Transgender – Page 42 – Family Council

Biological Male Arrested for Photographing Woman in Target Dressing Room

Jul 14, 2016Jerry CoxTransgenderLGBTQ, Target, Transgender

News outlets in Idaho report a man who claims to be a transgender woman was arrested this week for allegedly photographing a woman in the dressing room at a Target store.

The Post Register writes,

Shauna Patricia Smith, 43, is in custody in the Bonneville County Jail under the name Sean Smith, according to the jail’s active inmate roster. A Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office news release said the suspect also is known as Sean P. Smith.

Sheriff’s deputies responded Monday to the store after a woman reported that someone was taking pictures of her while she was inside a dressing room trying on clothes, the release said. The victim noticed the subject reaching over the wall with a cellphone taking pictures. The victim confronted the suspect who then fled the store on foot, the release said.

Last April we expressed concerns Target’s new policy for restrooms and fitting rooms puts customers–particularly women and children–at risk by allowing people to use any facility or changing room they wish, regardless of biological sex.

Photo Credit: By Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Arkansas Sues Obama Admin. Over School Bathroom “Guidelines”

Jul 8, 2016Jerry CoxTransgenderLGBTQ, Transgender

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.

Texarkana Voters Reject Radical Transgender Ordinance

Jun 29, 2016Jerry CoxTransgenderLGBTQ, Transgender

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.