Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch believes transgender rights should be considered a civil rights issue.
Lynch, who will appear on HBO’s “VICE” on Friday, is described by the network “as a leading advocate for the trans community.”
“Because this issue of how we treat transgender people in our community, in particular how we treat transgender students in our schools, relates to how our government is going to interact with people whom we perceive to be different,” Lynch says in a preview. “We’ve made such great progress in so many areas of civil rights accepting people for who are they are.”
She adds that the Justice Department needs to “step in” when the broader federal government attempts “to roll back that change through the use of the law.”
On Feb. 22, the Trump administration removed Obama-era protections that allowed transgender students in public schools to use restroom facilities corresponding with their birth gender. That move is what makes the latest “VICE” episode important, the news network says.
According to Lynch, it is a member of transgender community that is actually more likely to be a victim of violence than a perpetuator of violence — the latter has been used as an argument for why such protections should be removed.
Watch a preview for the episode, airing Friday, above.
