Revoking former President Barack Obama’s guidelines on transgender bathrooms, President Donald Trump showed his federalist leanings, letting states decide whether transgender groups should use the opposite sex bathrooms. Occupying less than one percent of the population, Obama’s May 12, 2016 decision to order the Department of Education to let transgender groups use the opposite sex bathrooms, Trump decided the matter was best left to the states. Obama’s pro-LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] views compromised the privacy and safety of heterosexuals, letting men who think they’re women to used women’s bathrooms. Whatever the religious objections, women have a right to keep males out of their bathrooms, regardless of whether or not the men see themselves as women. Obama’s Department of Education threatened to withhold funds from non-complying schools.
High-profile celebrities, like the morphing of 1976 Olympic decathlon gold medallist Bruce Jenner into national pinup Caitlyan Jenner, underscores the public’s ongoing education into the popular gender-identity issues. On the reverse side, pop singers Sonny and Cher Bono watched their daughter Chastity morph into Chaz, another example of a transgender transformation. While not asked directly, it’s not known whether either Cailyn or Chaz prefer to use the men’s or women’s bathroom. Trump’s Feb. 22 decision to revoke Obama’s order drew protests from the LGBT community, seeing the change as backward. Women’s groups welcomed the change, believing it provides women more safety to keep men out of women’s bathrooms. Trump didn’t take a position one-way-or-another, only decided that the transgender bathroom issue should be decided by the states.
Reversing Obama’s order, Trump received the wrath of the LGBT community, protesting in front of the White House. “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, a LGBT advocacy practice. Revoking Obama’s order wasn’t intended to attack the LGBT community, only refer legal determinations back to the states. Whatever the fraction of transgender children, it’s not enough to place the vast majority of heterosexual girls into a compromised situation when it comes to letting boys in girls’ bathrooms. Transgender advocates don’t show empathy for heterosexual children, only advocating for their own cause. States attorneys general opposing Obama’s order thought the federal government was being to heavy handed imposing progressive morality on conservative communities.
When you consider what really at stake, it’s really about the federal government advocating for a tiny minority group over the vast majority. “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 Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton. Paxton sees the battle in terms of local community control, less about state’s rights. Suggesting that Congress should pass laws to decide LGBT issues, over and beyond constitutional protections, invalidates states’ rights. Pending in the U.S. Supreme Court is the case of G.G v. Gloucaster County School Board, who denied transgender boy Gavin Grimm, formerly a girl, the right to use the boys’ bathroom. Deciding on Title IX sex protections, the High Court will decide whether they extend to sex identity issues.
New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman slammed Trump’s decision to reverse Obama’s transgender directive. “President Trump’s decision to rescind anti-discrimination protections for transgender students is yet another example cruel move by an administration committed to divisive policies that roll back the clock on civil rights,” said Schneiderman, injecting his political views into a legitimate question about Title IX guarantees. U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Obama “did not contain sufficient legal analysis or explain how the interpretation was consistent with the language of Title IX.” Whatever the constitutional issues, Schneiderman took liberty to lash out at the White House. Whether or not the Supreme Court hears G.G v Gloucaster County School Board is anyone’s guess. Trump decided there’s enough confusion over Obama’s ruling to let the states decide the transgender bathroom issue.
Trump promised during the 2016 that he would be a strong advocate for the LGBT community. He’s didn’t say he’d rubber stamp Obama’s orders or work to advance the LGBT agenda. Because the transgender community is such a small fraction of the public school population, Obama’s directive compromised the civil rights of heterosexual children, not comfortable sharing the bathroom with students with gender identity issues. Banning sexual discrimination, Title IX doesn’t take into account the transgender issues, something yet to be decided in the courts. If Grimm wins his case in federal court, perhaps there will be guidance on whether or not Title IX applies to gender issues. Instead of calling Trump names, LGBT activists should show more empathy to heterosexual boys and girls faced with the indignity—and possible threat—of having opposite sex children it their bathrooms.
