Trump's Appointment to Gender Equality Office Has Hateful Anti-Trans Record

Adding to his record of appointing people to posts they are fundamentally unqualified to hold, Donald Trump has named an anti-trans activist as a senior adviser to the office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Bethany Kozma, who held positions in the White House and Homeland Security under George W. Bush, vehemently opposed guidelines issued by President Obama's administration that advised schools to let trans students use their preferred names and pronouns and use the restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, Buzzfeed reports. And to Google the woman who will advise on gender equality in the office that is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is to uncover a treasure trove of hateful, woefully misguided anti-trans propaganda.

"A boy claiming gender confusion must now be allowed in the same shower, bathroom, or locker room with my daughter under the president's transgender policies," Kozma wrote in a 2016 piece about the Obama administration guidelines. "When I learned that predators could abuse these new policies to hurt children in school lockers, shelters, pool showers, or other vulnerable public places like remote bathrooms in national parks, I realized I had to do something."

In a disgusting attempt to equate trans women with sexual predators, Kozma's story included a video of women sharing their stories of how they were sexually assaulted by cisgender men in spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms.

While naming Kozma, who clearly doesn't believe that trans women are equal to cisgender women, as an adviser at the office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment is a slap in the face to all women, her position in the office is further complicated by the fact that USAID has a long history of supporting programs that advance LGBT equality around the world, including a program that leverages financial contributions to support "LGBTI human rights and development in 14 countries around the world," HIV and AIDS prevention efforts, and an initiative to empower Asia's LGBT people, according to its website.

A spokesperson for USAID said Kozma's appointment does not mean there has been a change in policy in terms of its commitment to LGBT rights, according to Buzzfeed.

"USAID is committed to promoting a work environment that is free from sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination, in accordance with existing federal law," the spokesperson said.

But Kozma's anti-trans crusade did not end with her campaign to oppose Obama's protections for trans students in 2016. Earlier this year she wrote a piece for The Daily Signal (part of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation) in which she patted herself on the back for being a part of the movement that she believes helped influence the Trump administration to rescind those protections.

"Trump's decisiveness on this issue shows that he cares more about people than political correctness -- that all our children deserve a safe and respectful learning environment, not just a very small minority, and that privacy and free speech are rights that American parents hold dear," Kozma wrote this February.