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Summary: The White House will not tolerate anti-transgender bathroom laws, and schools that enforce those laws may lose federal funding.
Responding to recent Southern bathroom legislation, The Obama administration plans to issue a
federal declaration that all public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match how they identify. A letter to school districts will be mailed today with detailed instructions on how schools can ensure students are not discriminated against.
While the letter is not a law, schools that do not abide by President Obama’s message could lose federal money.
The bathroom issue has been raising a huge stink, mainly because of North Carolina’s recent law. The state passed legislation requiring people to use the bathroom of their biological sex, which is discriminatory towards transgender people. The Justice Department swiftly stepped in and said that House Bill 2 violated the Civil Rights Act. In turn, North Carolina sued the Justice Department for overstepping its boundaries.
- To learn more about North Carolina’s fight with the Justice Department read this article: “North Carolina Sues Justice Department”
According to the New York Times, “The [White House’s] move is certain to draw fresh criticism, particularly from Republicans, that the federal government is wading into local matters and imposing its own values on communities across the country that may not agree. It represents the latest example of the Obama administration using a combination of policies, lawsuits and public statements to change the civil rights landscape for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people.”
Over the past few years, the LGBT community has gained rights previously denied to them. They now can marry in all fifty states, can openly serve in the military, and sue for discrimination. Additionally, shows like Amazon’s Transparent and E!’s reality coverage of Caitlyn Jenner has brought awareness to the transgender community. While progressives rejoice, many conservatives are uncomfortable with the growing public acceptance of LGBT lifestyles, and they are fighting back with bathroom and other religious liberty laws.
North Carolina’s law was called “mean-spirited” by the White House.
John B. King Jr. of the Department of Education said in a statement that no student should ever feel unwelcome on an educational campus.
“We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence,” King said.
UPDATED 5.16.16 10:05AM
Some outspoken Republicans like former presidential candidate Ted Cruz have said that the bathroom law was enacted to protect young girls from being in the same bathroom as a man.
“It is simply crazy and the idea that grown men would be allowed alone in a bathroom with little girls — you don’t need to be a behavioral psychologist to realize bad things can happen, and any prudent person wouldn’t allow that,” Senator Cruz told Glenn Beck. “And it is only the lunacy of political correctness, ESPN fired Curt Schilling for making the rather obvious point that we shouldn’t allow grown adult men strangers alone in a bathroom with little girls, that’s a point anyone who is rational should understand.”
Schilling was recently fired from ESPN for expressing his view that cross-dressing men should not be allowed in the women’s restroom.
Yet are children really in danger from transgender people? Is the wrong group being targeted? After all, there seems to be numerous documented cases of molestation and child abuse that arise from family members or close friends and little to no evidence of actual transgender bathroom abuse or predators cross-dressing to get into bathrooms. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Source: New York Times