While much of the debate regarding transgender access to bathrooms is based on whatever gender individuals identify as rather than their biological gender, all of this is mostly abstract. Remarkably few people are actually transgendered, and therefore few actually know a transgendered person these policies would affect.
However, in one Illinois school district, it’s not an abstract concept. Instead, it’s a central issue in the upcoming school board race, where three parents are running primarily on this one issue, the AP reports::
A school board race in suburban Chicago centers on transgender student access to locker rooms and restrooms, with a slate of candidates in Tuesday’s election promising to roll back a policy that allowed a transgender student to use the girls’ facilities.
Three parents seeking seats on the Palatine-based Township High School District 211 school board have pledged to end locker room and bathroom access for students for students of the opposite biological sex. The district reached an agreement in late 2015 with a student that allows her to use the girls’ locker rooms and restrooms.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which supported the student in her lawsuit against district, said that if all three parents calling themselves Parents With Purpose win seats on the board, there will likely be enough votes to roll back the district’s policy. The parents’ campaigns have drawn financial support from Richard Uihlein, a businessman from Lake Forest who has given millions to conservative causes.
ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka said the suburban Chicago case sticks out because elsewhere in the U.S. transgender access issues involving students have been worked out in a few school board meetings and without court intervention.
“In other school districts . most of that anger and angst really did dissipate. Instead, in this case, we’re 2 1/2 years into this and it shows no sign of letting up,” he told the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2nzPY8E ). “They’ve decided to make a school board race out of it. It seems out of proportion and out of bounds of what we’ve seen happen in other places.”
There’s no mention of how good a chance these three candidates actually have of winning, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find some resentment in the community. After all, the school offered to make an accommodation for the transgender student, apparently a biological male who identifies as a female, but that only brought about the power of Uncle Sam when the Obama administration used Title IX to threaten the school’s federal funding.
For the left, this seems like a very cut and dried issue. They argue that people are the gender they identify as, simple as that.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. For example, a high school student is unlikely to have begun much of the work of transitioning to the gender they identify as. That means the student would still be a functional male or female and would be thrust upon a room full of members of the opposition biological gender. Still no problem? Then remember that being transgender does not have any bearing on which gender one is attracted to. For example, someone born male may identify as a female, but also be attracted to women.
And you’re going to thrust someone who is biologically male and who is attracted to females into a room where those females will be stripping down to change clothing?
Can you see why this is something that bears discussion?
If so, consider yourself far more insightful than the Obama administration or many of the leftists pushing for these policies.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member