Obama Administration to Issue Decree on Transgender Access to School Restrooms

[Sunstone]

WASHINGTON — In the middle of a legal fight with North Carolina over transgender rights, the Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping decree telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

The letter to school districts that will go out Friday describing what they should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against, signed by officials of the Justice Department and Department of Education, 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.

[Source]

What's Obama got to lose? The goodwill of Republican voters?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Another reason to say I can't totally hate Obama. He has indeed done some good things, and this is another one. I got health insurance, my dad's job was saved, and now the law will be on my side when I have to pee. At least there are some positives coming to the end of his presidency, unlike Bush where I got to start working in unfavorable economic circumstances and then walk out of high school into worsening conditions and into the recession after a few steps.

 

[esmith]

as usually sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. maybe we would all be better off if he just plays golf for the rest of his term.

 

[Kapalika]

as usually sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. maybe we would all be better off if he just plays golf for the rest of his term.

What's the problem? Do you want to blame it on Obama when the article clearly states that it was signed by several officials?

Are you for this witchhunt against this mythical "other"? It's just a distraction and a dividing issue that the GOP uses to win votes while distracting their voters from how much they have ****ed them over with their economic policies.

For years trans people have had this issue with bathrooms and would get beaten up or arrested over it. Do you condone that? If not what alternative do you have?

 

[Skwim]

as usually sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. maybe we would all be better off if he just plays golf for the rest of his term.

Tee Hee!

Just wait until Hilary is in charge.


.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

as usually sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. maybe we would all be better off if he just plays golf for the rest of his term.

How is enforcing civil liberties not where his nose belongs?

 

[esmith]

What's the problem? Do you want to blame it on Obama when the article clearly states that it was signed by several officials?

Are you for this witchhunt against this mythical "other"? It's just a distraction and a dividing issue that the GOP uses to win votes while distracting their voters from how much they have ****ed them over with their economic policies.

For years trans people have had this issue with bathrooms and would get beaten up or arrested over it. Do you condone that? If not what alternative do you have?

How is enforcing civil liberties not where his nose belongs?

Because I don't think any President has the Constitutional right to write laws.
And I don't give a damn who takes a crap or **** in what bathroom. This again is politicians trying to appease the squeaky wheel in order to get elected or re-elected. This applies to both sides of the gender, sexual preference, arguments. It appears that main issue is in those facilities that one has to set down to relieve themselves. I'm fairly positive that all of those facilities have doors on them so how did this issue come up? Did someone open a door to the stall and shrike "there's a penis in that stall". I seriously doubt it, It is my opinion that the transgenders decided they wanted to become the squeaky wheel.to raise an issue that really wasn't a visible problem.

 

[Revoltingest]

How is enforcing civil liberties not where his nose belongs?

I'm all in favor of better bathroom policy regarding trans folk.
But when a single individual can dictate this for every school
across the land.....I smell too much centralization of power.

Remember.....
While great power can do wonderful things for you,
it's also capable of doing terrible things to you.

Thought experiment.....
Many are happy to have Obama wield great authority over us, more so than seems constitutional.
But imagine Sara Palin, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president.....& exercising the same level of power.
How's that feeln?

 

[metis]

Because I don't think any President has the Constitutional right to write laws.
And I don't give a damn who takes a crap or **** in what bathroom. This again is politicians trying to appease the squeaky wheel in order to get elected or re-elected. This applies to both sides of the gender, sexual preference, arguments. It appears that main issue is in those facilities that one has to set down to relieve themselves. I'm fairly positive that all of those facilities have doors on them so how did this issue come up? Did someone open a door to the stall and shrike "there's a penis in that stall". I seriously doubt it, It is my opinion that the transgenders decided they wanted to become the squeaky wheel.to raise an issue that really wasn't a visible problem.

It's "interesting" how you continually justify discrimination, whether it be opposed to women in combat roles in the military, or something like this. You say Obama should keep not "stick his nose in what it doesn't belong", and yet you do the same thing yourself.

There's this pesky little document called "the Constitution", and in that pesky little document there's something called "the 14th Amendment", and within that Amendment there is something called "the Equal Protection Clause". What Obama and the DoJ are doing is to apply the the EPC to the issue of public bathrooms, which is their right under the Constitution. If some communities or states oppose this action, they can take the DoJ to federal court. But so far they're not, and I think we should know why.

So, why have the Pubs done that? Because it's quite clear they want to use this as a political issue, which they've been doing for almost a year now. A couple of years ago or more, we nary heard a word on this issue.

 

[YmirGF]

But imagine Sara Palin, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president.....& exercising the same level of power.
How's that feeln?

Bingo.

 

[Skwim]

Because I don't think any President has the Constitutional right to write laws.

Which is why Obama isn't doing so. Or are you under the impression that issuing a presidential decree is writing law? In this case it's pretty much equivalent to issuing an order. In other governments issuing a decree may well be the same as making a law, but not in the US of A. United States presidents don't make laws. Their power is in implementing them.


.

 

[LuisDantas]

Many are happy to have Obama wield great authority over us, more so than seems constitutional.
But imagine Sara Palin, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president.....& exercising the same level of power.
How's that feeln?

That is a legitimate question to ask, and there are definitely downsides to that degree of centralization of power.

Still, one can hardly see a reason to turn a blind eye to what is ultimately and so clearly a positive decision.

Whether power shoud be less centralized is almost entirely a separate, even unconnected discussion. One that should be made alongside questions on the legitimacy of strategies of automatic opposition to whatever Obama proposes.


Edited to add: also, I think there is a need to go further than that and actively promote individual unisexual cabins of some sort. Both to give intersexuals their necessary space and also to lessen the blow of this change. There is no good reason why people must make a statement of sexual identity and listen to everyone else's just because they need to use a public bathroom.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

But imagine Sara Palin, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president.....& exercising the same level of power.
How's that feeln?

It feels like an excellent reason to do everything in my power to support the electoral defeat the GOP.

 

[Nous]

Because I don't think any President has the Constitutional right to write laws.

President Obama isn’t writing any new laws with this directive, but is merely applying what was initially the EEOC’s interpretation of federal court precedent concerning sex discrimination and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989), the Court held that “gender stereotyping” is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII. Since 2011 the EEOC has applied this understanding of illegal sex discrimination in the workplace to instances of discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity as well as to certain instances of discrimination on the basis of person’s sexual orientation. The recent Fourth Circuit decision applied this precedent concerning discriminatory "sex stereotyping" in violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools.

Many of the court cases of the past couple of decades hearing challenges to the laws that prohibited recognition of same-sex marriage discussed the fact that these laws were instances of sex discrimination.

 

[Nous]

Many are happy to have Obama wield great authority over us, more so than seems constitutional.
But imagine Sara Palin, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president.....& exercising the same level of power.
How's that feeln?

Certainly one big difference between the President and Palin and Trump is that the President is familiar with the law.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Because I don't think any President has the Constitutional right to write laws.
And I don't give a damn who takes a crap or **** in what bathroom. This again is politicians trying to appease the squeaky wheel in order to get elected or re-elected. This applies to both sides of the gender, sexual preference, arguments. It appears that main issue is in those facilities that one has to set down to relieve themselves. I'm fairly positive that all of those facilities have doors on them so how did this issue come up? Did someone open a door to the stall and shrike "there's a penis in that stall". I seriously doubt it, It is my opinion that the transgenders decided they wanted to become the squeaky wheel.to raise an issue that really wasn't a visible problem.

Excuse me, but us trans people didn't start the bathroom nonsense. We didn't change laws or make laws. The right-wing did, when they lost the "culture war" with gays and started attacking trans people. I've never had a problem using the men's room, even before starting testosterone therapy. Generally people don't care which restroom you use. But a couple of years ago, the right-wing started pushing a myth of "men in the women's room" and their pearl clutching alarms went off.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

as usually sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.

He who pays the piper calls the tune. If schools want federal funds, shouldn't the federal authorities have a say in how they are run? Note that this is merely "advice" not an order: as the man said, "walk softly but carry a big stick."

 

[esmith]

It's "interesting" how you continually justify discrimination, whether it be opposed to women in combat roles in the military, or something like this. You say Obama should keep not "stick his nose in what it doesn't belong", and yet you do the same thing yourself.

There's this pesky little document called "the Constitution", and in that pesky little document there's something called "the 14th Amendment", and within that Amendment there is something called "the Equal Protection Clause". What Obama and the DoJ are doing is to apply the the EPC to the issue of public bathrooms, which is their right under the Constitution. If some communities or states oppose this action, they can take the DoJ to federal court. But so far they're not, and I think we should know why.

So, why have the Pubs done that? Because it's quite clear they want to use this as a political issue, which they've been doing for almost a year now. A couple of years ago or more, we nary heard a word on this issue.

Again we have the same old problem. Reading comprehension. Let me state one more time......I don't have a problem with women in combat roles As Long As The Standards Are Not Lowered. Do you think you can comprehend that metis?
Did I not say:
And I don't give a damn who takes a crap or **** in what bathroom
Do you think you can comprehend that metis?

 

[Revoltingest]

It feels like an excellent reason to do everything in my power to support the electoral defeat the GOP.

That's one solution to strong centralized power, ie, having a single party in charge.
But I prefer even more than 2 parties.
And I don't trust any of'm to have total control.

 

[Revoltingest]

Certainly one big difference between the President and Palin and Trump is that the President is familiar with the law.

Familiarity is a good thing.
But when he's willing to subvert it, that goodness goes out the window.