This week my mailbox has been flooded with letters from concerned constituents regarding President Obama’s decree on transgender school bathrooms. Concern is huge, and in all of the letters I have received there has not been even one who supports the Administration’s stand on this volatile issue.
In reference to the recent letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary, Catherine E. Lhaman and the United States Department of Justice Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Vanith Gupta, the letter outlined the new Title IX requirements regarding the use of bathrooms in public educational facilities. The letter reads: “As a condition of receiving federal funds, a school agrees that it will not exclude, separate, deny benefits to, or otherwise treat differently on the basis of sex, any person in its educational program of activities… a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.”
The letter continues, “The Departments… require that when a student or the student’s parents or guardians, as appropriate, notifies the school administration that the student will assert a gender identity that differs from previous representations or records, the school will begin treating the student consistent with the student’s gender identity. According to the letter, “…there is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity.”
It is important to note, however, that Dr. Paul R. McHugh, distinguished service professor of psychiatry and the former Psychiatrist-in-Chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital, has given his professional opinion that “transgenderism is a medical disorder that merits treatment.” Furthermore, in my opinion, this new federal government rule—or order, by the Executive branch—was promulgated without the approval of the legislative branch at both federal and state levels.
This directive from President Obama’s Administration which ordered our state to allow public school students access to restrooms or locker rooms of the opposite sex is a very dangerous policy to follow. If we as a society are firm in our intentions to instruct and to train our children on the differences between right and wrong, then we must stand firm against this ridiculous decree from the federal government or any entity that would force state governments to follow it. I believe we should reject this edict without regard to any potential financial cost.
The federal government has again overreached its authority in threatening to withhold federal funding for schools unless they “agree to not treat transgender students differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.” Some call the directive “blackmail” and “just another in a long line of unconstitutional abuses of power with a goal of transforming America from the top down into a politically correct nation, devoid of the morals and values that made our country the greatest nation in human history.”
Most believe, as was stated in one form letter I received, that “gender identification is offensive, intrusive, and totally lacking in common sense.” The letter goes on to say that ordering our state to allow public school students access to the restrooms or the locker rooms of those of the opposite sex is “a dangerous policy and a liability nightmare.” Overall, the majority of Americans’ response is that this directive is “ridiculous, absurd, authoritarian, and an abuse of power.”
Most of the letters I received urge our local school districts in Missouri to completely disregard the Obama Administration’s letter and to maintain an expected level of privacy that protects all students. Others say the real issue isn’t about bathrooms or transgender students at all; they say it is about the liberal left taking another vicious swipe at our country’s freedoms and about their efforts to destroy one more component of those freedoms.
In my opinion, the letter published by the U.S. Department of Education and the U. S, Department of Justice that requires the promotion and the protection of a behavior inconsistent with natural laws, as such, should not be followed.
13 comments:
Billy, kids are going to bed hungry in your District and you are worried about which bathroom the two transgenders in the District are using. Get your head out of the sand and actually do something for the people you represent.
It's not so much the confused transgenders we're worried about, but the sexual predators who use these policies to masquerade as transgenders. And, yes, this has already happened in various progressive cities that already have such policies like Seattle.
Your wife worked in a school and this became an issue with transgender students. How does she feel about this issue? How about getting rid of the TIF districts so multi billion dollar corporations pay there fair share of taxes?
Good job Bill,
Those Federal federal funds are the people's; not that sleazy tyrant in the White House.
8 more months and he's on his way back to Kenya
You have the attention span of a gnat. I suppose you do not remember the shape this country was in eight years ago.
I suppose you do not remember the shape this country was in eight years ago.
I remember.
Back when human being and fish can co-exist peacefully.
Back when people could work hard and put food on their family.
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
@ Harvey Hutchinson
That "sleazy tyrant" that you state will be "returning to Kenya" did more for Joplin after the tornado after the tornado did more for Joplin's good than you and Bill Reibolt have done in your rather extended lifetimes. As the President of the United States, he is within his rights to withhold federal funds to schools that (per the Sumpreme Court) illegally discriminate against individuals. It's thinking like that which results in your inability to even be elected to the Joplin City Council. I expect you and Reibolt prefer the genuinely tyrannical Trump, you share the racial bias as well.
I agree with most of the comments about helping your citizens and not chasing paper ghosts of transgenders. Even more is that I am tired of post similar to this one that is pandering to the scared little republican people we have in Missouri that would love to go back to the 1800's where you could kill Mormons for being Mormons and to whip your slave as they needed the training. These post by our local legislators and by our national legislators are nothing short of being cheap political campaign posts. How come we never hear of Blunt or Long being in the area till it is done and over with or they only show up at Republican groups and never allow question and answer periods of other minds. I would imagine they could not fess up to their kinship of big AG and big Business.
If predators want to pose as transgender, or opposite sex, they won't wait until it's legal to do so. They have been doing so all along. And, what about predators whose victims are of their own gender? Once again, they've been there all along. That's why we don't allow children to go to the restroom alone. I would think those who follow Christ, as Reiboldt claims to do, would want to do everything in their power to be of assistance to those whose lives are made difficult by the sheer genetic chance of having been born "different." Instead, it would seem that Christians, at least those involved in politics who want to assure they get the knee-jerk vote, persecute those who are different in order to not have to broaden their own horizons and tend to the marginalized, the sick, and the poor. Shameful. It is what keeps me from their hypocritical churches. I prefer to spend my worship time practicing the Gospel, not pretending with the Puritans.
As for Hutchinson, you are a horrible, bigoted idiot. Get off of FOX and go get some real facts. You are part of that knee-jerk crowd that so shames the Republican Party and Christianity that the likes of Trump have been able to take over the party and will probably destroy the country. I hope that will make you happy. Fool.
If predators want to pose as transgender, or opposite sex, they won't wait until it's legal to do so. They have been doing so all along.
Of course. But with these policies, they can't be stopped until they predate and actually harm others. Which is a bit late, prevention is much better than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards.
And, what about predators whose victims are of their own gender? Once again, they've been there all along. That's why we don't allow children to go to the restroom alone.
Indeed, but we don't need to be making the problem worse for parents.
It will not be hard to tell who the Transgenders and Homosexuals are if Trump is elected President. They will all have to sew pink triangles on all of their clothing.
Is there any data regarding the number of sexual predators lurking around school restrooms? If so, I sure hope someone shares it soon so I can make up my mind how I feel about this issue. In the meantime, I would suggest just closing the stall doors. Maybe restrooms should be shifted toward European models that stress privacy and dignity for all people, and then the witch hunt could move on to the next topic.
@Hutchinson, you are absolutely disgusting and ill informed. Glad you didn't win the election.
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