The United States Government has rescinded Obama-era guidance, which forced federally-funded schools to endorse transsexualism.
Last year, the Obama administration dispatched a letter to all Govt-funded schools, ordering them to allow transsexual pupils to share showers, toilets and accommodation with pupils of the opposite sex.
It led to concerns over privacy and safeguarding and a high-profile legal challenge by several US states.
’Common sense’
This week, the Justice and Education departments sent new guidance to schools stating that the previous guidelines did not “undergo any formal public process” and gave “rise to significant litigation”.
Removing any obligation to obey the previous order, it said that individual states and local districts should have a primary role in “establishing education policy”.
US legal group Alliance Defending Freedom welcomed the move as a “common sense” decision.
Privacy concerns
Gary McCaled, Senior Council at the organisation, told POLITICO: “The privacy, safety and dignity of young students should be the first concern of every local school official across America.
“The Obama administration radically distorted a federal law that was meant to equalize educational opportunities for women, and then forced local officials to intermingle boys and girls within students’ private facilities like locker rooms, hotel rooms on school trips, and restrooms.”
“School officials shouldn’t have to fear losing crucial federal funding when they protect all students’ privacy,” he said.
‘Safety’
Reacting to the news, mother Vicki Wilson, a member of Students and Parents for Privacy, said:
“Our daughters should never be forced to share private, intimate spaces with male classmates, even if those young men are struggling with these issues”.
Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation, also spoke out saying: “It’s understandable when a 16-year-old girl might not want an anatomical male in the shower or the locker room”.
He stressed that: “We can find a way in which the privacy and safety of transgender students is respected while also respecting the privacy and safety of all other students”.
Guidance
The guidance dispatched last year ordered schools to automatically affirm a student’s chosen gender identity. It compelled school leaders to let transsexual pupils:
– Use the bathroom and locker room which corresponds to their chosen ‘gender identity’;
– Stay in housing and overnight accommodation with pupils who reflect their ‘gender identity’;
– Take part in educational programmes and activities, even when other students, parents, or community members raise concerns;
– And request that all previous records denoting their biological sex are altered.
Failure to comply with the guidance could have resulted in schools losing crucial Government funding.
It is likely that transsexual activists will attempt to challenge the US Government’s decision in the coming months.
