Joe.My.God. LGBT News
From the Family Research Council:
The Trump administration’s reversal of this mandate on schools is a victory for parents, children, and privacy. The Obama administration resorted to this coercive policy because they knew parents and schools could never be persuaded to force boys and girls to shower together, stay together on school trips, and use the same locker rooms and bathrooms. As it turned out, the persistence of parents was far stronger than the government’s power of coercion. Parents refused to allow their child’s innocence to be sacrificed on the altar of government imposed political correctness.
Today’s announcement fulfills President Trump’s campaign promise to get the federal government out of the business of dictating school shower and bathroom policies. The federal government has absolutely no right to strip parents and local schools of their rights to provide a safe learning environment for children. What we were taught in kindergarten, boys use the boys room and girls use the girls room, was made old fashioned by liberal bureaucrats. Thanks to the Trump administration, parents and schools will remain free to protect the privacy and well-being of every student.
From the Heritage Foundation:
The Trump administration acted Wednesday night to fix the Obama administration’s unlawful “gender identity” school policy and return authority to parents and teachers in the states. Civil rights officers in the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued a joint letter saying the administration was rescinding the policy, which had required schools to allow transgender students to use the restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities of their choice—or face loss of federal funds.
In the letter, they said the Obama mandate did not show “due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts” in making education policy. The Trump administration is doing the right thing in correcting Obama’s unlawful overreach, which imposed a one-sided solution on all 50 states. Parents and teachers in local schools now can work to find win-win solutions that protect the dignity, privacy, and safety of all students.
From the Liberty Counsel:
This reversal from the Trump administration could have an impact on pending court cases, including Lafferty v. Fairfax, where Liberty Counsel will be arguing before the Virginia Supreme Court next week involving a “transgender” teen who was denied bathroom access.
Texas Federal Judge Reed O’Connor blocked the Obama directive nationwide and denied requests from two federal executive branch departments to lift the ban on the Obama administration policy. Connor wrote that the federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of “sex” – the scope and meaning of which the federal government agencies claim now includes gender identity – were declared decades ago. He referred specifically to the time gap between the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and this year, when the Obama administration announced its new transgender bathroom guidelines for public schools.
“We applaud the Trump administration for taking a stand against the Obama administration attempts to impose its unlawful and harmful LGBT agenda on public schools,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman. “The Obama directive is a lawless act and defies common sense. Allowing boys to use private facilities for girls violates the right to privacy and places girls at risk of sexual abuse,” said Staver.
From Alliance Defending Freedom:
President Obama had put schools to an impossible choice: sacrifice the dignity and privacy rights of their students by opening overnight facilities, locker rooms, and restrooms to the opposite sex; or protect those rights while watching the government strip away federal funding that schools spend on critical items like special-education programs and lunches for underprivileged children. This dilemma, thanks to President Trump’s actions, is gone. So now is the time for action by school boards that caved to the prior administration’s demands. They should undo their policy changes and take steps to protect the dignity and privacy rights of all their students.
Local schools (not the federal government) are in the best position to devise effective policies that (1) respect and value students who are struggling with gender-identity issues and (2) protect the vital privacy interests of students who are understandably uncomfortable sharing overnight facilities, locker rooms, or restrooms with people of the opposite sex. Many options are available, like providing private, single-user facilities for students struggling with gender-identity issues. School board members are once again free to work out these sensitive issues at the local level—where they belong.