At an oversight hearing of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Tuesday, Sen. Al Franken questioned assistant attorney general Thomas Perez about including LGBT students in federal civil rights laws, according to the Minnesota Independent.

“The fact is that discrimination and harassment are a fact of life for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students across the country, yet there is no explicit protection in federal law that bars discrimination and harassment against LGBT students,” Franken told Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

Franken spoke of horrendous cases of bullying targeting LGBT high school students including some cases in Minnesota.

“I would like to work with you on this for specific protections for LGBT kids. It’s a very real thing that there is this bullying in schools,” he told Perez.

Be sure to check out the Minnesota Independent’s full report of Franken’s remarks at the hearing.