Obama unilaterally rewrites law, imposes transgender policy on nation’s schools
All across America, parents, teachers and
local school districts have been having conversations about how best to
accommodate the privacy and safety concerns of transgender students while also
addressing the privacy and safety concerns of other students.
Solutions
were found, such as the
creation of new single-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities for
transgender students while retaining girls and boys rooms for biological girls
and boys.
But activists
attacked these commonsense compromise policies as “transphobic.” And
now the Obama administration has said that a 1972 law settles all of these
issues: Students
are to be treated the same based on their “gender identity,” regardless
of their sex.
The Obama Departments of Justice and Education
declared that “both federal agencies treat a student’s gender identity as the
student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX.”
Here are three problems with today's
announcement from the Obama administration.
1. Obama Administration is
Unlawfully Rewriting Law
In 1972 when Congress passed Title IX of the
Education Amendments no one thought that “sex” meant “gender identity.” It
didn’t mean it then, and it doesn’t mean it now. The Obama administration is
unlawfully rewriting federal law. The term “sex” is not ambiguous, and is not
subject to executive branch agencies re-defining to now mean “gender identity.”
The Secretary of Education, John B. King Jr., claims the following: “This
guidance further clarifies what we’ve said repeatedly—that gender identity is
protected under Title IX.” But, again, the law that Congress passed in 1972
does no such thing.
Title IX was intended to protect women and
girls from harassment and discrimination, to ensure that they received equal
opportunities in education, and now the Obama administration is re-writing it
to say schools must allow boys unfettered access to the girls locker
rooms.
2. Obama Administration is
Unnecessarily Meddling in State and Local Matters
Up until last year’s prime-time
interview of Bruce Jenner (as he was then
called), few Americans had ever had a conversation about transgender issues.
I went on
CNN and said it’s a conversation we need to have.
But the Obama administration is trying to shut down these discussions before
they’ve even taken place. The Obama administration is attempting to force a
one-size-fits-all policy on the entire nation rather than allow parents and
teachers and local schools the time, space and flexibility to find solutions
that work best for everyone.
3. Obama Administration is
Imposing Bad Policy on the Entire Nation
The directives from the Obama
administration are bad policy. First, there is no legal definition of “gender
identity” or legal criteria for determining who is a “transgender” person. The
Obama administration states today
that a “school may not require transgender
students to have a medical diagnosis, undergo any medical treatment, or produce
a birth certificate or other identification document before treating them
consistent with their gender identity.” The administration goes on to say that “Gender
identity refers to an individual’s internal sense of gender.” In other words,
sheer say-so makes it so.
Second, based on the sheer say-so of a
student, the Obama
administration is directing schools to
allow “students to participate in sex-segregated activities and access
sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity.” Yes, that
means when it comes to sports teams, bathrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms, and
hotel rooms for field trips—these all must now be based on the self-declared
gender identity of the students.
The Obama administration’s official policy is
that boys who identify as girls should have unfettered access to girls’
bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities. Anything less than full access
to the bathroom and locker room of their choice is, they say, a transphobic
denial of civil rights and equality. This extreme position is out of step with
the majority of Americans, and utterly inconsiderate of the concerns of the
non-transgendered community.
The Obama
administration explicitly rejects compromises such
as single-occupancy facilities, stating “A school may not require transgender
students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use
individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so.” And
when it comes to campus housing or hotels for off-campus trips, “a school must
allow transgender students to access housing consistent with their gender
identity and may not require transgender students to stay in single-occupancy
accommodations.”
When it comes to athletics, the Obama
directives are confusingly vague, telling schools that they may not “rely on
overly broad generalizations or stereotypes about the differences between
transgender students and other students of the same sex (i.e., the same gender
identity) or others’ discomfort with transgender students.” So which team a
transgender student athlete must be allowed to play on is unclear.
What’s to Be Done
Instead of the Obama administration rewriting
law to impose a federal policy related to transgender issues on the entire
nation, a better course would be to respect
federalism, local decision-making, and parental authority in education.
For most Americans, concerns related to
transgender students are a new reality. Rather than rush to impose a top-down solution
on the entire country, the Obama administration should allow the American
people to have these conversations, consider all the relevant concerns, and
make policies that will best serve all Americans.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily
Signal.
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