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NCTE Lauds New U.S. Civil Rights Commission Appointments

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Ash Orr (they/he)

Today, President Barack Obama, who has been among the strongest supporters of trans rights in history, continued his work by announcing that he has appointed civil rights paragons Catherine Lhamon and Debo Adegbile to six-year terms on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Lhamon is currently the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. She has been instrumental in ensuring that transgender students are treated fairly all over the nation, at all levels of education. Adegbile worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for a dozen years before taking his current position as a partner at the law firm WilmerHale.

In response to the President’s announcement, NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said:

“We are so thrilled that these amazing leaders, who have already done so much work resisting injustice and speaking up for the rights of everyone, are being given the opportunity to continue their critical work on the Commission on Civil Rights. We would also like to thank President Obama for continuing to take action to move civil rights forward through the very end of his administration.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is a bipartisan, independent commission of eight people that holds public briefings, conducts hearings, and publishes studies on a range of civil rights issues. USCCR is required to investigate a federal agency every year and issue a report to the President, Vice President, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House. 

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