Sec. 2. Findings and purposes
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Congress makes the following findings: Public school students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (referred to in this Act as LGBT ), or are perceived to be LGBT, or who associate with LGBT people, have been and are subjected to pervasive discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence, and have been deprived of equal educational opportunities, in schools in every part of the Nation. While discrimination of any kind is harmful to students and to the education system, actions that target students based on sexual orientation or gender identity represent a distinct and severe problem that remains inadequately addressed by current Federal law.
Numerous social science studies demonstrate that discrimination at school has contributed to high rates of absenteeism, academic underachievement, dropping out, and adverse physical and mental health consequences among LGBT youth. When left unchecked, discrimination in schools based on sexual orientation or gender identity can lead, and has led, to life-threatening violence and to suicide. Public school students enjoy a variety of constitutional rights, including rights to equal protection, privacy, and free expression, which are infringed when school officials engage in or fail to take prompt and effective action to stop discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Provisions of Federal statutory law expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, and national origin. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice, as well as numerous courts, have correctly interpreted the prohibitions on sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sex stereotypes and gender identity, even when that sex-based discrimination coincides or overlaps with discrimination based on sexual orientation.
However, the absence of express Federal law prohibitions on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity has created unnecessary uncertainty that risks limiting access to legal remedies under Federal law for LGBT students and their parents. The purposes of this Act are— to ensure that all students have access to public education in a safe environment free from discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; to provide a comprehensive Federal prohibition of discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity; to provide meaningful and effective remedies for discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity; to invoke congressional powers, including the power to enforce the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and to provide for the general welfare pursuant to section 8 of article I of the Constitution and the power to make all laws necessary and proper for the execution of the foregoing powers pursuant to section 8 of article I of the Constitution, in order to prohibit discrimination in public schools on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; and to allow the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to effectively combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, through regulation and enforcement, as the Departments have issued regulations under and enforced title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ( 20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. ) and other nondiscrimination laws in a manner that effectively addresses discrimination.
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Sec. 2
Findings and purposes
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