In November and January, voters across the country watched as the people of Georgia helped deliver both the presidency and the Senate to the Democrats this past election cycle, defying the perception of the state as a Republican stronghold. After Stacey Abrams’ contentious loss in the 2018 race for governor, the effort to thwart voter suppression in the state and mobilize Black voters ramped up. As a result, Black Georgians showed up to the polls in droves and turned the state blue.
One of the activists responsible for this shift is LaTosha Brown, a political strategist who has worked at the intersection of social justice and political empowerment for decades. LaTosha is the cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and BVM Capacity Building Institute, a movement to expand voter access and build political power for Black people in the U.S., particularly in the South.
She joined At Liberty this week to discuss the impact of expanding the right to vote and building a more diverse and inclusive future for the South.
Organizer LaTosha Brown on Building the New South
Organizer LaTosha Brown on Building the New South
This country watched as the people of Georgia helped deliver both the presidency and the Senate to the Democrats this past election cycle, defying the perception that the state was a Republican stronghold. After Stacey Abrams’ contentious loss in ...
This country watched as the people of Georgia helped deliver both the presidency and the Senate to the Democrats this past election cycle, defying the perception that the state was a Republican stronghold. After Stacey Abrams’ contentious loss in ...
The political strategist joined our podcast to discuss her decades of experience mobilizing voters and fighting against discriminatory voting restrictions.
Naureen Shah, Senior Legislative Counsel and Advisor
Congress and President Biden have a mandate from the American people to fix our broken immigration system: It’s time to pass legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship and legal residency for the millions of people in this country who are our neighbors, co-workers, friends and loved ones — yet are denied the ability to live freely as citizens and legal residents. The American people soundly rejected the hateful and divisive anti-immigrant policies pursued by the Trump administration. Now it’s imperative for Biden and Congress to seize on this momentum to finally get citizenship legislation done.
The goal for Congress this year must be to pass legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S. In February, members of Congress introduced myriad bills that would help get us there, including the landmark U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 and the American Dream and Promise Act. The bottom line is this: Too many members of our communities are living in fear of being deported away from their homes and families. They are being denied a pathway to become citizens and legal residents, even as they serve on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, raise their kids, support our communities, and contribute to our country. This is unfair and unjust. Congress has a responsibility to act.
Biden’s Day 1 Immigration Bill: The U.S. Citizenship Act
The U.S. Citizenship Act is comprehensive legislation that will help millions of people. If passed into law, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2021 will have a path to gain legal status and eventually be eligible for citizenship.
It will also reform immigration law to help prevent future discriminatory bans, like the Muslim ban and its targeting of Africans, and undo restrictions that have made it more difficult to work, travel, and live openly, and administer new aid and support programs meant to address the root causes of migration.
Along with this comprehensive legislation, several lawmakers are also proposing more targeted bills that may see votes in Congress.
Realizing America’s Dream & Promise
The Trump administration threw peoples’ lives into chaos by attempting to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians. While court rulings and recent actions by President Biden helped limit the enormous harm that transpired over the past four years, DACA is still at risk due to persistent court challenges, and TPS and DED recipients continue to face long-term uncertainty. Members of our communities have suffered the indignity of being used as political pawns for far too long.
If passed, the American Dream and Promise Act will provide protection from deportation and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants eligible for TPS and DED, ending the fear and legal limbo experienced by too many people in our country once and for all. The ACLU continues to urge Congress to strengthen due process, reduce racial disparities, and end the disproportionately harsh consequences of criminal convictions in any future immigration legislation.
Preventing Discriminatory Bans
On Jan. 20, President Biden rescinded Trump’s Muslim ban, including its expansion explicitly targeting Africans. This was a milestone victory for all the advocates who spent four years demonstrating, advocating, and fighting to stop the ban. Now we must make sure that presidents cannot use rank prejudice to enact discriminatory bans in the future.
The NO BAN Act will put stricter standards in place to limit such abuses of executive authority in the future, including Trump’s use of this authority to destroy our immigration system during the pandemic. There is much work to do in order to right the wrongs against people whose lives were destroyed by the ban.
We must also prevent any community from enduring this kind of harm in the future, and make certain that presidents cannot abuse their powers in such a way again.
No Tradeoffs That Hurt Our Communities
As lawmakers debate these bills, they should ensure that the legislation gives a fair chance to all Americans in waiting. Using criminal convictions and allegations of criminal conduct to categorically exclude immigrants from a path to legalization and citizenship is unnecessary and harmful. As we embark on new reforms for our broken immigration system, we should not import the problems that plague our criminal legal system — including the disproportionate targeting of Black and Brown people. We also cannot deny people access to benefits or citizenship based on fear-mongering and bigotry that stereotypes Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian community members as “threats” and targets them for national security surveillance, discrimination, and worse. Categorically barring people from citizenship or residency based on stereotypes or past actions also denies them the chance to show that their personal histories, experiences, and family and community ties mean they ought to be able to stay.
Citizenship legislation should not be used as a vehicle for throwing even more money toward immigration and border enforcement personnel, technology, or equipment. Over the past two decades, border communities have experienced increased civil liberties and rights violations at the hands of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, extreme surveillance and over-policing, and wanton destruction of wildlife and nature. CBP and ICE are already enormously overfunded. DHS received $26 billion for immigration enforcement in fiscal year 2020 — 33 percent more than all federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined. And in the past four years, ICE and CBP’s budgets have increased by $6 billion. Given theabusescommitted by CBP and ICE agents, Congress should not be rewarding the agency with additional technology funding.
Surveillance technology, justified as a means of border security, frequently spreads across border communities, degrading privacy rights of all residents. CBP use of technology has extended far away from the physical border and for purposes that have nothing to do with the border — as evident by CBP’s use of drones on Black Lives Matter protesters last summer and surveillance of George Floyd’s burial. CBP spent $1 billion on its last failed attempt to create a “virtual border fence.” These efforts don’t come with any of the necessary privacy protections, nor does peppering sensitive lands with mobile surveillance towers respect the environment or border communities.
Not all technologies — if used with appropriate safeguards — infringe on privacy and civil liberties. However, past border proposals have suggested expanding warrantless and broad aerial surveillance, constant video monitoring, or biometric collection. Congress should not leave it to DHS to determine what privacy safeguards are necessary to prevent rights violations.
This is a moment of profound possibility for our nation. We urge Congress to seize it.
Transgender athletes want to participate in school sports for the same reason as anybody else: to find a sense of belonging and social engagement, to be a part of a team, and to challenge themselves. But states and schools across the country are trying to exclude trans people from enjoying the benefits of sports on equal terms with their cisgender peers. Not only do these proposed laws discriminate against trans youth in ways that compromise their health, social and emotional development, and safety, they also raise a host of privacy concerns.
The organizations leading these attacks on trans athletes’ rights are the same organizations that pushed false myths about trans people in restrooms. Just like it was never about restrooms, today’s fight is not about sports. It’s about erasing and excluding trans people from participation in all aspects of public life. It’s about creating “solutions” to “problems” that don’t exist and, in the process, harming some of the most vulnerable young people in the country. Meanwhile, leading advocates for women’s sports support inclusion of women and girls who are transgender and warn that these efforts will ultimately harm all athletes in women’s sports.
Lindsay is a college student at Boise State University. She wants to run on the track team because she loves to run, and loves the experience of building friendships and solidarity with her teammates. As a girl, Lindsay’s only option is to run on the girls’ team, but a new law in Idaho would ban her from doing so because she is transgender. Lindsay sued in 2020 and is represented by the ACLU and the ACLU of Idaho, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP. For updates on Lindsay’s case, visit the Hecox v. Little case page.
Andraya is a recent high school graduate who ran on her school’s girls’ track team. A lawsuit was filed against her school and the state of Connecticut by cisgender students because. The ACLU and ACLU of Connecticut joined the lawsuit in on behalf of Andraya and Terry Miller, another student. Both Terry and Andraya have graduated from high school and no longer compete in track, but anti-trans groups are suing to take away any record of their past achievements. For updates on Andraya’s case, visit the Soule et al v. CT Association of Schools et al case page.
Trans athletes — particularly Black trans women — face systemic barriers to participation in athletics and all aspects of public life. This exclusion contributes to the high rates of homelessness, suicidality, and violence that Black trans women and girls face.
Debunking Myths About Trans Athletes
The attacks on trans student-athletes are rooted in the same kind of gender discrimination and stereotyping that has held back cisgender women athletes for centuries. Transgender girls are often told that they are not girls (and conversely transgender boys are told they are not really boys) based on inaccurate stereotypes about biology, athleticism, and gender. In reality, trans women and girls have been competing in women’s sports at all levels around the world. Despite the hundreds if not thousands of trans women competing, only a handful have had any success at the high school and collegiate level. And women’s sports have continued to grow and thrive in states with policies that allow trans student athletes to compete.
Everything we know from major medical and mental health associations is that affirming trans youth in their gender is a critical part of improving physical and mental health outcomes for this population.
In 2020, 18 states introduced legislation that would ban transgender student athletes from participating in school sports. As of February 2021, 24 states have introduced similar legislation.
Idaho was the first and only state to pass such a ban. In August 2020, a federal judge blocked Idaho’s law targeting transgender student athletes, recognizing that “it is not just the constitutional rights of transgender girls and women athletes at issue but … the constitutional rights of every girl and woman athlete in Idaho.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments in May in the appeal of the lower court’s decision and could rule any time after that. Briefs in opposition to this law and in support of transgender student athletes have been filed by women’s rights groups, medical experts, athletes, and coaches.
On Jan. 20, the Biden administration issued an executive order aimed at addressing discrimination against LGBTQ people. Recent polls indicate this order is the most popular policy enacted by the administration in its first week.
Biden’s order restored protections — it did not introduce new ones. Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s deputy director for trans justice, explains:
Contrary to a trending hashtag on social media and the polemics of a few loud voices, President Biden most certainly did not “erase women” — whatever that means. By stating the administration’s intention to follow Supreme Court precedent and federal law, at core all the newly-elected president did was lay out what the law is and agree, unlike his predecessor, to follow it. That includes, as the order makes clear, ensuring that “[c]hildren should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
Before Biden’s executive action, the Obama administration issued guidance regarding protections for transgender students under Title IX, and before that, multiple courts had already ruled that existing federal law protects transgender students from discrimination in schools. Since then, the Supreme Court has twice rejected cases challenging school policies that support transgender students (Doe v. Boyertown Area School District and Parents for Privacy v. Dallas School District No. 2). Similarly, passing the Equality Act would not introduce new rights for transgender students, including women and girls who are transgender and wish to participate in school sports.
Trans People Belong in Sports
Here’s what organizations that have fought for women athletes have to say:
The false rhetoric taking hold is a distraction to the real threats to girls and women in sports, such as lack of Title IX understanding and compliance; inequity in compensation, resources, sponsorship, and media attention; harassment and abuse of female athletes and women working in sports, the list goes on.
Additionally, history and modern experiences show how [Idaho’s anti-trans law] will disproportionately harm Black and Brown women and girls. Black and Brown women and girls are routinely targeted, shamed, and dehumanized for not conforming to society’s expectations of femininity … By allowing coaches, administrators, and other athletes to become the arbiters of who “looks like” a girl or a woman, [this law] will rely on and perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes.
NCWGE supports the right of transgender and nonbinary students to learn in a safe, nondiscriminatory environment; to use names, pronouns, and identification documents consistent with their gender identity; to have full and equal access to sex-separated activities and facilities consistent with their gender identity, including athletics teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms; and to have their privacy protected in all education records, in accordance with Title IX, the reasoning in the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision, and President Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021 executive order.
Equal participation in athletics for transgender people does not mean an end to women’s sports. The idea that allowing girls who are transgender to compete in girls’ sports leads to male domination of female sports is based on a flawed understanding of what it means to be transgender and a misrepresentation of nondiscrimination laws.
There is no place in any sport for discrimination of any kind. I’m proud to support all transgender athletes who simply want the access and opportunity to compete in the sport they love. The global athletic community grows stronger when we welcome and champion all athletes — including LGBTQ
