Anti-trans activist Bethany Kozma appointed to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Kozma has a long history of supporting anti-trans ‘bathroom bills’

Reports have recently surfaced that Donald Trump has chosen anti-transgender activist Bethany Kozma to serve as Senior Advisor to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at the US Agency for International Development.

In the past, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has backed programs in several countries to support economic empowerment, housing and health care access, and political participation among LGBTI people.

Yet Kozma, who worked in the White House and Homeland Security under former President George W. Bush, has a hateful record when it comes to LGBTI rights.

In a 2016 essay for The Daily Signal, Kozma responded to former President Obama’s expansion of Title IX (a law which forbids gender discrimination in education) to include transgender and non-binary individuals.

‘To put it simply, 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,’ she wrote.

‘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,’ she continued, equating transgender people with sexual predators.

With that, she launched a campaign called United We Stand to combat Obama-era laws allowing for the inclusion of trans individuals.

The announcement of Kozma’s appointment comes just days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to protect ‘transgendered individuals’ from hate crimes.

‘When you google the name Bethany Kozma the first hit is a screed against transgender youth, but that’s not surprising since President Trump has been recruiting from a pool of the most vehemently anti-LGBTQ activists to run our great nation,’ Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement.

‘At a time when transgender women are facing rising levels of violence and income inequality, appointing someone to this post who has dedicated their life to harming transgender youth is a slap in the face to LGBTQ Americans and a huge leap in the wrong direction which could place some of the most marginalized Americans directly in harm’s way.’

In their statement, GLAAD also included a timeline of Kozma’s anti-LGBTI history. Such instances involve partnering with anti-LGBTI hate groups like the Family Research Council and speaking out at schools against trans youth using the bathroom aligning with their gender identity.