Washington (CNN) Democratic Sen. Al Franken criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for working to revoke LGBT rights, accusing him and the Department of Justice of wasting "no time in systematically undermining attempts to safeguard LGBT people."

Questioning Sessions during a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, the Minnesota senator blamed Sessions personally for new policy changes at the Justice Department.

Franken joined a handful of Democrats who brought up the issue repeatedly, pressing Sessions on whether his department was encouraging discrimination, an accusation Sessions denied.

Franken noted a laundry list of issues the Justice Department has supported since Sessions was sworn in as attorney general including the department's "sweeping new order" this summer that the Civil Rights Act does not cover against discrimination based on sexual orientation and Sessions' order earlier this month that transgender people also lack protection under that law.

In the two page memo issued by Sessions, he wrote, "Although federal law, including Title VII, provides various protections to transgender individuals, Title VII does not prohibit discrimination based on gender identity per se ... Titlle VII expressly prohibits discrimination 'because of... sex' and several other protected traits, but it does not refer to gender identity. 'Sex' is ordinarily defined to mean biologically male or female."

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