In an election year, such a direction immediately took a political overtone with Republican-ruled state government slamming the Obama Administration on this.
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“But one school district on the Iron Range already has that policy”.
Friday’s letter says schools receiving federal funding can not discriminate based on sex and must allow transgender students to use bathrooms according to their gender identity.
“The moment a child’s parent or guardian says the child identifies as a member of the opposite sex, the school must recognise that”, the letter says.
“LGBT students like any other students should never feel like they don’t belong”, said Senator Al Franken.
Harford County Public Schools issued a statement Friday saying they intend to “act consistent with its commitment that all students, including transgender students, enjoy a safe and discrimination-free school environment”.
The Florida Department of Education says it is still reviewing the guidance. The Justice Department on Monday sued North Carolina over a bathroom access law that it said violates the rights of transgender people, a measure that Lynch likened to policies of racial segregation and efforts to deny gay couples the right to marry. Hundreds of school districts, from Anchorage, Alaska, and Tucson, Arizona, to Fairfax County, Virginia and Chicago, have adopted similar protections.
Shorewood adopted its transgender policy in 2014, only the second in the state behind Madison to do so.
The letter issued this morning does not carry the force of law.
“Gender identity refers to an individual’s internal sense of gender”. “There’s an expectation that the only other people will be the same gender as they are and that’s the way we’ve been doing things for a long time”.
That’s from a directive from the Obama administration.
The guidance comes as the federal government is embroiled in a pitched legal battle in North Carolina – with both the state and the administration filing duelling lawsuits – over the state’s law requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate.
The guidelines vary from methods the Solon Community School District used in a situation involving a transgender student two years ago. They don’t want boys in the girls rooms.
District officials said they would not release information about a student’s gender without proper approval. So far, she said there are gender-inclusive restrooms in five buildings on the Santa Rosa campus and one in Petaluma.
The Obama administration also will send a 25-page document describing policies in place in some schools around the country, such as installing privacy curtains or allowing students to change in bathroom stalls.
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But sometimes there are mistakes.
