NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today condemned Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for dodging accountability when asked vital questions today about the confirmed policy of the Department of Education to no longer investigate or take action on discrimination cases involving transgender students banned from restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender.

Rep. Mark Pocan questioned Secretary DeVos about the policy during a House Appropriations subcommittee this morning. A growing number of federal courts have ruled that Title IX protects transgender students, but Secretary Devos deflected Rep. Pocan’s question and argued that she will continue to oppose protecting transgender students until “the Supreme Court or Congress clarifies the law.”

Watch the GLAAD released video here:

“As Secretary DeVos fumbles through another congressional hearing, her record of walking-back LGBTQ protections and actively refusing to aid transgender students facing discrimination speaks for itself,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “It is long past time for Secretary DeVos to reverse course and clearly denounce policies that target LGBTQ students. Our Secretary of Education should be fighting for all students, not actively making life more difficult for transgender students.”

Today’s statement follows testimony before this same subcommittee last May where DeVos argued that states should have the option to decide whether schools that receive federal dollars can discriminate against LGBTQ students.

Since her controversial confirmation hearing process, which included a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary Betsy DeVos has fallen in line with the Trump Administration’s anti-LGBTQ agenda. During her first year, DeVos joined the President and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to rescind a guidance that provided protection to transgender students at our nation’s schools, rolled back the Office for Civil Rights’ expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints, and hosted anti-LGBTQ groups including Focus on the Family and Family Research Council at a Department of Education event.

DeVos’ anti-LGBTQ record extends well before her confirmation as Education Secretary. From contributing more than $200,000 toward efforts to add a marriage equality ban to Michigan’s Constitution to donating money to Focus on the Family, an anti-LGBTQ organization which openly advocates for so-called “conversion therapy” practices, her record shows she will do anything to prevent LGBTQ acceptance from becoming a reality.

Background: Secretary Betsy DeVos’ Anti-LGBTQ History

• Rolled back Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools.

• Testified that states should have the option to decide whether schools that receive federal dollars can intentionally discriminate against LGBTQ students during a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

• Invited Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a day-long conference hosted by the Department of Education on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.

• Sat on the board of the anti-LGBTQ Acton Institute from 1995-2005.

• The DeVos family has funded anti-LGBTQ organizations ranging from Focus on the Family, which openly advocates for so-called “conversion therapy,” to Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency that excludes LGBTQ parents and advocates for laws that allow them to do so, and the Heritage Foundation, which strategizes against LGBTQ policy.

• Framed marriage equality as a “coarsening” driven by “coastal elites”: “There is one party that takes millions of dollars from celebrities and elites and in turn enthusiastically embraces their values, that chuckles at or cheers the destruction of our traditions and the coarsening of our culture, and that believes it is no big deal to redefine the most fundamental institution of mankind. But fortunately, there is another party in America that recognizes marriage between one man and one woman as an institution that was created not by man, but by God. That party will not be intimidated by the coastal elites in Hollywood or Boston. That party is not ashamed to stand up for marriage.”

• Advocated strongly for the passage of a ban on marriage equality in her home state of Michigan, contributing over $200,000 to the anti-LGBTQ campaign.

• Secretary DeVos’ father, Edgar Prince, is one of the founders of the Family Research Council, a viciously anti-LGBTQ organization.

• Bragged about her wealthy family’s ability to buy influence within the Republican Party: “[M]y family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican party…. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now, I simply concede the point. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment; we expect a good and honest government. Furthermore, we expect the Republican party to use the money to promote these policies, and yes, to win elections.”