GOP officially sides with pro-family advocates against bathroom bills
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| Seal of the RNC (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is standing with
pro-family advocates against the LGBT movement's effort to allow transgender
students to use facilities designed for members of the opposite sex.
In an official
resolution passed last
month, the RNC said it "encourages State Legislatures to recognize that
these Obama gender identity policies are a federal governmental overreach, a
misinterpretation of Title IX policies, and an infringement upon the majority
of students' Constitutional rights." Additionally, "the Republican
National Committee encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect
student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar
facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated."
The
resolution, which was first
reported on Twitter on
Wednesday by TIME's Zeke Miller, was quickly denounced by a Democratic National
Committee spokesperson.
"The
GOP can't find time to consider a Supreme Court nominee, or pass immigration
reform, or raise the minimum wage, or enact equal pay for women, but when it
comes to attacking trans people, they've got all the time in the world,"
T.J. Helmstetter wrote in an email to The
Advocate.
While the
RNC did not respond to a request for comment, its resolution underscoresstate-level efforts to stop male and female
students from using
restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities designated for the opposite sex. A first-of-its-kind
bill in South Dakota
that passed the state legislature would provide such protections while
requiring school districts to provide single-sex facilities for students
identifying as the gender different from the one they are.
The
Advocate reports that the South Dakota bill will become law on Tuesday if
Governor Dennis Daugaard does not sign it.
The RNC
resolution also stands with at least two courts that have ruled against students who
tried to force their schools to allow them access to opposite-sex facilities.
Last summer, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremy Tedesco told LifeSiteNews that "a federal court in
Pennsylvania recently rejected a ... lawsuit filed by a transgender student
seeking access to restrooms at a college, ruling that 'separating students by
sex based on biological considerations ... for restroom and locker room use
simply does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.'"
The
students had claimed that the Obama administration's 2014 interpretation of the
1972 anti-sex discrimination Title IX law allowed them to force schools to
accept their demands for facility use.
"The
court [in Pennsylvania] rejected the Title IX claim," said Tedesco.
"It also highlighted that Title IX's implementing regulations state that
schools do not violate Title IX when they 'provide separate toilet,
locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.'"
The ADF
attorney also said that the change to Title IX "is not legally
binding" and was "politically motivated."
"In
fact, federal regulations expressly state that 'significant guidance documents'
have no binding legal authority," said Tedesco. "Further, the
document does not mention access to restrooms and it does not change binding
Title IX regulations authorizing schools to create 'separate toilet, locker
room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.'"
"It
would take an act of Congress to include 'gender identity' as a protected
status under Title IX. The school can defend itself against this lawsuit
without losing its federal funding. And it should. Allowing students
access to the opposite sex's restrooms would violate the privacy rights of the
vast majority of students and trample the rights of parents as well."
"The
bottom line is that schools have broad discretion to handle these delicate
matters in ways that balance the interests of all students involved. They
can craft policies that are both respectful of the privacy concerns of all
children and sensitive to the diverse needs of
individual children[.]"
Tedesco's
colleague Matt Sharp likewise told LifeSiteNews last year that "when you
look at Title IX, and what it actually says, this exact issue was debated 40
years ago, when it came up." Congress decided that "whenever you've
got privacy and safety interests, schools can maintain these distinctions. So
they wrote it into the law, and into the regulations."
The law is
"very clear and unambiguous," explained Sharp.
LifeSiteNews
asked Helmstetter why his comments went after the entire GOP rather than simply
the RNC – which is not formally involved in any Supreme Court nomination
efforts or other congressional legislative and nomination considerations.
"My
statement was ... an indictment of Republican Party leadership as a
whole," Helmstetter said in an e-mail, pointing to policies of GOP
lawmakers and presidential candidates he said harm various demographic groups.
"The
RNC is the organizational arm of the Republican Party responsible for the
selection process of a presidential nominee and for the party's platform. If
you think that the RNC's priorities are not representative of its candidates
then you should ask Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump which RNC
resolutions, if any, they disagree with," concluded Helmstetter.
