Though Northwestern University experts across fields fear that President Trump's executive order regarding gender could exacerbate violence, discrimination and harassment of transgender people, legally, the document is "largely unworkable," according to Northwestern Professor of Law Kara N. Ingelhart.
"The new Presidential Administration's Executive Order of January 20 regarding gender and sex seeks to weaken long-standing protections for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people - through encouraging discrimination against people and communities in spaces like access to government-identity documents, health care, prisons, schools, public accommodations, workplaces and more - and does so through harmful and misinforming language," said Ingelhart, who also directs the LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
"However, it is a largely unworkable document and, on its own, does not change the existing protections under Title VII, Title IX or other regulations and guidance previously promulgated through legal procedures."
Ingelhart is a clinical assistant professor of law at Pritzker. Her substantive areas of interest include low-income advocacy, criminal legal system reform and public health law and policy issues that impact the LGBTQI+ community. Professor Ingelhart is available to speak to media.
