Federal Government Advises, And Warns, Public Schools On Rights Of Transgender Students

Begun, the bathroom wars have.

Transgender Bathroom Sign

The Federal Government is advising public school districts across the country to allow transgender students access to the restroom facilities corresponding to the gender they identify with or risk losing funding and/or facing civil rights charges under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

A letter to school districts will go out Friday, adding to a highly charged debate over transgender rights in the middle of the administration’s legal fight with North Carolina over the issue. The declaration — signed by Justice and Education department officials — will describe what schools should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against.

It does not have the force of law, but it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

The move is certain to draw fresh criticism, particularly from Republicans, that the federal government is wading into local matters and imposing its own values on communities across the country that may not agree. It represents the latest example of the Obama administration using a combination of policies, lawsuits and public statements to change the civil rights landscape for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people.

After supporting the rights of gay people to marry, allowing them to serve openly in the military and prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against them, the administration is wading into the battle over bathrooms and siding with transgender people.

“No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus,” John B. King Jr., the secretary of the Department of Education, said in a statement. “We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence.”

Courts have not settled the question of whether the nation’s sex discrimination laws apply in matters of gender identity. But administration officials, emboldened by a federal appeals court ruling in Virginia last month, think they have the upper hand. This week, the Justice Department and North Carolina sued each other over a state law that restricts access to bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms. The letter to school districts had been in the works for months, Justice Department officials said

“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,” according to the letter, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times.

A school’s obligation under federal law “to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns,” the letter states. “As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

As soon as a child’s parent or legal guardian asserts a gender identity for the student that “differs from previous representations or records,” the letter says, the child is to be treated accordingly — without any requirement for a medical diagnosis or birth certificate to be produced. It says that schools may — but are not required to — provide other restroom and locker room options to students who seek “additional privacy” for whatever reason.

Attached to the letter, the Obama administration will include a 25-page document describing “emerging practices” that are in place in many schools around the country. Those included installing privacy curtains or allowing students to change in bathroom stalls.

In a blog post accompanying the letter, senior officials at the Justice and Education Departments said they issued it in response to a growing chorus of inquiries from educators, parents and students across the country, including from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, to clarify their obligations and “best practices” for the treatment of transgender students.

“Schools want to do right by all of their students and have looked to us to provide clarity on steps they can take to ensure that every student is comfortable at their school, is in an environment free of discrimination, and has an opportunity to thrive,” wrote Catherine E. Lhamon, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, and Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

This policy memorandum hardly comes as a surprise given the direction that the Obama Administration has been moving on this issue. The process began last year, when the Department of Education advised a school district in the Chicago area that it was violating the law by failing to accommodate a transgender student who identified as female. That advisory was one of the first times that the Federal Government had advanced the argument that transgender status was a protected status under Title XI and/or Title VII, and it is a position that doesn’t come without some degree of controversy. Neither law explicitly mentions transgender rights or protections for transgender individuals, for example, and there is no evidence in the Congressional Record that Congress contemplated that either law would be applicable in situations such as this when the respective laws were passed in 1964 and 1972. Additionally, the actual state of the law on this issue is rather unclear at the moment. In the past, Federal Courts in Virginia and Pennsylvania have ruled that  current Federal laws such as Title IX may not apply to transgender students at all due in no small part to the fact that there’s no evidence that Congress intended for the law to reach that far when they passed the Education Amendments some 44 years ago. More recently, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a transgender teen who who was born female can proceed with a lawsuit against their local school board over the issue of bathroom access in a ruling that largely accepted the legal arguments that the Department of Education made in the Chicago case. You can read the opinion in that case, G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board at the link)

Not surprisingly, the announcement of this new policy directive isn’t passing without some degree of controversy. Both the Lt. Governor and Attorney General of Texas have already spoken out against the policy, with the lawsuit hinting at a lawsuit against the policy similar to the one currently pending against President Obama’s deportation relief executive actions. In this case, though, neither the Education Department nor the Department of Justice have taken any explicit action against a school district as of yet so it’s likely that a lawsuit at this point would be considered premature by a Court and dismissed as a request for an “advisory opinion,” which is generally something that Federal Courts have refrained from granting. Eventually, though, there will be a school district somewhere in America that will find itself dealing with this issue and the issue will be joined. To some degree, of course, that has already begun with the cross-lawsuits filed by the Federal Government and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory over the recently passed law in the Tarheel State that, among other things, requires people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their biological gender regardless of what gender they identify with and live their lives pursuant to.

Apropos all of the recent controversy on this issue, Kevin Drum suggests that this issue of “bathroom privacy” and the transgendered” could become the new wedge issue for social conservatives looking for something to replace their failed arguments against marriage equality. Based on the extent to which certain segments of the right seem to be pushing the issue of late, that certainly seems like it could be the case. Whether it will be something that draws people to the polls the way opposition to marriage equality did in the years before public opinion shifted on that issue, though, remains to be seen. In any case, this issue clearly isn’t going away any time soon.

Here’s a copy of the DoJ/DoE Letter:

Dept of Justice and Education Letter on Transgender Students by Doug Mataconis

And the accompanying Guidelines:

Dept of Justice and Education Guidelines on Transgendender Students by Doug Mataconis

FILED UNDER: Education, Environment, Gender Issues, Law and the Courts, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Nikki says:

    Whether it will be something that draws people to the polls the way opposition to marriage equality did in the years before public opinion shifted on that issue, though, remains to be seen.

    The public has already made its opinion known.

  2. JKB says:

    @Nikki: The public has already made its opinion known.

    That poll was in the abstract. It’ll be different when their teenage daughter is upset over showering with someone with a penis.

    On the upside, this issue could very well be the push to break the education cartel’s back. Lots of accommodations for those students not wanting to surrender that much of their privacy, exemption from gym, online classes, etc. Not to mention homeschooling.

  3. Tillman says:

    This is so damn stupid.

  4. steve s says:

    Yes, but ask yourself “Is this so stupid that even the GOP base will refuse to take it seriously?”

    The answer to that question, best I can tell, is never yes.

  5. steve s says:

    These are the people who paid arthur laffer $75,000 to design their tax plan. Not in 1975. Not in 1985. In 2012.

  6. elizajane says:

    @JKB:

    Nobody is asking anybody’s daughter to shower with somebody with a penis! None of my daughters have ever done group showers, even when they played school sports — that is so yesterday. More to the point, the issue here is bathrooms. And, in case you are a man, girls’ bathrooms involve individual locked stalls in which nobody sees anybody else’s genitalia. So your daughter’s privates will not be viewed by some poor transgendered girl.

    Honestly, the paranoia here is utterly bizarre. It’s as if the Right keeps looking for more and more disadvantaged people they can pick on. Trans people are a tiny sliver of the population and are far, far more likely to be the victims of prejudice than the perpetrators of voyeurism. Think about it. The 15-year-old trans girl forced to pee at a urinal in a boys’ bathroom — going to be beat up, right? The innocent girl forced to pee in a locked bathroom stall next to one in which a trans girl is peeing — in NO danger of anything, surely.

    Trans people have been using the bathroom of the gender they identify as forever. Nobody cared until now. This is an issue in search of a problem, or something.

  7. KM says:

    @Tillman:

    This is so damn stupid.

    That’s what is going to doom the conservatives on this one. People just don’t seem to care the same way they do about gay marriage or abortion; the religious outrage isn’t there and a huge percentage of the country is going “WTF we just wanna pee why is this so hard all of a sudden?”

    It’s just not getting the traction they want. Maybe the rank and file are starting to get burned out on these kinds of phony fires. Their lives really haven’t changed since the apocalypse SSM took hold and now they’re supposed to care about who’s in the next stall all the time? They’re tired – leave them be.

  8. KM says:

    @elizajane:

    And, in case you are a man, girls’ bathrooms involve individual locked stalls in which nobody sees anybody else’s genitalia. So your daughter’s privates will not be viewed by some poor transgendered girl.

    Honestly, the paranoia here is utterly bizarre.

    Not bizarre, being told from the male perspective and making a ton of assumptions that are frankly sexist. Men are trying to tell us about our daily experiences to try and makes us afraid. It’s insulting as hell frankly. It’s like, they’ve never been in the mythical ladies room and thus run off of wild theories like we all drop our panties in plain view and check each other out in the stalls. IDK if that’s what happens with guys but I’ve never been in any ladies room when things were on display. The only contact I have with strangers is a polite smile or nod and if desperate, asking for a roll if my stall was out. The worst I’ve seen is bra strap needing to be repaired so there was cleavage but certainly not the flasher show the nutcases are claiming. Women who are shy will change in the stalls regardless who happens to be there and showers have curtains that close unless you’re trying to give someone a show. If it’s an open shower and you’re uncomfortable, you wait till everyone is done and you have it to yourself.

    No flashers. No random junk hanging out for all to see. No stall peepers. No worries about anyone seeing your body but the sense of modesty to bring with you. No problems till NC decided to make it one.

  9. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @JKB: Why is it that people on the right 1) think that most of their fellow citizens are pervs, and 2) rejoice at the prospect of being able to destroy society because of it?

  10. Tyrell says:

    One complaint a lot of women have (and I get this at home) is guys missing and leaving a wet toilet seat. Just how is the government going to handle that ?
    School showers: some of them still have open showers- “gang”
    showers with no curtains or doors. As I remember it, we had 5 minutes to change, shower, and get to the next class in the buliding way down the sidewalk.

  11. DrDaveT says:

    @Tyrell:

    As I remember it, we had 5 minutes to change, shower, and get to the next class in the buliding way down the sidewalk.

    Through snow this deep. Uphill. Both ways.

    You’re priceless, man. Don’t ever change.

  12. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @elizajane:

    It’s as if the Right keeps looking for more and more disadvantaged people they can pick on.

    When wedge politics and scapegoating are all that you have in your toolbox, you have to keep finding new boogeymen to blame.

  13. DrDaveT says:

    @JKB:

    It’ll be different when their teenage daughter is upset over showering with someone with a penis.

    If there was ever any doubt that you know exactly nothing about how transgendered people — or normal teenagers — are likely to behave, you have now eradicated them.

  14. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @elizajane:

    This is an issue in search of a problem, or something.

    It’s just a solution to a different problem – namely “how do we distract / anger the voters of NC enough so they’ll vote us back into office in November?”

    It’s classic Republican boogeyman politics.

  15. rachel says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker:

    Why is it that people on the right 1) think that most of their fellow citizens are pervs…

    Projection.

    and 2) rejoice at the prospect of being able to destroy society because of it?

    This one’s harder, but I’m gonna go with ‘Nihilism’ on that.

  16. Slugger says:

    @Tyrell: Tyrell, you are making this too easy. Bud, raise the seat before you aim and cut loose. Lower the seat when done.
    Being an orthosexual male is actually quite convenient.

  17. Tyrell says:

    @Slugger:But I forget to put the seat down and catch it for that. Can’t win for losing !
    And the guys out there in public restrooms aren’t going to do that ! Too much trouble !

  18. Rafer Janders says:

    @elizajane:

    It’s as if the Right keeps looking for more and more disadvantaged people they can pick on.

    Fixed that for you.

  19. JKB says:

    Very interesting how so many read so much in to my simple observation that actual experience is likely to change the polls on this issue.

    But here is a nice Time article on the very topic Even in Liberal Communities, Transgender Bathroom Laws Worry Parents

    The arguments in support of the are also interesting. Using the same arguments, one could assert that there is no need for separate facilities for those who identify as male or identify as female. Just one big restroom or lockeroom for both anatomical sexes is all that is required with curtains and locking showers for privacy. And as asserted in Roe v Wade, there is a right to privacy.

  20. Gustopher says:

    @JKB: you are conflating several different definitions of privacy.

  21. Jen says:

    This really is such a non-issue. It’s alarming to me how much conservatives seem to be spoiling for a fight on everything. Nature isn’t anywhere near as binary as they’d like to believe. I’m happy that society is becoming slightly more in tune with that fact.

  22. Tyrell says:

    @elizajane: If this is out in the public where people generally are unaware of who is transgendered and who isn’t then there would not usually be a problem. But at the midddle and high schools, there are few secrets. Everyone knows most everything about everyone else. Some students will make fun of another student for being overweight, the brand of shoes they wear, and appearance. Students create certain subgroups: the jocks, the nerds, the preppies, goth, and so on. Then everything goes out on these social sites, including pictures. They will certainly know when a boy goes into the girls restroom. Some students will no react. But from others will come intimidation, threats, ridicule, scorn, and ostracizing. School restrooms and locker rooms are not as private as some think. This is wrong, but school society is, unfortunately, a rough place.The schools cannot afford and do not have the space for dozens of single use, private restrooms. Teachers cannot be constantly supervising restrooms and be everywhere. They are there to teach reading and math, not constantly supervise restrooms. Parents will not accept a boy in the girls restroom. Many will take their children out. Talk to the teachers and listen to what they have to deal with already.
    I know that this is a situation that involves few individuals. Few schools will have students that this applies to.

  23. David Weintraub says:

    @DrDaveT: Indeed. Imagine how hard that would be if you’re forced to use a repurposed broom closet in another part of the building. It’s disparate treatment, hence these civil rights lawsuits.

  24. David Weintraub says:

    @Tyrell: Privacy is a central issue, addressed in this letter. The boy who successfully sued his South Carolina high school was outed by the school administration. He had transitioned in middle school and everyone perceived him as male, because he is. He obviously couldn’t have used the girls room.

    In any high school of 1,000 students, statistically expect there to be 3 trans students. That is consistent with other estimates and anecdotally confirmed by an Omaha area school district of 30,000 students that reported having about 30 trans students.

  25. Tyrell says:

    @David Weintraub: Broom closet ? In many schools, restrooms for staff are in short supply. Student restrooms are not much better. Many do not have stall doors that latch. Urinals are open, no stalls. Some have the one, long gang urinal. Restrooms at schools are not the cleanest places. Teachers do not have the time, and do not want to be constantly supervising these restrooms.
    Doesn’t the president have more pressing priorities than telling schools and businesses how to manage their restrooms ?
    “There’s A Boy In the Girls’ Bathroom!” (Sachar): hillarious novel of the 1980’s

  26. David Weintraub says:

    I would say that the unmistakable direction of the law here was adopted by the federal government in 2012 after losing Macy v Holder, not last year. It was the successful employment discrimination cases that made it feasible for students to sue their school districts for bathroom use. What I’m not seeing in any coverage of this issue is acknowledgment of the following section from the DOJ complaint, which summarizes what gender identity is biologically. The law can’t ignore science forever; gender identity *is* sex for purposes of social categorization.

    Gender Identity and Its Relationship to Sex

    30. Individuals are typically assigned a sex on their birth certificate solely on the basis of the appearance of the external genitalia at birth. Additional aspects of sex (for example, chromosomal makeup) typically are not assessed and considered at the time of birth, except in cases of infants born with ambiguous genitalia.

    31. An individual’s “sex” consists of multiple factors, which may not always be in alignment. Among those factors are hormones, external genitalia, internal reproductive organs, chromosomes, and gender identity, which is an individual’s internal sense of being male or female.

    32. For individuals who have aspects of their sex that are not in alignment, the person’s gender identity is the primary factor in terms of establishing that person’s sex. External genitalia are, therefore, but one component of sex and not always determinative of a person’s sex.

    33. Although there is not yet one definitive explanation for what determines gender identity, biological factors, most notably sexual differentiation in the brain, have a role in gender identity development.

    34. Transgender individuals are individuals who have a gender identity that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. A transgender man’s sex is male and a transgender woman’s sex is female.

    35. A transgender individual may begin to assert a gender identity inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth at any time from early childhood through adulthood. The decision by transgender individuals to assert their gender identity publicly is a deeply personal one that is made by the individual, often in consultation with family, medical and health care providers, and others.

    36. Gender identity is innate and external efforts to change a person’s gender identity can be harmful to a person’s health and well-being.

    37. Gender identity and transgender status are inextricably linked to one’s sex and are sex-related characteristics.

    38. Most states authorize changing the sex marker on one’s birth certificate, but the requirements for doing so vary and are often onerous. Specifically, many states require surgical procedures. At least one state does not allow persons to change the sex marker on their birth certificates.

    39. Individuals born in North Carolina must have proof of certain surgeries, such as “sex reassignment surgery,” in order to change the sex marker on their birth certificates. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-118(b)(4).

    40. Surgery related to gender transitioning is generally unavailable to children under age 18.

    41. In addition, the great majority of transgender individuals do not have surgery as part of their gender transition. Determinations about such surgery are decisions about medical care made by physicians and patients on an individual basis. For some, health-related conditions or other medical criteria counsel against invasive surgery. For others, the high cost of surgical procedures, which are often excluded from health insurance coverage, present an insurmountable barrier.

    42. Standards of medical care for surgery related to gender transitioning generally advise that transgender individuals present consistent with their gender identity on a day-to-day basis across all settings of life, including in bathrooms and changing facilities at school and at work, for a significant time period prior to undergoing surgery.

    Source: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2827915/NC-DOJComplaint.pdf

  27. David Weintraub says:

    @Tyrell: Yes, that was the “accommodation” offered to Gavin Grimm, a repurposed broom closet. If the DOE best practices are followed, there are no problems. That’s what makes them best practices.

  28. Andre Kenji says:

    I´ve always heard stories about a Blonde Woman in the Bathroom:

    http://www.scaryforkids.com/blonde-in-the-bathroom/

    I´ve never thought that she was probably a transgender woman… That makes sense now to me.

  29. Tyrell says:

    @DrDaveT: PE teacher: “Tyrell, if you’re late it’s 8 laps after school. Now get your a _ _ to class, son !”
    Back then it was real school, none of this “self esteem” crap where you get an award for participation ! Callouses from cursive writing practice, one mistake on math and you do it over, laps counted in dozens, jumping jacks in the hundreds ! And parents did not run down to the school house complaining and crying or running to some hot shot lawyer ! Restrooms ? Usually full of cigarette smoke and guys looking at the latest Playboy !If you got caught you cleaned the restrooms after school ! And PE class: none of this fun and games stuff: laps in 20 degree weather while the PE teacher watched from his car !
    Real school !

  30. mom of 4 says:

    Regarding the showering after PE (Physical Education…the new “gym” class), at least in Loudoun County, VA where I live, the kids have never taken showers after PE. No time. Not like when I was in MS/HS in the 70s & 80s where we were “required” to take showers while the creepy teacher watched you (why is it that all my gym teachers were rather bulky women…). And the showers are individual showers unlike the group showers of my youth.

    I’m guessing that if a transgendered man walked into a woman’s bathroom, there would be a whole lotta women screaming that he was in the wrong bathroom. Except in NC, he would be in the “correct” bathroom…

    What a lot of people who are so freaked out about a man in the woman’s bathroom don’t understand is that transgendered women have been using the woman’s bathroom for ages and it hasn’t been a big deal. Frankly, I’d be more freaked out about sending my young son into bathroom with creepy guys in the men’s restroom than a transgendered woman in the same bathroom with my daughters.

    And why is that we are only talking about transgendered women in the women’s bathroom, and not transgendered men in the men’s bathroom?

  31. Tyrell says:

    @mom of 4: Yes, women are worried about this for a few reasons. One is of course their own security. I would recommend a pocketbook full of rocks, a good supply of mace or pepper spray, or a 45. Children: under 14 should not be in a public restroom alone. And women hate the wet toilet seats ! That’s is why in my home we have separate restrooms, and it will stay that way. Do something about that, Attorney General Lynn !

  32. Gustopher says:

    The Republican hate machine is really having problems lately. While the role of scary foreigners is pretty securely held by Muslims, the role of scary subgroup of Americans remains unfilled.

    Don’t get me wrong, they’re still scared of black people, but they know they can’t say that in polite company without everyone thinking poorly of them. They’ll still say it a little bit, but it cannot be the brand of their party.

    Gays didn’t work out as well as they hoped, since once people met gays they realized gays were basically just people with the same hopes and dreams as so-called normal people. Still, the Republicans got a few good decades out of hating gays.

    Transgender folks (apologies if I have the terminology wrong, I know they have not been “transgendered”, but mix up whether transgender is a noun or an adjective or both) have not passed the initial trial phase for a good victim lasting less time in the role than it takes for language to adapt for old, set-in-their-ways folks like me. I am pleasantly surprised, and mostly just assume that they were lumped in with gays for so long, that they were accepted at the same time.

    I’m transphobic (they make me uncomfortable), but I support them having full rights, etc., and not making their lives pointlessly difficult. Transitioning should be covered under health insurance, you shouldn’t be able to fire someone for being transgender, and my discomfort should be my problem not theirs. There’s a difference between being phobic and being a bigot, and America as a whole seems to have landed on that to varying degrees, which surprises and delights me.

    So, who can they try next? Jews are a classic, but the Republicans also want to support Isreal over American interests in the Mideast, just to stick it to the Muslims (see the scary foreigners above). The Amish don’t get out enough. Women have the same problems as blacks — you can’t explicitly demonize them anymore without looking too hateful. Atheists have potential. Native Americans? “Immigrants” who still cook their traditional dishes three generations after coming to America?

    When you fail to demonize transgender folks, you’re kind of stuck on who to demonize. People who think 10 yogurts count as a single item in the express lane of the supermarket, since they are all yogurt?

  33. An Interested Party says:

    And why is that we are only talking about transgendered women in the women’s bathroom, and not transgendered men in the men’s bathroom?

    Sexism…

  34. MikeSJ says:

    The concern that I come across in conservative media is that there will be boys who chose to identify as girls and demand to try out for girls sports teams and demand to use the women’s locker rooms to change and shower.

    Schools would have no way of saying no to any of this. It’s going to be a free pass to perv’s and teenage boys at the expense of girls.

    Now I have no idea if any of this will actually happen or if this scenario is even in the realm of possibility or if it’s all just a fevered dream of right wingers.

    We will see soon enough.

  35. Tony W says:

    The Republicans won’t be happy until everyone is using the men’s room.

  36. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @mom of 4: I was going to note this from my time as a substitute teacher in Vancouver, WA, before I left for Korea (where the only kids who took PE, as far as I could tell, were students in athletic specialty high schools where they were preparing for potential positions on the Korea National __________ Team). Now I don’t have to comment on it as you have done a masterful job. (In Vancouver, the cost of towel service had become prohibitive and they decided to limit towels to extramural sports.)

  37. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Gustopher:

    “Immigrants” who still cook their traditional dishes three generations after coming to America?

    I’m sorry, but I simply refuse to stop making lasagna simply because my forebearers came from Tuscany and the Piedmont. Nobody else has to not make it, why should I?

  38. bill says:

    @Nikki: “the people” didn’t want obamacare either- but how’d that work out for the majority!?
    but seriously, tranny’s are mentally ill- enabling them to be so does not help them or anyone else.
    then there’s this stuff……

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/8-old-girl-choked-unconscious-222948574.html

    i wonder if he too “identified” as a woman- or was just your garden variety scumbag?

  39. HarvardLaw92 says:

    Not that many people here will be shocked by the news (given that this entire brouhaha in NC has been about wedge politics and preserving the Republican majority in the NC General Assembly & Governor’s Mansion from the outset), but McCrory is fundraising off of this garbage …

  40. DrDaveT says:

    @Gustopher:

    Atheists have potential.

    Indeed.

    “Immigrants” who still cook their traditional dishes three generations after coming to America?

    Not quite.

    I predict the following new hate campaigns from the GOP:

    1. Atheists, or anyone who does not explicitly recognize that the US is, and is intended to be, explicitly Christian.
    2. Americans who speak languages other than English at home.
    3. Americans who expect the law to make the same exceptions for their non-Christian religion that Christians get for theirs.
    4. “Socialists”, by which they will mean anyone who believes government has a legitimate purpose other than providing soldiers and police.

    The campaign against female sexuality will continue, disguised as a moral position against non-procreative sex.

  41. Tyrell says:

    @mom of 4: No showers after PE ? Oh my goodness. I don’t know how their regular teachers can deal with that. When we got through PE, our clothes were soaked !
    I have seen women come in the men’s restroom with a toddler with them. No big deal there, nobody hardly noticed.

  42. dmhlt says:

    @JKB:
    And just WHERE do you think all those transgender people were going to the bathroom BEFORE the homophobic, sham “Religious Freedom” bills were passed?

  43. David Weintraub says:

    @MikeSJ: That’s not true. School athletic associations have already issued regulations that determine the criteria for a trans athlete to compete in accordance with their actual gender. That’s what the guidance is referring to by “age-appropriate, tailored requirements based on sound, current, and research-based medical knowledge about the impact of the students’ participation on the competitive fairness or physical safety of the sport.”

  44. lethbridge says:

    we have just dealt with this same issue here in Lethbridge, Canada with our public schools. The whole ting is so problematic that I would seriously consider sending my kids to private school just to avoid the inevitable problems which are going to happen in the next couple years