Politicians in Texas, Arkansas and elsewhere vowed defiance – and other conservative states could follow suit – after the Obama administration told public schools across the USA on Friday to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
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“So Barack Obama, if schools don’t knuckle down to force girls showering with boys and force eight-year-old girls to have to endure boys coming into their bathroom, he’s taking money from the poorest of the poor”, Patrick told reporters.
“There’s the area where we can discuss, where we can communicate, where we can help people understand why we do the things that we do”, Johnson said.
In this case it was just making sure that schools understand that that included transgender students. In this case, we’re talking about transgender students.
In April, students clashed with protesters at LAUSD’s Santee Education Complex in South Los Angeles who rallied outside the campus to protest the recent opening of a gender-neutral bathroom on the campus.
Moreover, the letter also instructs school administrators to allow members of one biological sex to stay overnight in the same rooms or dormitories as members of the opposite sex, if the former identify as transgender.
Dusty Rader, 25, is a CT high school English teacher who began transitioning from female to male while in high school. “People don’t realize that these kids in schools weren’t having any bathroom issues before”, she said. He said someone he knew was in there and it took some time for that student to process what was going on.
“I don’t think anybody wants to create a problem when you can potentially solve one”, he said.
Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said: “This is the most outrageous example yet of the Obama administration forcing its liberal agenda on states that roundly reject it”.
“RPS follows all legislation required of public schools, including Title IX”, and pointed to School Board Policy 522, Student Sex Nondiscrimination, which protects students from discrimination based on sex under the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
In the brief, West Virginia joined Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Utah and the governors of ME and North Carolina.
Both the state and the Obama administration have filed dueling lawsuits.
“This guidance further clarifies what we’ve said repeatedly – that gender identity is protected under Title IX”.
“I applaud the Obama administration for establishing policies that will better provide all our children an opportunity to thrive”, Inslee said.
“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex”, said Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the top U.S. lawyer who delivered a powerful speech in support of transgender Americans earlier this week.
A controversial announcement was made from the White House Friday.
The guidance from leaders at the US departments of Education and Justice, says public schools are obligated to treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity, even if their education records or identity documents indicate a different sex.
“There’s been a lot of heat surrounding the transgender issue as of late, with some states hoping to avoid it altogether by passing laws concerning the use of bathrooms”.
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“I think it’s unbelievable”.
