Several families have filed a federal lawsuit against numerous Obama administration officials and the Virginia (Minnesota) School District for permitting a sexually confused boy to confront half-naked girls in their locker rooms. After the girls and their parents complained, the school suggested they use a private room, but the boy follows them there repeatedly and harasses them by raising his dress and otherwise exposing himself.
"No student should be forced to use private facilities at school, like locker rooms and restrooms, with students of the opposite sex. No government agency should hold hostage important education funding to advance an unlawful agenda."
Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF] is fighting a Virginia, Minnesota school district. The conservative group filed a lawsuit on the behalf of 11 families who want to stop the allowance of the opposite sex in their children’s locker rooms, Fox News reports. The lawsuit named Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Virginia School District #706, and Secretary of Education John King Jr. as defendants.
The lawsuit filed said that a transgender student, only identified as Student X, used the female locker rooms and restrooms and participated on girl athletic teams. The ADF said that Student X violated some girls by twerking in their presence, dancing to suggestive songs, and making jokes about a girl’s bra size.
According to the lawsuit, girls who were uncomfortable with Student X were told they could use another locker room. One student, called Plaintiff A, said that she was told she could change in an empty boy’s locker room but Student X followed her in there. Plaintiff A said there was nowhere to go for privacy.
The ADF lawsuit explains that the [federal] DOE and DOJ are unlawfully redefining the terms of Title IX, something that only Congress can alter, and are illegitimately forcing their political will on all public schools across the nation. As the lawsuit points out, no federal law requires schools to allow boys into girls’ locker rooms or girls into boys’ locker rooms, and other courts have rejected the agencies’ interpretation to the contrary. The lawsuit also explains that the DOE did not comply with key provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act when it adopted its rules.
The complaint explains some of the real concerns of students and parents, such as when a biologically male student who identifies as a female—and who is allowed to enter the girls’ locker room under the district’s policy—went on to dance in the locker room “in a sexually explicit manner—‘twerking,’ ‘grinding’ and dancing like he was on a ‘stripper pole’ to songs with explicit lyrics, including ‘Milkshake’ by Kelis. On another occasion, a female student saw the male student lift his dress to reveal his underwear while ‘grinding’ to the music.”
"What these girls are asking for is something that for all of American history has been the common-sense presumption, that you have facilities for girls, facilities for boys and any student that is uncomfortable with that — including the transgender student at the heart of this case, (who) they're not uncompassionate to — they would think the best thing would be for this student to have the option to use the ... restroom of (the student's) biological sex or to make one of the single-stall restrooms available for (the student) to use," said Matt Sharp, an attorney with the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious legal advocacy nonprofit group.
The lawsuit seeks to have the district's policy and the federal guidance declared unlawful, and a permanent injunction issued against both. It also seeks "an award of nominal damages in the amount of one dollar, and compensatory damages" for each plaintiff, along with legal fees.
Virginia Superintendent Noel Schmidt declined to comment Thursday, and the school district's attorney, John Colosimo, couldn't be reached for comment.
They say they just want to go to the bathroom and take a shower in private!
Parents and students who formed North Carolinians for Privacy have filed a lawsuit in the Raleigh, North Carolina Federal Court to stop President Obama from using billions of taxpayer dollars to hold them hostage to his Gay/Transgender Agenda that demands men be permitted to use girls' restrooms and locker rooms.
"The [U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education] must stop using falsehoods about what federal law requires to threaten student access to educational opportunities and financial assistance." -- Jeremy Tedesco, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
The suit accuses the U.S. Department of Justice and Education of holding federal education money hostage.
The group, North Carolinians for Privacy, argues that federal law does not forbid sex-specific restrooms and that the federal government is bullying North Carolina by threatening to cut federal funding.
The issue of whether transgender people deserve the same federal protections extended to blacks and religious minorities is already before courts in North Carolina.
The Justice Department sued the state on Monday, asking a federal district court to rule that North Carolina was violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act [Title IX] and order it to stop enforcing [the state's new HB2 that provides privacy in restrooms].
North Carolina stands to lose $4.8 billion in funds, mainly educational grants, if it does not back down, according to an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School.
As far as the plaintiffs [North Carolinians for Privacy] are concerned, the defendant departments [of education and justice] are making student aid and other educational funding contingent on students sharing restrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex.
They claim the DOJ and education department have overstepped their authority in redefining sex and gender under Title IX, and that students' constitutional right to privacy would be violated if the state or the University of North Carolina were to bow to federal demands that transgender students be afforded full access to bathrooms that do not comport with the gender identified on their birth certificates.
The group is represented by Jeremy Tedesco, James Campbell, Kristen Waggoner, Joseph LaRue, and Jonathan Caleb Dalton of the Alliance Defending Freedom of Scottsdale, Arizona, David Cortman and J. Matthew Sharp of the Alliance's Lawrenceville, Georgia chapter, and by Deborah Dewart of the Liberty, Life and Law Foundation of Swansboro, North Carolina.
Attorneys representing 73 parents and 63 students in suburban Chicago filed a lawsuit this week against the Obama Administration and the largest high school district in Illinois for colluding to invade the privacy of students in the girls restrooms and locker rooms using new unlawful "transgender rights" edicts.
“It’s important to recognize that there’s a lagging legal framework in the face of rapidly changing social norms. Our understanding of gender identity is changing, and the law hasn’t kept up.” -- Francisco Negrón, National School Boards Association General Counsel "No school should impose a policy like this against the will of so many parents.” -- Vicki Wilson, Illinois parent and co-founder of Students and Parents for Privacy (lead plaintiff) “Allowing boys into girls’ locker rooms, a setting where girls are often partially or fully unclothed, is a blatant violation of student privacy. The school district should rescind its privacy-violating policies, and the court should order the Department of Education to stop bullying school districts with falsehoods about what federal law requires.” -- Jeremy Tedesco, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom “To impose such a rule on still-developing teenage girls, as they’re already struggling with puberty’s changes on their bodies and social pressures to look a certain way, undermines their dignity and tells them that their rights don’t matter. This isn’t a message our schools should be sending to our girls.” -- Jocelyn Floyd, Attorney, Thomas More Society
Lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom and Thomas More Society, two conservative groups, filed the 77-page suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of 51 families with links to Palatine-based Township High School District 211. It names the district and the U.S. Department of Education as defendants.
The battle for access to girls' facilities at William Fremd High School by the transgender student — who was born male but identifies as female — helped spark a national debate last year that has since spread to other districts.
The [new transgender] policy, [the lawsuit] says, causes other girls fear and embarrassment. It adds: They are "afraid they will have to see a male in a state of undress," which, for some, is a "distraction throughout the school day." One girl's anxiety led her to wear gym clothes under her street clothes so she can peel just the outer clothes off in the locker.
A group of Illinois students and parents sued the Obama administration Wednesday over its stance on transgender students’ access to school bathrooms and locker rooms, arguing that the U.S. Education Department is illegally forcing local authorities to let children use facilities that correspond to their gender identity.
The complaint alleges that the federal government has violated students’ fundamental right to privacy and parents’ constitutional right to instill moral standards and values in their children.
The lawsuit represents the first legal challenge to the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX, a federal anti-discrimination law, as providing transgender students with the right to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity instead of their biological sex.
Palatine officials — facing the loss of $6 million in federal funding — ultimately decided to allow a transgender student to change in the girls locker room instead of sending her down the hall to a separate facility.
Students and Parents for Privacy and three female students sued the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary of Education John King, the Department of Justice, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Cook County, Ill., and the directors of Township High School District 211 in Illinois Federal Court on Wednesday.
"This is a civil rights action to stop the Department of Education and Township High School District 211 from continuing to trample students' privacy and other constitutional and statutory rights by forcing 14- to 17-year-old girls to use locker rooms and restrooms with biological males; and to set aside DOE's ultra vires legislative rule redefining 'sex' in Title IX to include gender identity," the 83-page complaint begins.
"This creates an intimidating and hostile environment for the girl members of Students and Parents for Privacy, some of whom are as young as 14, because Student A - who is biologically a male - actively uses their private facilities at the same times as plaintiffs," the complaint states. "As a direct result of defendants' policies and actions, every day these girls go to school, they experience embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, fear, apprehension, stress, degradation, and loss of dignity because they will have to use the locker room and restroom with a biological male."
The District 211 transgender student, who has not been identified publicly, initially filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights alleging that the district discriminated against [Student A] when it denied [him] access to the girls locker room. The district had previously allowed the student to use the girls restroom.
In an unprecedented decision, federal education authorities found that the district had violated Title IX. The district risked losing millions of federal dollars and a possible lawsuit by the federal government if it failed to reach a resolution. In a controversial decision, the district agreed in December to allow the student locker room access and installed privacy stalls. Proponents of the settlement heralded it as a civil rights victory.
The religious liberty group Thomas More Society also is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which seeks to keep the district from enforcing the locker room agreement and restroom policy and to bar the Department of Education from taking action against the district. The plaintiffs also argue in the suit that the locker room agreement prevents students from practicing the modesty that their faith requires of them.
The lawsuit, Students and Parents for Privacy v. United States Department of Education, seeks an injunction against District 211. Headquartered in Palatine, it serves nearly 12,500 students from Palatine, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Schaumburg and parts of seven other northwest suburbs in five high schools and two alternative high schools.
It also asks the court to declare the policy and the district’s agreement with the Department of Education unconstitutional and illegal under both federal and Illinois law, and to have the court invalidate the department’s interpretation of Title IX’s sex discrimination provisions.
District 211 Supt. Dan Cates said Wednesday that the district affirms and supports the identity of all its students and will stand by the highly publicized agreement it reached last December with the department’s Office for Civil Rights. . . .
“We have implemented the agreement without any reports of incident or issue,” Cates said. “Our students have shown acceptance, support and respect of each other. Individual changing stalls in our locker rooms are readily available to every student and further accommodations that provide even greater privacy remain available upon request.”
The divisive and politically combustible issue of bathroom access for transgender individuals is about to become further inflamed, as the Obama administration is expected in coming weeks to aggressively reinforce its position that transgender student rights are fully protected under federal law, sources told POLITICO.
With the Justice Department already locking horns with North Carolina over the state’s so-called bathroom bill, the administration plans to reaffirm its view that robust protections for transgender students are within the existing scope of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities. Multiple agencies are expected to be involved.
New guidance on Title IX represents a natural outgrowth of the administration’s aggressive agenda on gender equity and civil rights. In April 2014, guidance issued by the Education Department on sexual violence explicitly mentioned that transgender students are protected under Title IX. LGBT advocates saw it as an important moment for the transgender community, but have wanted the administration to go even further in clarifying the law.
The Chicago Public Schools announced its latest Gay Agenda advancement yesterday. Students, faculty, staff, volunteers and adults just visiting schools are free to use any restroom, locker room or shower of their choice regardless of their biological sex. As for school sponsored out-of-town trips, any student from kindergarten to high school may find themselves with opposite-sex students in overnight accommodations.
The move by the third-largest U.S. public school system comes during a national debate over equality, privacy and religious freedom as some states have passed or proposed legislation that supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights say is discriminatory.
"Chicago Public Schools, like much of the country, has become far more aware of the needs and experiences of the transgender community, and it’s crucial for CPS guidelines to reflect our commitment to promoting safe and inclusive schools," Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson said in an emailed statement.
Chicago's new guidelines allow students to participate in school programs including overnight field trips and physical and sexual health classes that correspond to their gender identities and to dress and be addressed in a way that corresponds with their identities.
In 2014, CPS declared that all transgender students in the district must be provided with the same opportunities for physical education, sex ed, sports and all school events as any other student. The district isn’t the first in Illinois to spell out rights for transgender students, but as the largest in the state, its changes certainly will make an impact.
The update, developed with help from the Lurie Children’s Gender and Sex Development Program, Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health and Lambda Legal, spells out that they also must get to use the restroom and locker room of their gender identity. Anyone who identifies as a girl should share hotel rooms on overnight field trips with girls, and the same for kids who identify as boys. And anyone who requests more privacy will be accommodated, including students who are questioning their gender identity.
Similar rules will apply to adults who are transgender or questioning their gender. Adults will have the added protection of not being outed as transgender by co-workers or human resources staffers unless they have given consent.
The new policies, announced Tuesday, provide for the first time clear guidance on restroom, locker room and overnight trip accessibility as well as guidelines for transgender employees and adults at the nation's third largest public school district.
Students and employees within Chicago's school district, which includes 392,000 students and 660 schools, will have access to restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. The school district also says anyone who wants more privacy—regardless of the reason—will have access to a single-stall when it’s available.
The new guidance replaces a less specific policy that noted use of locker rooms and restrooms would be handled on a case-by-case basis at the school level. It also clarifies, for the first time, that adult employees and volunteers won’t be denied the opportunity to participate in overnight trips due to their transgender status. The district’s policy states that adults, regardless of gender identity, cannot share hotel rooms or other accommodations with children other than their own.
Students who do not identify as [either] male or female, and students who are questioning their gender identity should receive special accommodations, the guidelines state. Students who have "a need or desire for increased privacy" should be provided with "reasonable alternative arrangements" that can include the use of a private area or a single-stall restroom.
Under the updated guidelines, students and employees have a right to be addressed by the "name and pronoun" that corresponds with their gender identity.
Students and employees also won't be required to obtain court orders or gender re-assignment to modify their official records to correspond with their stated identities, and students' requested names and genders will be added to other information contained in a district database.
Roughly the same privacy guidelines apply to students, but CPS staffers are barred from disclosing a student's transgender or gender nonconforming status — including the student's preferred name or gender pronoun — to "other staff members, parents, guardians or third parties" without a student's permission or legal authorization.
This week, the Marion County Public Schools of Ocala, Florida enacted a policy in a direct challenge to President Obama's Department of Education heavy-handed edict that schools nationwide must allow men to use girl's restrooms, locker rooms, and showers.
"My concern is that some pervert looking for the opportunity to dress up as a transgender and [prey on] innocent children and because of their perverted action scars [our] children for life." -- Parent testimony to school board
"There is no legal mandate requiring the district to override the privacy rights of students and concerns of parents, by permitting gender-confused (or attention-seeking) students to inappropriately use restrooms and facilities reserved for the opposite sex. No school district has ever lost federal funding for maintaining gender-appropriate facilities, despite the claims of activists." -- Roger K. Gannam, Liberty Counsel (offered to represent school board)
A north Florida school board has approved a measure to limit restrooms to students based on their birth sex, not their gender identity.
Board member Carol Ely says transgender students shouldn't get to choose which restroom to use, adding it's "reverse discrimination."
The district started allowing transgender students to choose their restroom two months ago. But a parent claimed his son's privacy rights were being violated because he's not comfortable sharing a restroom with a student who was born female but now identifies as male.
Roger Gannam, an attorney for the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, is representing the parent of the student who complained. He argued that there is no legal mandate requiring the district to permit transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
The new rule takes effect immediately, and the decision brought cheers from the hundreds who gathered at Tuesday night's school board meeting.
The school board resolution says transgender students are not protected by law and that students expect not to see people of the opposite sex in the bathroom.
School board vice chairwoman, Kelly King, said that the alternative [private/uni-sex] bathrooms are a safe place for transgender students. King also said she too expects lawsuits if the board approves the restriction.
"We know either way, we are probably going to have some lawsuits. You know, lawsuits regardless," King said.
In a work session last week, four of the five board members voted to restrict school bathrooms to students based on their birth sex, not based on their gender identity. School Board Chairman Bobby James was the only dissenter and said he wanted to continue to treat transgender issues on a case-by-case basis.
The letter, written by ACLU of Florida LGBT rights staff attorney Daniel Tilley, warns that the policy would not only be harmful to students but would also "violate Title IX sex discrimination requirements, violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and jeopardize federal funding for the school district."
. . . Superintendent George Tomyn said the board should wait if they wanted this to be a rule, or policy, and that they were not following proper protocol. [Board member Nancy] Stacy said this was not a rule, but a resolution as a statement to the community. Stacy called for the vote and it passed 4-1.
The local issue began two months ago after the district started allowing transgender students to choose their bathroom, stating that the Office for Civil Rights has made it clear that transgender students have that right.
Two weeks ago, local veterinarian Hal Phillips appeared at a board work session and said his son's Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. Phillips said his son – who attends Vanguard High -- was not comfortable sharing a bathroom with a transgender student, who was born female but now identifies as being male.
The Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of all students, “including bodily privacy in the context of restrooms and locker rooms,” according to board attorney Steven Lake, who shared a PowerPoint about prior court cases at a recent work session.
[Attorney Roger] Gannam, wrote that “students with gender confusion who truly believes he or she is the opposite sex should be treated with care, compassion, and kindness, but must not be officially affirmed in his or her confusion, no matter how sincerely-held.”
Conservative legal group Liberty Counsel represented the parent, Harrell “Hal” Phillips and his son, who the organization described as “devout Christians who believe strongly in both biblical modesty and constitutional privacy.”
Phillips’s son was “extremely upset” that a transgender student was using the boys’ bathroom, the group wrote. “This was a place where he has a reasonable expectation that he will not encounter the opposite sex. This deeply violated his religious beliefs of personal modesty and his constitutional rights to privacy.”
According to the measure, single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms designated for girls are restricted to people “who are biological females.” The same goes for facilities designated for boys and people “who are biological males.”
Students who want to use alternative facilities “shall always be offered comparable facilities, as required by law,” the measure states.
The measure also states that transgender individuals are “not a protected class” under the school district’s policies.
After 46 public comments, the board passed the resolution with a 4-1 vote. About 250 people cheered, sang Christian songs and waved banners that read, “God Belongs In My City.”
“The safety issue is the biggest,” said Carol Ely, the school board member for district 2. “Although nothing has happened yet, we’re going to see some things happening.”
Transgender students, former Marion County teachers, pastors, and concerned parents filled the meeting room, office, and parking lot of the school board’s building. Some wore Equality Florida stickers while most wore red stickers reading, “We Stand With God.”
“We cannot help that the Department of Education… is now working under an illegal, unadvertised rule,” said Nancy Stacy, school board member for District 1. “The Federal Department of Education doesn’t even have a right to constitutionally exist. I believe this rule is completely illegal.”
Retail giant Target Corporation has positioned itself in the middle of the Culture War by paying homage to the Gay/transgender Agenda in announcing that men are welcome in women's restrooms and fitting rooms in all stores. With the possibility of millions of customers vowing to boycott Target, the corporation faces a decision: Whom to serve?
Customers say:
“Why do you insist on overly accommodating a group that is so small and forgetting the rest of us?”
“I’m not shopping at Target anymore. I’ll give another store my business that doesn’t allow men in women’s restrooms.”
An online petition by the American Family Association calling for a boycott of Target reached more than 650,000 signatures early Tuesday morning and was growing by the minute. It was created in response to a statement on Target’s website last Tuesday stating that individuals could use the retail giant’s bathrooms and fitting rooms that correspond with their gender identities.
[The petition] also suggests that the retail chain should include a “unisex bathroom” for “transgendered customers.”
The petition started by the American Family Association on Wednesday raises concerns that Target's inclusive stance on transgender rights encourages sexual predators and puts women and young girls in danger, because "a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom."
"This is the best response we’ve ever had this quick," says AFA President Tim Wildmon, attributing the protest's viral nature to the fact that "everybody knows who Target is, and it’s an easy-to-understand issue."
Wildmon says Target stands "to lose a lot of customers who won't come back." But Target is standing by its policy.
On AFA's website, President Tim Wildmon said the boycott has resonated with consumers.
"Target's harmful policy poses a danger to women and children. Predators and voyeurs would take advantage of the policy to prey on those who are vulnerable. It's clear now that many customers agree. Target shoppers are leaving their allegiance to the store behind - and by the thousands every hour. No store can withstand that sort of loss."
"We want to make it very clear that AFA does not believe the transgender community poses this danger to the wider public," Wildmon writes. "Rather, this misguided and reckless policy provides a possible gateway for predators who are out there."
Last year, Target announced it was moving away from gender-specific signs in its stores. For example, removing the use of pink or blue to guide parents in the children's sections.
“Corporate America must stop bullying people who disagree with the radical left agenda to remake society into their progressive image,” AFA President Tim Wildmon said in a statement. “#BoycottTarget has resonated with Americans.
Wildmon said Target should find a “unisex compromise” to its current policy of allowing people to use bathrooms and changing facilities according to gender identity.
“A boycott, and customers leaving the store in droves, will cost even more,” Wildmon said. “If Target is truly committed to a solid policy that’s good for business—for everyone—and if they’re truly committed to the transgender community, the company will spend the money for a unisex compromise. Anything else smacks of an agenda-driven publicity stunt that stands in complete disregard for people who reject the policy.”
(Caution: News articles below are NOT satire.) Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City is the first college in the nation to designate all restrooms as "genderless" by replacing men/women signage with a simple designation of the type of toilet fixtures found inside (toilets, urinals, partitions, etc.). What's next? Because privacy has been deemed unnecessary, doors should simply be removed so that the type of fixtures and partitions may be viewed prior to entry, but even better, for safety (to counteract sexual predators), architects' new designs should place toilets and urinals in open spaces — along hallways, for example.
“We, who are in positions of power, have the obligation to not only stand with those without power, but to stand in front of them, clearing a path for them to walk.” [and pee!] -- Bill Mea, Cooper Union acting president
Bill Mea, acting president of the Cooper Union, informed his campus via email that soon all the college's bathrooms will be gender neutral. Anyone will be allowed to use any bathroom, and the signs designating bathrooms for either men or women will be replaced with signs that say either “Restroom With Urinals and Stalls,” “Restroom With Only Stalls” or “Restroom Single Occupancy.”
. . . many colleges and universities around the country have been slowly expanding support for transgender students by adding gender-neutral, single-stall bathrooms around campus or simply allowing people to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender identity. But Cooper Union appears to be the first college to completely eliminate gender distinctions in bathrooms.
The policy change arose out of a yearslong push by student activists for reform and an impromptu on-campus test of the policy. Several transgender students at Cooper Union began fighting for “degendered” campus bathrooms about two years ago and were joined along the way by up to 50 more students and others who helped in various ways. Last fall, some of them removed the signs from bathrooms in a building on campus and left in their place banners reading just “Bathroom :)” or “Degendered.”
An elite American college has removed men and women signs from its lavatories in a move aimed at allowing transgender students to use the public conveniences of their choice.
The decision – effectively enabling transgenders to decide which facility to use, regardless of their gender at birth – has been hailed as a victory by student campaigners.
. . . Cooper Union’s decision was not the product of a bruising legal battle or a drawn-out showdown before the media. And although it took nearly two years of urging by the student activists for the administration to act, the campus of 950 engineering and arts students doesn’t exactly feel battle-scarred.
“Cooper Union has always been on the forward edge of social justice issues,” [Acting President Bill] Mea said in a recent interview. “From the start, in 1859, we admitted women, African Americans. It has always been an institution that promoted equality amongst people.
“I never got any overt bigotry or nastiness,” he added. “Some would have preferred to keep things exactly as they were. But the majority of them were very supportive. People thought, ‘Why is this an issue at all?’ As in, why aren’t we already doing this?”
“When there’s a gendered space, there’s a sense of ownership to that space,” Mea said, explaining why the school chose to remove the men’s and women’s signs altogether. “When people see someone who they think doesn’t belong there, it can create stress for everyone. So we thought, let’s just take that away.” Almost all students and faculty are continuing to use the same bathrooms without issue, Mea added. “Visitors are figuring it out pretty quickly, too.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE. From "Restroom Signage" an E-mail from Bill Mea, Acting President, Cooper Union 3/18/16
I thank our students who raised the issue of gendered spaces and how they create health concerns and make some of us feel unsafe in an environment where health and safety are the top priorities in a student’s ability to learn. As is often the case, our students are at the forefront of raising both concerns and our consciousness on matters of importance. . . .
We, who are in positions of power, have the obligation to not only stand with those without power, but to stand in front of them, clearing a path for them to walk. I cannot change the outside world and how it treats transgender and gender non-conforming people, but I can change the Cooper Union environment to help everyone feel safe when they are inside our buildings. Please know that my decision comes from a personal sense of obligation to others, which is a reflection of my beliefs and, I believe, an extension of the beliefs held by our founder.
Going forward, we will identify the restrooms in the Foundation Building and 41 Cooper Square and the common-area restrooms in the Residence Hall as follows:
Restroom with Urinals and Stalls
Restroom with Only Stalls
Restroom Single Occupancy
We are creatures of habit and most of us will continue using those restrooms that we normally have used, but they will no longer be owned by a specific gender. I also ask that none of us practice gender policing, where we attempt to restrict someone from using the same restroom we are using or make them feel uncomfortable for doing so. If you feel uncomfortable sharing a restroom, then the single-occupancy restrooms will now be available to you. As with all changes, this will take a little time to implement, so please be patient as we work through the signage and lock (single-occupancy restrooms) changes.
Unlike the parents in several New Jersey school districts which recently enacted the Gay/Transgender Agenda open-bathroom policies, parents of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District are not standing still for a policy that allows students to hide an alternative "gender identity" from their own parents, and also requires the school to accept every child's sexual whim.
The Board of Education believes the responsibility for determining a student's gender identity rests with the student . . . Therefore, the Board will accept a student's assertion of his or her gender identity when there is consistent and uniform assertion of the gender identity, or any other evidence that the gender identity is sincerely held as a part of the student’s core identity. The Board of Education will not question or disregard the assertion of a student’s gender identity. The Board also recognized a transgender student’s right to privacy, and therefore, if a student represents that his/her parent(s)/guardian(s) is unaware of the student’s gender identity, the school and district staff must obtain consent from the student prior to communicating with his/her parent(s)/guardian(s) regarding the student’s transgender status. -- Board of Education, Pascack Valley Regional High School District
A crowd of more than 100 people debated the issue Tuesday night at Pascack Hills High School [in Montvale, NJ].
The policy would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, allow transgender students to participate in physical education classes and sports, as well as provide access to restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity.
Pascack Valley school officials plan to introduce the policy next week and vote on it the following week.
A new proposal by the Pascack Valley Board of Education would permit district students to use locker rooms and restrooms based on their gender identity and require staff to address students by the name and gender pronoun a student identifies with.
A student would be permitted to take physical education classes "consistent with their gender identity."
A student's records, including grade books and their permanent record, would be required to reflect the gender as well. Official student records would be changed if a parent documents a legal change of a student's name or gender.
Theresa Jordan, a Hillsdale resident and mother of a Pascack Valley High School student, said her objections over the issue of restroom use were centered on her religious beliefs, adding that she was “looking out for the rights of my daughter not to be exposed to something I don't want her to be exposed to.”
Pascack Valley temporarily tabled the proposal last month after parents at a Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting opposed it, with one woman questioning whether it opened the door to “sexual immorality.” . . .
The Pascack Valley proposal is similar to model school policies that have been circulating around the state. In North Jersey, North Arlington, Carlstadt, East Rutherford and Mahwah have adopted such policies. The North Arlington policy, approved earlier this year, uses the same language as the one in Pascack Valley. Last month, Toms River school officials put a similar proposal on hold after it met with opposition from parents and local religious leaders.
At the meeting, held at Pascack Valley High School, Hillsdale resident Bernadette Orso, a mother of a teenage son, called that part of the policy an "invasion of privacy" and not "proper or respectful."
Sherry Silk, a Montvale resident, agreed. In the instance of an anatomical boy identifying as a girl, she said it may "open a door" for "sexual immorality."
Carolee Adams, another Montvale resident, concurred, telling the board to postpone the vote and that the policy needs "further investigation and time."
While the board moved to table the policy after much public outcry, Board President Jeffrey Steinfeld told parents that the district's two principals, as well as the board attorney, told the board that they should have the policy in place, for one to avoid litigation. Board Member Arnold Scher was opposed to tabling the policy.
[Steinfeld] added that the policy committee reviewed the policy and a "tremendous amount of thought" went into it. Superintendent Erik Gundersen explained that the needs and rights of transgender students is a "significant factor for the policy."
"We have a strong policy in place," said Gundersen. "You have to allow [transgender students] the right to have access to a locker room. They have the legal right to have access. We don't have the legal right to say no."
Last year, when the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties in Washington state decided to open women's locker rooms to men, citizen Autumn Bennett publicly announced that she would cancel her YMCA membership. Then in 2016, this open-door-to-the-bathroom policy became state law, and as Bennett continued to speak against it, the political correctness police shut down her right to speak publicly, and the YMCA started firing female employees who opposed having men in the women's room.
“Morality, liberty, and freedom are still a thing in this country, and I will be damned if I let them shut me up. I won't lie, it is a bit scary, especially the fact that they [are] seeking to find out where I work and [making] violent threats, but I believe that truth is on my side and I see no reason to back down. This is for our kids and our future as a country.” -- Autumn Bennett
“I let my concerns be known. I'm a survivor of sexual assault and trauma, so for me, the danger posed by this policy was like immediately obvious. [But the YMCA administration] weren't really having any of that, so they needed a communications director who would be willing to sell what they were trying to do.” -- Kaeley Triller, YMCA employee fired for opposing open bathrooms
“The reality is there are sex predators. This is just a big welcome mat. [When authorities tell us] You can’t say, ‘Oh, you’re 6-feet-5-inches, 270 pounds and you have a beard, therefore you’re a man.’?” -- Joseph Backholm, Family Policy Institute of Washington
A group called “Keep Locker Rooms Safe,” which advocates for sex-assigned locker rooms, is being censored by Facebook because of a post criticizing gender-blind bathrooms.
Autumn Bennett, a manager of the Keep Locker Rooms Safe Facebook page, told The Daily Wire her page has been repeatedly censored by Facebook after she and her four colleagues posted about a Washington state bill mandating unrestricted access to male and female locker rooms based on "self-identified" sex affiliation. Bennett’s account was blocked while her colleagues were censored and reported by leftist Facebook activists who were offended by her posts.
Facebook protocol reserves the right to remove posts which are considered "credible threats to public figures, as well as hate speech directed at them - just as we do for private individuals."
Autumn said her post, which simply emphasized that men of all types are now legally permitted into women’s locker rooms, was hotly contested by trans activists and LGBTQ allies using social media to fight back. . . .
Autumn Bennett, the administrator of the page advocating for safety and privacy in locker rooms through sex-assigned bathrooms, told The Daily Wire the threats she has been receiving since the incident have gotten increasingly more aggressive. Trans activists have formed their own fake “Keep Locker Rooms Safe” Facebook pages in opposition to her group, mocking the group’s cause and harassing administrators.
One activist even posted a call to action for activists to investigate Bennett’s personal information, such as where she works.
Bennett and her colleagues decided to publicize the insults and threats from opposing activists by creating an album on their page filled with screenshots of the language that was used against her group, including phrases such as “Go f*** yourself” and “I hope your teeth fall out.” . . .
Although Bennett and her colleagues reported the aggressive language used against her group, Facebook responded by shutting their page down for having publicized what was being said to them.
Several trans activists bragged for having been the reason for Facebook’s censorship of Bennett and her colleagues.
On Dec. 26, a state regulation went into effect that guarantees access to restrooms, locker rooms, and other such facilities according to a person’s gender identity [NOT actual biological sex]. It affects public and private buildings, including schools, restaurants, stores and most places of employment.
The state Human Rights Commission says its new regulation is not introducing a new right, but clarifying a 2006 state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Hit by funding cuts, the commission just got around to rule-making.
Yet among some legislators and members of the public, it has generated an uproar. Sharon Ortiz, Human Rights Commission executive director, said state officials are “getting bombarded with calls.”
A new policy was set in place in April that allowed members to use the facility of the gender they identified with. But after news of the policy spread months later, many members became upset.
A second policy was put in place with more complex rules. This time, however, members of the transgendered community became upset because the new policy tied the revision to fears of child abuse.
The YMCA leadership says the purpose of the new policy changes is to be more inclusive in the community, but there has been backlash, with some fearful this will open the door to a lot more than those who are transgender.
This week, Autumn Bennett plans to cancel her family's YMCA membership due to the policy change.
“This for me has nothing to do with discrimination against any other sort of groups, it has everything to do with the safety of children,” said Bennett. “Any pedophile, potential pedophile, rapist can pose and say 'Hey, I identify as this particular sex, and I can go in there and take pictures or assault someone.'”
North Carolina legislators, along with Governor Pat McCrory, intend to overrule the Gay/Transgender Agenda ordinance that passed this week 7-to-4 in the Charlotte City Council, which takes effect on April Fool's Day.
“The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense and has created a major public safety issue by opening all bathrooms and changing rooms to the general public. I join my conservative colleagues and Governor McCrory in exploring legislative intervention to correct this radical course." -- Tim Moore, Speaker, North Carolina House of Representatives
The Charlotte City Council expanded the city's nondiscrimination ordinance late on Monday to add protections for marital and familial status, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity.
State House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said he would consider legislation to block the measure, which some critics fear would allow sexual predators to gain access to women's bathrooms.
Charlotte was one of the largest U.S. cities without a law explicitly protecting the LGBT community from discrimination, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group based in Washington. The revised law takes effect on April 1.
[Gov.] McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, said changing restroom rules could "create major public safety issues."
About 140 members of the public got one minute each to offer their opinions to the Charlotte City Council before Monday's vote. The council chambers were filled to capacity, and some speakers had to await their time outside.
Several hundred people stood outside in a wind-driven rain to protest, holding signs saying "No Men In Women's Restrooms" and "Keep Kids Safe."
Chris Williams, a 30-year-old father of three, passed out "No" stickers to the crowd, saying most Charlotte residents "stand with religious values."
Conservative activists have called on lawmakers to pass legislation to protect what they say are the religious rights . . .
When the ordinance goes into effect, a baker would no longer be able to refuse to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Other vendors would have to cater LGBT events, even if it is against their religious beliefs.
The city couldn’t revoke a business license if someone violated the ordinance. But it could seek an injunction that would force a business to comply.
If only the bathroom provision were removed, the other protections would stay, including those for transgender individuals.
A year ago, council members voted to remove the bathroom provision from the ordinance. But two council members, John Autry and LaWana Mayfield, voted against that version of the ordinance out of principle. They said they wouldn’t leave some members of the LGBT community behind.
As LGBT activists around the U.S. turn their attention toward expanding rights for transgender Americans, they have met growing opposition from lawmakers in conservative states who have repeatedly focused on bathrooms.
Forty-four bills that limit bathroom and locker room use or allow business owners to deny service to transgender people are currently under consideration in 16 states, according to a report released Monday by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT advocacy group.
The City Council first deliberated over a package of LGBT protections in March 2015 . . . But in the next local election, last November, the Human Rights Campaign and other advocacy groups got involved and helped elect two new council members who supported protections for transgender people.
"I think it's just inappropriate," Republican Sen. David Curtis, who represents a district outside Charlotte, told the Lincoln Times-News. "We have rules in our society and that's just one of the rules in our society. This liberal group is trying to redefine everything about our society. Gender and marriage — just the whole liberal agenda."
"Shame on Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the city council members" for passing the ordinance, [Billy Graham Evangelistic Association president Franklin] Graham wrote Tuesday, after the vote on the measure, which also says businesses can't discriminate against gay, lesbian or transgender customers and applies to places of public accommodation, such as bars, restaurants, stores as well as taxis.
If the ordinance were put to a vote in Charlotte, "I'm sure it would be overwhelmingly defeated by Democrats and Republicans alike," Graham wrote, praising council members Ed Driggs, Claire Fallon, Greg Phipps and Kenny Smith who voted "No."
"Are people just not thinking clearly? This law would allow pedophiles, perverts, and predators into women's bathrooms. This is wicked and it's filthy. To think that my granddaughters could go into a restroom and a man be in there exposing himself … what are we setting our children and grandchildren up for? There's not a public restroom in Charlotte that would be safe!"
Graham added that Charlotte's mayor and the supporting City Council members have perhaps "succumbed to the pressures from depraved sexual activists and are willing to put women and girls at risk like this."
