Hillary Clinton is cautiously backing President Barack Obama’ controversial decree that forces the nation’s 100,000 K-12 public schools to open bathrooms and locker rooms to people who claim to be transgender.
Over the weekend, a Clinton spokesperson said Hillary is supportive of Obama’s demands, but provided only a vaguely written endorsement that reduces the risk of sparking public opposition during her 2016 presidential campaign.
“Hillary Clinton applauds the Obama administration for taking actions this week to stand up for the rights of LGBT people–and particularly for the rights of transgender people–across the country,” Clinton spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa told The Washington Post. “As president, she will fight to make sure all Americans can live their lives free from discrimination.”
This transgender and “gender identity” issue could become a problem for Clinton, partly because she’s hoping to maximize her election-day support among women by pitching herself as the nation’s first female president. But many women, with or without kids in K-12 schools, may be hostile to Obama’s claim that men become female once they adopt a female “gender identity.”
The Obama administration issued its decree with a letter signed jointly by the departments of justice and education. The letter told the nation’s schools that long-standing laws against sex discrimination force school districts to adopt the far-left “gender identity” claim that gender feelings are the same as biological sex. This legal claim means that an male adult or male child who feels himself to be a woman must be treated as a woman for legal purposes. So if a man claims he feels like a woman and is refused entry to a women’s changing room because of his biological male sex, then he can sue for sex discrimination.
Obama’s decree means that 55 million K-12 kids and youths in 100,000 schools must give up their sexual privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms if even one student in their school claims to have a “gender identity” different from their sex.
Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, told Breitbart News there is no case law at all backing the claim by the federal government that it has the power to force all schools to provide mixed-sex bathrooms.
“There is absolutely nothing in the way of case law or statutory language that would legitimize such a mandate upon public schools,” Dacus added.
If the case is brought before the U.S. Supreme Court, the top court would strike down the Obama administration’s attempt at social engineering, Dacus said.
If Obama’s claim survives, it would be “a major setback for local control by school districts, as well as a major breach of trust for parents throughout the country who value the privacy protection of their sons and daughters in the locker rooms and showers at public schools.”
GOP presidential candidate and presumed party nominee Donald Trump also commented on the Obama’s administration’s foray into sexual regulation and said the government should stay out of the matter.
“I believe it should be states’ rights and I think the states should make the decision, they’re more capable of making the decision,” Trump told the audience for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Trump then added, I just think it should be states’ rights. I think many things actually should be states’ rights, but this is a perfect example of it.”
The Obama administration’s controversial decision came on the heels of a lawsuit filed by a large group of Illinois parents who are taking a suburban Chicago school district to court to stop the school from implementing its own pro-transgender bathroom policies. “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 lawsuit states.
Despite the lawsuit, though, the Chicago Public School system came out last week to inform parents of its decision to accede to the Obama administration’s demands to implement a transgender-friendly bathroom and locker room policy on the city’s already failing schools.
The whole discussion is set against a backdrop of another controversial pro-transgender agenda decision, this one by retail giant Target. In April the department store chain announced that men could use the women’s bathrooms and changing areas in its American stores any time they wished to do so. The decision caused a boycott petition that has drawn well over a million signatures.
Since April 19, when Target announced its decision, the company’s stock has lost $8.30 per share, or 10 percent. That means the company’s value is down almost $5 billion since the controversy arose.
In the face of the company’s stock loss and a full month after the decision that angered millions of customers, Target CEO Brian Cornell doubled down on the policy and stated Target was going to stand behind the decision many feel allows sexual predators to more easily prey upon vulnerable women and children in Target stores.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.