Denying Lunches to LGBTQ Students is Cruel

Many of us likely remember the challenge of finding our place — literally and figuratively — in the school cafeteria. Imagine if you were not only poor and hungry, but also branded an outcast because of your sexual orientation or gender identity — or because of what others perceived it to be.

That’s the painful consequence of the latest front in the conservative culture/power war. Republican-controlled states don’t want the federal government telling them to feed all students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, even when the food is provided by federal funds.

On July 26, GOP attorneys general in 22 states sued the Biden administration over a May rule change that clarifies that Title IX, the 1972 federal law that protects sex discrimination in education, applies to the Department of Agriculture’s lunch program.

The rule requires the nondiscrimination policy to be posted and violations investigated. Refusal could mean the loss of funding, which is distributed to 95 percent of public schools, as well as day-care centers and some nonprofit private schools. USDA said it is requesting voluntary compliance, but will refer violations to the Department of Justice.

Said Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean: “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.”

This is federal overreach, according to the attorneys general. “This case is, yet again, about a federal agency trying to change law, which is Congress’ exclusive prerogative,” said Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, leader of the effort. “The USDA simply does not have that authority.”

Of course these state officials don’t really care about empowering Congress. They want to strengthen their clout at a time when congressional Republicans and the U.S. Supreme Court is ceding more authority to the states.

They are encouraged by a recent ruling by a federal judge in Tennessee to temporarily block the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Education from mandating protections for LGBTQ people. The directives infringed on states’ right, the judge said. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The Biden administration is using anti-discrimination policies to take away children’s lunch money, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton posted on Twitter. “Nutrition assistance for children in need should not be used as a chip in a political game,” he said.

Yet, Paxton and other GOP attorney generals are using LGBTQ children as pawns in their political gamesmanship. In Texas, parents are being investigated as child abusers for supporting their own transgender children.

Over the last year, GOP-controlled states have introduced a slew of legislation focused on gay children. Trans kids are being banned from sports; books and even discussions of gender identity has been banned from schools. Doctors are threatened with jail time if they offer gender-affirming care.

Turning the National School Lunch Program into a cultural battleground reflects just how much conservatives are overreaching. Signed into law in 1946, it provides free or reduced-price lunches to families whose incomes are below the federal poverty guideline, serving about 30 million children each year.

Every dollar spent on school lunch programs provides $2 in “benefits to society through improvements in health outcomes and poverty reduction,” according to a 2021 analysis by the Rockefeller Foundation.

That should certainly qualify it as a “pro-life” program, it would seem. During the pandemic, the program was expanded to provide lunch for all students, regardless of family income. That just ended because of opposition from Republican congress members.

Still it is difficult to believe that Americans in 22 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia — agree that it’s OK to deny any needy child a meal.