Adams Says He Will Revisit N.Y.C. Schools’ Bathroom Gender Policy

Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that he would push the New York City Department of Education to change its policy of allowing young people in schools to use the bathroom most closely associated with their gender.

“We are going to always respect how one identifies themselves,” Mr. Adams said on Thursday.

But “I do not believe a safe environment is allowing boys and girls to use the same facility at the same time,” the mayor added, speaking at an unrelated news conference in front of the United Nations’s headquarters.

The mayor said he would explore whether he had the executive power to force a change in school policy, saying, “I’m going to look at my authority and power to change that.”

Mr. Adams’s remarks came two days after the Trump administration sent letters to three U.S. school districts, including New York, writing that it was “deeply concerned” about the city’s policies toward transgender students.

Denying the use of facilities because of a person’s gender identity is considered unlawful discrimination under the state’s Human Rights Law. New York City’s guidelines on supporting transgender children also state that students cannot be forced to use a bathroom that conflicts with their gender identity.

But Craig W. Trainor, the federal Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, told city officials that New York’s rules conflict with Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding.

In his letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Trainor wrote that the city’s bathroom policy “means that male students who identify as female or transgender are given unqualified access to female intimate spaces,” and took issue with the district’s practice of allowing students to participate in physical education and athletics programs based on their gender identity.

The Trump administration said that it could withhold more than $35 million in federal grant funding for magnet school programs if the city’s education system does not overhaul its guidelines, including to require that schools provide students with bathrooms “strictly separated on the basis of sex.”

JP O’Hare, a spokesman for the state Education Department, said in a statement that “safe and supportive schools play a vital role in creating an inclusive and nurturing environment where transgender and gender expansive students can thrive academically, emotionally and socially.”

He pointed to guidance from state leaders issued shortly after President Trump took office, which reminded districts that students remain entitled to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

“The mayor is well aware of this fact,” Mr. O’Hare said.

A spokeswoman for New York City’s public schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Adams also spoke about school bathrooms during a campaign stop in Harlem on Wednesday, where he cited the current policy during a long rant against Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner in November’s race for mayor, and the Democratic Socialists of America, which Mr. Mamdani belongs to.

He said that Mr. Mamdani and the D.S.A. wanted to erase the progress he has made during his mayoralty by pushing for the closure of the Rikers Island jail complex, decriminalizing prostitution and allowing children to use the bathrooms associated with their gender.

“I’m not for boys going into bathrooms for little girls. I don’t support that,” the mayor said on Wednesday. “And I’m not going to succumb to ‘you can’t criticize the madness we are starting to see in this city’ — and really, to be honest, in this country.”

In a statement, Mr. Mamdani called the mayor’s comments “awful and dangerous” and said they “echo the transphobic bigotry” from the Trump administration.

“It’s completely at odds with the values of our city,” Mr. Mamdani said, “and another reason his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.”

Mr. Adams is running a long-shot campaign for re-election as an independent and is polling in fourth place in most polls, trailing the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, whom he beat in 2021 by nearly 40 points.

During Wednesday’s campaign event, Mr. Adams was greeted warmly by store owners and passers-by who asked for selfies. The mayor criticized the news media, saying it had “distorted” and “undermined” his campaign and was part of a plot to portray him poorly.

“There is a deep state in this city,” Mr. Adams said.

Mr. Adams saved some of his harshest criticism for Mr. Mamdani. The mayor gave remarks at a mosque where he seemed to question whether Mr. Mamdani’s stance on bathrooms conflicted with his Muslim faith.

“The Muslims I know don’t believe that boys should be going into little girls’ bathrooms,” Mr. Adams said. “They believe there should be a separation.”

Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for Mr. Mamdani, said the mayor was trying to distract from his record and from how Mr. Mamdani’s campaign platform of affordability is being endorsed by New Yorkers.

Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.