Category: Transgender

Arkansas Sues Obama Admin. Over School Bathroom “Guidelines”

On May 13 the Obama Administration’s Education Department and Justice Department issued “guidelines” instructing public schools and most colleges and universities to let biological males who claim to be female use the women’s restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and similar facilities at school–and vice versa.

In response, today the State of Arkansas joined nine other states in suing the federal government for its overreach.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office writes,

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today, along with nine other states, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, and other federal agencies and officials, which last month issued a directive requiring Arkansas public schools to open gender-specific bathrooms and locker rooms to both sexes. In addition to representing the State of Arkansas, Rutledge is also representing the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Youth Services. The federal government’s new directive threatens the common sense policies of the Division and the important funds supporting the Division’s work.

“The Obama Administration is using intimidation tactics in an attempt to force local schools to adopt a radical social policy that raises serious safety concerns for school-age children,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “From a young age, children are taught not to be bullies, yet that is exactly what the federal government is doing by threatening the loss of funding if schools do not comply with this directive – a directive that unlawfully ignores the role of Congress. This proposal, which is part of a liberal social agenda, will disrupt the learning environment and be a detriment to the very children it intends to help, which is why today’s action is in the best interest of our students.”

The Obama Administration is attempting to rewrite Congress’s use of the term “sex” in federal law to mean “gender identity.” Current state law and federal regulations allow schools to maintain separate facilities based upon sex. The recent action by the Administration circumvents this established law by ignoring the appropriate legislative process necessary to change it. It also supersedes local school districts’ authority to address student issues on an individualized, professional and private basis.

In addition to Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming have joined today’s filing by Nebraska.

You can read about the Obama Administration’s recent actions that prompted this lawsuit here and here.

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Texarkana Voters Reject Radical Transgender Ordinance

Yesterday voters in Texarkana, Arkansas, overwhelmingly voted to repeal a so-called “nondiscrimination” ordinance.

As we have written before, local ordinances like this one carry a number of unintended consequences. Among other things, they threaten to infringe religious liberty, and some of them even inadvertently let men use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and so on.

In Texarkana, roughly 79.5% of voters voted to repeal the ordinance last night. That’s a huge victory.

The local city Board of Directors approved the ordinance in January, but voters took it upon themselves to repeal the ordinance–and they succeeded.

This vote in Texarkana may partly be backlash against the Obama Administration, which has insisted on rolling out radical, new policies aimed at forcing public schools, colleges, universities, and national parks to let biological males who claim to be female use the women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities.

Commonsense may be in short supply in the Obama Administration, but, thankfully, in Texarkana, voters understand radical ordinances like this one simply are bad policy.

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National Park Service: Visitors May Use Restroom of Their Choice

According to The Daily Signal, the Obama Administration’s National Park Service has announced visitors may use the restroom facility of their gender-identity rather than their biological sex.

On the surface, this seems like a fairly insignificant move. As some note, many of the “restrooms” at national parks are more or less out-houses. What’s the big deal?

Well, for starters, larger parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon offer shower facilities at their campgrounds.

Under this policy, biological males can enter the women’s shower facilities at these campgrounds. These are places where families with children travel and vacation. This policy arguably puts women and children at risk by giving biological males a legitimate excuse to be present in the women’s shower facilities at these parks.

This decision raises questions about facilities at the Buffalo River in Arkansas, which is managed by the National Park Service. However, an even bigger question is this: If the federal government is going to adopt policies like this one for federal parks, what does that mean for facilities at lakes, parks, and campgrounds operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and by the National Forest Service?

For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates campgrounds at DeGray Lake between Arkadelphia and Hot Springs. Some of those camping facilities include shower houses. Is the Obama Administration going to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to adopt a similar policy for restrooms and shower facilities at DeGray Lake and other popular camping locations in Arkansas?

This latest move by the Obama Administration once more puts women and children at risk. It is inexplicable and simply defies logic.

You can read more here.

Photo Credit: Armyman from Malvern, USA (Lake DeGray) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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