The Trump Justice Department has launched investigations into 36 Illinois school districts. Their crime? Teaching children that LGBTQ+ people exist.

The Department of Justice is targeting these districts to determine whether they included any LGBTQ+-inclusive content in classrooms from pre-K through 12th grade, and whether transgender students were allowed to use bathrooms and facilities that match their gender identity. This is one of the largest coordinated federal investigations into school districts the Trump administration has launched to date.

Meanwhile, the same administration has been systematically dismantling the civil rights protections that exist to protect students from actual harm.

A report released this week by Senator Bernie Sanders found that the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights resolved just 1% of civil rights cases in 2025, the lowest output in over a decade. Cases involving sexual harassment and assault. Racial harassment. The restraint and seclusion of students with disabilities. Real violations. Real victims. Left without resolution while federal resources are redirected toward investigating whether a school district read a book with a gay character in it.

This is not civil rights enforcement. This is a political campaign against LGBTQ+ children and the educators who support them.

Thirty-six Illinois districts are being targeted today. If this effort is not stopped, more districts in more states will follow. The message being sent to every LGBTQ+ student in America is clear: the federal government sees you as the problem.

We refuse to accept that.

Sign this petition to demand the Justice Department immediately drop its investigations into Illinois school districts, restore full civil rights enforcement for students facing real discrimination, and stop using federal power to erase LGBTQ+ students from American classrooms.