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239442\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Adams: If I Can Reverse NYC’s Trans-Inclusive School Bathroom Policy, I Will"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After placing last in most New York City mayoral race polls, Mayor Eric Adams has come to the conclusion that championing anti-trans bathroom policies is just what his political career needs.<\/p>\n

During an unrelated September 18 news conference<\/a> tied to the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, a journalist asked Adams to clarify his comments from a press conference the day before, in which he remarked that \u201cI\u2019m not for boys going into the same bathroom as little girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor replied that he would \u201clook at my authority and power to change\u201d New York City\u2019s education department policy<\/a> requiring that \u201cstudents must be provided access to facilities consistent with their gender identity asserted at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can always respect how one identifies themselves,\u201d Adams said. \u201cBut my utmost importance is to ensure that when my children are in school, they\u2019re in there in a safe environment, and I do not believe a safe environment is allowing boys and girls to use the same [bathroom] facility at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he plans to \u201cdig into\u201d the city education department\u2019s bathroom policy and \u201cfind out from my legal team what\u2019s my authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my authority allows me to alter that [policy], I\u2019m going to alter that,\u201d Adams continued.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for New York\u2019s state education department told Gothamist<\/a> that barring students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity would violate state human rights law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor is well aware of this fact, which was reiterated in joint guidance issued by the Department and Office of the Attorney General earlier this year,\u201d state education department spokesperson J.P. O\u2019Hare told the outlet in a statement.<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani \u2014 the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner in New York City\u2019s mayoral race \u2014\u00a0condemned Adams\u2019 remarks in a September 18 X post<\/a>, writing, \u201cAwful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration. It\u2019s completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 bathroom comments come two days after the Trump administration threatened to withhold over $35 million in federal grant funding from New York City magnet schools over their trans student policies. According to The New York Times<\/a>, in a letter to city officials, Craig W. Trainor, the U.S. Education Department\u2019s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, claimed that the city education department\u2019s policies violate Title IX, a civil rights law created with the intention of prohibiting schools that receive federal funding from exhibiting sex-based discrimination. The Times reports that the Education Department demanded that, in order to receive the funding, New York City schools implement bathrooms \u201cstrictly separated on the basis of sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is making this case in other states, as well. The Education Department placed five school districts in Virginia on \u201chigh-risk\u201d status<\/a>, last month, for their trans-inclusive policies.<\/p>\n

In a statement shared to social media<\/a> on September 19, the New York LGBTQ+ non-profit NEW Pride Agenda called \u201cany attempt to roll back student protections\u2026 reckless, cruel, and legally baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York State and New York City law both affirm the rights of all students, including transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThe mayor does not have the authority to take away those protections \u2014 period.\u201d<\/p>\n

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