Trump revokes Obama guidelines on transgender bathrooms

[timosman]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN161243

Feb 22, 2017 | 9:34pm EST By Daniel Trotta

President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday revoked landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathroom of their choice, reversing a signature initiative of former Democratic President Barack Obama.

Obama had instructed public schools last May to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. Transgender people hailed it as victory for their civil rights.

Trump, a Republican who took office last month, rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference.

The Justice and Education departments will continue to study the legal issues involved, according to the new, superseding guidance that will be sent to public schools across the country.

Reversing the Obama guidelines stands to inflame passions in the latest conflict in America between believers in traditional values and social progressives, and is likely to prompt more of the street protests that followed Trump's Nov. 8 election.

A couple hundred people gathered in front of the White House to protest the Republican president's action, waving rainbow flags and chanting: "No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here." The rainbow flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people.

"We all know that Donald Trump is a bully, but his attack on transgender children today is a new low," said Rachel Tiven, chief executive of Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBT people.

Conservatives such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who spearheaded the lawsuit challenging the Obama guidance, hailed the Trump administration action.

"Our fight over the bathroom directive has always been about former President Obama's attempt to bypass Congress and rewrite the laws to fit his political agenda for radical social change," said Paxton, a Republican.

Transgender legal advocates have criticized the "states' rights" argument, saying federal law and civil rights are matters for the federal government to enforce, not the states.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration was pressed to act now because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court case, G.G. versus Gloucester County School Board.

That case pits a Virginia transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, against officials who want to deny him use of the boys' room at his high school.

Although the Justice Department is not a party in the case, it typically would want to make its views heard. The Trump administration action on Wednesday also withdrew an Education Department letter in support of Grimm's case.

"I've faced my share of adversaries in rural Virginia. I never imagined that my government would be one of them. We will not be beaten down by this administration," Grimm, 17, told the protest outside the White House.

COURTS MAY HAVE FINAL SAY

The federal law in question, known as Title IX, bans sex discrimination in education. But it remains unsettled whether Title IX protections extend to a person's gender identity.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the Obama guidelines "did not contain sufficient legal analysis or explain how the interpretation was consistent with the language of Title IX."

The courts are likely to have the final say over whether Title IX covers transgender students. The Supreme Court could pass on that question in the Virginia case and allow lower courts to weigh in, or go ahead and decide what the law means.

Obama's Education Department undertook the guidance in response to queries from school districts across the country about how to accommodate transgender students in gender-segregated bathrooms.

The Obama administration guidance also covered a host of other issues, such as the importance of addressing transgender students by their preferred names and pronouns and schools' responsibility to prevent harassment and bullying of transgender children.

Thirteen states led by Texas sued to stop the Obama guidelines, and a U.S. district judge in Texas temporarily halted their full implementation.

The White House previously boasted of Trump's support for LGBT rights, noting in a Jan. 31 statement that he was the first Republican presidential nominee to mention the community in his nomination acceptance speech.

"Revoking the guidance shows that the president's promise to protect LGBT rights was just empty rhetoric," James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT project, said in a statement.

(Reporting and writing by Daniel Trotta in New York; Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Jeff Mason, Julia Edwards Ainsley, Mana Rabiee and Emily Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)

[Zippyjuan]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

[enhanced_deficit]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

EM.

Maybe to you, and tell this to iconic LGBT rights leaders like Michelle Obama or SWC Hillary:






Michelle Obama Tells Mississippi Grads to Fight Anti-LGBT Law
advocate.com
The first lady delivered an impassioned commencement speech at Jackson State University, blasting Mississippi's new anti-LGBT "religious freedom" law and telling grads to defend gay and trans rights. ... Speaking to the graduates of Jackson State University, a historically black ...


Hillary Slams NC Governor Over Bathroom Bill
Hillary Slams NC Governor Over Bathroom Bill ... Bill 2 was passed in the spring and requires transgender people to use public bathrooms and ...

[brushfire]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

Agreed. One has to wonder how big of an issue could this really be? How does Thailand handle their tranny bathroom issue?

[phill4paul]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

I piss in what ever bathroom is available at the time. Just a little bit of civil disobedience. I've been doing it since before transgender bathroom issues.

Mrs. Beth does too.

[A. Havnes]

I kind of figured they would. It's funny how such different groups are coming together to fight these absurd laws.

[PatriotOne]

I'm a furry and I identify as a cat. I demand litter boxes in the schools . I was born this way. It's a civil rights issue!

[tod evans]

I'm a furry and I identify as a cat. I demand litter boxes in the schools . I was born this way. It's a civil rights issue!

I'm a $#@!in' Hillbilly and I demand bushes in the city just in case I might want to visit...

[Brian4Liberty]

Obama had instructed public schools last May...

In Obama's eighth year. Some commitment. More like a cold, calculated poison pill, using transgender people like pawns.

[phill4paul]

State's rights president! Hallelujah!

So marijuana laws and gun laws are up to the state's too?

[Dark_Horse_Rider]

In Obama's eighth year. Some commitment. More like a cold, calculated poison pill, using transgender people like pawns.

This.

Piece of $#@! politicians using race, sexuality, or any other thing that they can cause a schism to divide people with.

[GunnyFreedom]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

It all started in Charlotte NC, when the dingbat mayor and city council decreed that all orgs and businesses with public facing bathrooms were required to allow men into their women's rooms by force of law. I figure regardless of what you think of the fundamental issue, that is mind-bogglingly stupid. Let McDonalds do whatever TF McDonalds wants to do with their own fkn bathrooms fr the love o Pete.

[CPUd]

[AZJoe]

[Madison320]

It all started in Charlotte NC, when the dingbat mayor and city council decreed that all orgs and businesses with public facing bathrooms were required to allow men into their women's rooms by force of law. I figure regardless of what you think of the fundamental issue, that is mind-bogglingly stupid. Let McDonalds do whatever TF McDonalds wants to do with their own fkn bathrooms fr the love o Pete.

Thank you! It annoys me that on this website almost no one here thinks it should be up to the owners of the bathrooms. The last time this topic came up I scrolled thru like 7 pages and no one mentioned it. They all argued what they thought was the best way for govt to regulate bathrooms. Arghhhhh.

[spudea]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

1) The guidance was issued with the force of law. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination. Schools that did not comply with the guidance risked losing their federal funding.
2) If it wasn't such a big deal, why did 13 states sue the administration?

[spudea]

The idea of bathroom guidelines was silly. It is a distraction issue.

1) they aren't legally binding anyways
2) even if they were, they have zero impact unless somebody is hiring bathroom monitors to insure people are using the proper one

[seapilot]

Protections is doublespeak emotional spin for regulation.

[GunnyFreedom]

Thank you! It annoys me that on this website almost no one here thinks it should be up to the owners of the bathrooms. The last time this topic came up I scrolled thru like 7 pages and no one mentioned it. They all argued what they thought was the best way for govt to regulate bathrooms. Arghhhhh.

The upshot is, that like 90% of NC HB2 that everyone hates so much was simply to say, "Everyone who is not the government can do whatever they want to with their own bathrooms."

[jmdrake]

I had a long conversation with my mother over this. Even though she is religiously conservative, my brother is transgender so she's super conflicted. In her mind she had a hard time separating the idea of race segregated bathrooms during jim crow and sex segregated bathrooms today. So I told her about a friend of mine who told me when she was a girl she was sexually assaulted on the school bus on an almost daily basis. That couldn't happen at the private Christian academy that I went to because whenever we did bus trips there were adults riding in the back and if the trip was at night either the lights were kept on or the bus was segregated by gender. The segregation wasn't anti girl or anti transgender (transgenders wouldn't have been accepted at this religious school anyway), and they weren't really so worried about sexual assault as they were just sex period. But I'm digressing. The point is that the problem with this whole argument is how it is being framed. Gender specific bathrooms didn't come about to be "anti tranny". In fact they predate sex reassignment therapy/surgery. It has always been about protecting women. And there have already be cases of men, dressing as women, going into the women's bathroom to put their phone cameras under the stall. Here is a sample story from NBC Washington.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/lo...351232041.html

Note that these stories are always only carried locally to prevent this truth from infecting the public consciousness.

Now as far as the kiddies go, a parent who will send his/her child to a school where they already know the child as one sex but the child now wants to be the other sex is a liberal drama queen and unfit parent. Middle school and high school are tough enough as is. Why complicate it? If your child REALLY wants to be the opposite sex then move somewhere else where he can have a decent shot to really pass as she or vice versa. Or move to a transgender friendly school district like New York or San Fransisco. Seriously. Being able to go to the little girls room will be the least of your child's problems in many schools. Goodness people are stupid as hell.

[Zippyjuan]

1) The guidance was issued with the force of law. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination. Schools that did not comply with the guidance risked losing their federal funding.
2) If it wasn't such a big deal, why did 13 states sue the administration?

Guidelines are suggested ways of treating the matter. They are not mandatory. There is no penalty for non- compliance.

But there is no reason that the Federal Government should care or have any law on the issue in the first place.

[jmdrake]

The upshot is, that like 90% of NC HB2 that everyone hates so much was simply to say, "Everyone who is not the government can do whatever they want to with their own bathrooms."

True. Of course the Obama bathroom edict was aimed at "the government" as in "gubmint schools." And it's still stupid. Here's an idea. Don't ask, don't tell. The whole point of transgender is to "pass" for the other gender right? Well if you look enough like a girl so that nobody questions you walking into the ladies room even at Jerry Farwell's Liberty University, great! You "passed". Get your gold star and pee where you want. But if you have to get the government to make someone let you into the ladies room then....you've kind of failed in your quest to pass for a woman.

Hey. Here's a though. Prisons are run by the government. Should a man who hasn't gone through any sex reassignment therapy simply be able to choose the prison based on the gender he "feels" to be at the moment? Would any sane heterosexual man under those circumstances not say "I feel like a woman today?"

[jmdrake]

Guidelines are suggested ways of treating the matter. They are not mandatory. There is no penalty for non- compliance.

Bullshyt. Risking losing federal funding is a penalty for non compliance.

But there is no reason that the Federal Government should care or have any law on the issue in the first place.

True.

[TommyJeff]

This is ridiculous, the president doesn't have any authority to decide national bathroom policies. If only we could elect a constitutional lawyer from Harvard, he'd know the limitations of a president.

[enhanced_deficit]

This Foxnews headline could derail the current controversy over Trump's "disrespectful" phone call to fallen trrop's family from top spot in MSM debates:

Transgender Wyoming woman convicted of sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl in bathroom

A transgender Wyoming woman was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl inside a bathroom.
Michelle Martinez, who was known as Miguel Martinez before identifying as female, was found guilty of first-degree and second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and could face up to 70 years in prison.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/19...-bathroom.html

[timosman]

Who could have predicted?

[wizardwatson]

[RJB]

@ Mods! I need to change my name to "Apache" on this forum! My current name no longer serves me!

[enhanced_deficit]

...I need to change my name to "Apache" on this forum! My current name no longer serves me!

While I fully support peoples right to identify as they choose, it is somewhat encouraging that the human rights/women rights/child rights activist in this video preferred relatively soothing name "apache" and did not go for something divisive or offensive like "predator drone". Because that would have seriously worsened the on going human rights crisis in the Trump era.



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