Equality California Responds to Trump Demands Regarding University Funding

LOS ANGELES - Following a series of actions by the Trump administration threatening the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) into complying with certain demands in exchange for federal funding - Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang offered the following response:

"Donald Trump continues to bully academic institutions into accepting his administration's anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-democratic agenda. For months, he has been trying to extort nearly $1.2 billion from UCLA and drastically overhaul campus practices on hiring, admissions, support for LGBTQ+ students and staff. Now he's turned his sights to USC where he is dangling the carrot of federal funding and research grant advantages to coerce compliance.

This administration is trying to force these universities to deny the existence of transgender students, restrict access to medically necessary care, and bar transgender students from using school facilities consistent with their gender identity. They are attempting to change how race and gender are factored into admissions and hiring practices, in addition to adding severe restrictions on international student enrollment.

Donald Trump's demands are unconstitutional, discriminatory, and a direct attack on California's laws and values, and of the values that have come to define some of the most prestigious universities in the nation.

We applaud Governor Newsom's vigorous response to the latest attacks on academic freedom by threatening to strip state funding from any California institution that signs on to Donald Trump's discriminatory effort, which we are hopeful will prevent any school in California from complying.

Donald Trump continues to use the transgender community as a wedge to advance his morally bankrupt agenda, and we will not stand for it. We urge every institution of higher learning in California to reject this political blackmail and protect California's proud tradition of equality and academic independence."

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