On Wednesday evening, the Departments of Education and Justice, at the direction of President Trump, withdrew important guidance that required schools to treat transgender boys and girls like other boys and girls under Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

In a one-and-a-half-page letter, the government unceremoniously retreated from a position — that transgender students may not be excluded from restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity — that the Department of Education had held for at least four years. Despite those years of experience, the government claims that it needs to “further and more completely consider the legal issues involved.”

But there is nothing new about the idea that sex discrimination includes discrimination against transgender people. To the contrary, courts have repeatedly reached that conclusion over the past 15 years in decisions that involve prisons, banks, the workplace and, yes, schools. That’s because it’s impossible to take into account someone’s transgender status or gender identity — their internal sense of being male, female or something else — without taking into account their sex. Indeed, transgender people are defined by the fact that their gender identity does not match the sex given to them at birth.

By insisting that more study is warranted to decide whether transgender students should be treated fairly, the government has sent a deeply disturbing message to transgender students that they are less than other students and unworthy of protection.