In the wake of President Trump rolling back some federal protections for transgender students, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to reassure New Yorkers that their rights aren't changing here. State House Reporter Zack Fink has the story.
Transgender students will continue to use the bathroom of the sex they identify with, after a directive was issued by Gov. Cuomo.
President Obama had afforded those same protections at the federal level, only to have them rolled back by Donald Trump this week.
Cuomo says that in New York, at least, Trump's action will not change anything.
"Nothing that the federal government has done will have any effect in the State of New York on transgender students," Cuomo said. "We have acted. Our law is clear."
Cuomo participated in a roundtable discussion at the Jewish Heritage Museum in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, where he pointed to an alarming rise in hate crimes.
There have been more than 50 threats against Jewish community centers in recent months. Cuomo has already directed the state police to form a hate crimes task force.
"Today, we are taking the additional step of establishing a text tip line so people can text tips," the governor said. "And we are also establishing a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to the capture and conviction of a perpetrator of a hate crime."
According to Cuomo, there has been 106 percent increase in reported hate crimes since last November, but he was reluctant to pin that on Trump, or the tone out of Washington.
"I want to keep this out of politics to the greatest level that we can," Cuomo said. "I don't think that is helpful."
Although Cuomo was reluctant to criticize Trump by name — and has been really since Trump was elected — he went on to say that the overall tone of the campaign emboldened extremists on both sides of the debate.