HAPPENING NOW: @SharonMcGowanDC is testifying in front of a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives about the Trump administration’s (many) civil rights abuses over the past 3+ years.
LEARN MORE & WATCH LIVE: judiciary.house.gov/calendar/event…
Before she joined our team, @SharonMcGowanDC was an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. She left when President Trump nominated Jeff Sessions to lead the department.
.@SharonMcGowanDC: "I have found it exasperating to see how the Civil Rights Division’s scarce and valuable resources have been deployed to undermine rather than advance civil rights."
.@SharonMcGowanDC notes how the DOJ previously backed the holding from June's SCOTUS decision — that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity
That view was reversed during the Trump admin's first year.
.@SharonMcGowanDC: "These reversals in position by the Justice Department over the past 3+ years have damaged the credibility of the institution as a whole, but have been particularly devastating with respect to the Civil Rights Division."
@SharonMcGowanDC: "We must never forget that these policy changes affect real people’s lives, denying them physical safety, legal security, and the chance to succeed that we all deserve."
@SharonMcGowanDC: "The ways in which the legal and moral authority of the Civil Rights Division has been commandeered to advance positions that are antithetical to civil rights is as mortifying as it is infuriating."
As a reminder, the Trump admin's DOJ has:
➡️ Tried to carve LGBTQ people out of workplace protections
➡️ Withdrawn guidance to protect trans students
➡️ Pressed to gut nondiscrimination laws that prevent businesses from turning away LGBTQ people
And those are just a few!
In closing, @SharonMcGowanDC:
"The Civil Rights Division has turned its mission on its head, and has abandoned its noble legacy of defending the civil rights of those who have historically been shut out, turned away, or treated as less than others in our community."
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