Instead of tackling affordability, House Republicans bully trans college students

House Republicans advanced two higher education bills Thursday that LGBTQ+ advocates warn would weaken campus nondiscrimination protections and allow student groups to exclude LGBTQ+ people while still receiving recognition, funding, and other benefits from public colleges and universities.

The Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and Workforce voted to advance H.R. 5505, the Equal Campus Access Act, and adopted an anti-trans amendment to H.R. 2555, the Freedom of Association in Higher Education Act.

California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and a senior member of the committee, sharply condemned the votes.

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Instead of standing up for students’ rights or fighting to lower the skyrocketing cost of higher education, Republicans chose to prioritize a bill, the so-called Equal Campus Access Act, that would require minority students to subsidize their own discrimination and empower certain college and university student groups to discriminate against minority students,” Takano said in a statement.

H.R. 5505 would amend the Higher Education Act to cut off federal funds to public colleges and universities that deny religious student organizations rights, benefits, facilities access, or official recognition available to other student groups because of the religious group’s beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or standards of conduct.

Supporters describe the bill as a religious liberty measure. LGBTQ+ advocates say it would effectively carve religious student groups out of campus nondiscrimination rules, even when those groups bar LGBTQ+ students or others from membership or leadership.

The amendment to H.R. 2555 would protect students’ ability to form, join, participate in, or lead single-sex social organizations, including fraternities, sororities, and private social clubs. It would also prohibit federally funded colleges from taking a long list of “adverse actions” against students or groups because the organization limits membership to one sex. Those actions include discipline, denial of scholarships or campus jobs, housing restrictions, denial of recommendation letters, loss of leadership opportunities, or withdrawal of official recognition.

Related: House Republicans accuse leaders of trans-inclusive school systems of ‘child abuse’

The substitute amendment defines sex as “biological sex” and defines male and female according to reproductive systems. LGBTQ+ advocates say that language targets transgender students by allowing single-sex organizations to exclude them from groups consistent with their gender identity.

“Every student deserves an education free from discrimination, and no student should be targeted just because of who they are,” Takano said. “There are real problems facing American students—but Republicans are too obsessed with making life hell for minorities to care about improving education in America.”