Why is Derek Schmidt trying to allow anti-gay discrimination?
There’s an easy way to not get busted for discriminating against LGBTQ people.
Don’t discriminate against them.
It’s a simple formula that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt would do well to learn.
Schmidt’s contribution to Pride Month is to once again throw the legal weight of the state of Kansas behind an effort to shield anti-gay discriminators and afflict the discriminated against.
This time, he’s cosigned a letter by the attorney general of Tennessee objecting to the U.S. Department of Agriculture adding “gender identity and sexual orientation” to the list of reasons that state and local agencies can’t deny poor people food.
Schmidt has bought in to a groundless allegation that schools could be denied funding for their lunch programs if they don’t let transgender students use the girl’s bathroom, or compete in girls’ sports, or whatever.
The whole premise is fake news.
Even the Tennessee attorney general’s letter that Schmidt signed never mentions school lunches.
But that didn’t stop Schmidt from issuing a press release on state letterhead saying: “Addressing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in school settings is a subject worthy of thoughtful consideration by local school boards with community input. But forcing a one-size-fits-all national response by threatening not to feed low-income kids unless their school complies with the Biden administration’s illegal decrees is a radical way to address the matter and is just plain wrong.”
Actually, what’s just plain wrong is Schmidt.
I read the policy, and the supporting documents, and called the USDA regional office to make sure I understood exactly what the directive does.
Nobody’s threatening to cut off food for low-income kids. The policy actually guarantees access by preventing a school from refusing to provide food because a student or their parents identify as LGBTQ.
The policy is limited to federal food distribution only — ancillary issues like bathrooms and sports have nothing to do with it.
Stacy Dean, USDA’s undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services, put it in writing the day the policy was announced:
“Whether you are grocery shopping, standing in line at the school cafeteria, or picking up food from a food bank, you should be able to do so without fear of discrimination. No one should be denied access to nutritious food simply because of who they are or how they identify.”
That’s justice and it’s fairness — two things an attorney general should always aspire to.
But Schmidt’s running for governor and his rhetoric will no doubt resonate with a certain slice of the electorate that would starve LGBTQ people back into the closet if they got the chance.
Indeed, Schmidt’s ignorance on the USDA policy is echoed all over the right-wing media:
▪ Fox News: “Biden admin holding school lunch money ‘hostage’ to force transgender policies, activist parent says.”
▪ Heritage Foundation: “Biden Administration Holds School Lunches Hostage to Radical Transgender Agenda.”
▪ Infowars: “Biden Regime to Cut Food Funding to Schools That Won’t Go Along With Radical Trans Bathroom Policy.”
▪ Kansas Sentinel: “Biden: no lunch for poor kids unless schools allow boys in the girls’ restrooms.”
It took me a little over an hour to debunk those and hundreds of similar headlines. If only Schmidt could have done the same.
Frankly, it’s hard to understand why Schmidt’s mortgaging his integrity on this nonsense.
We all already knew he’s anti-LGBTQ and his opponent, incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly, isn’t.
Kelly’s first action in office was to reverse Sam Brownback and issue an executive order banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender state employees.
In August, Schmidt joined Kansas to litigation suing the feds over transgender athletes and preferred pronouns.
What Schmidt’s doing is nothing more than shameful grandstanding to a crowd that should not be grandstanded to.
It’s beneath him, it’s beneath the office of attorney general that he holds, it’s beneath the office of governor that he aspires to, and it’s especially beneath the state of Kansas.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
