Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Trump Withdraws Obama's Guidance on Transgender Students' Bathroom Use

One has a hard time believing that the federal, state and local governments of the US have even a second to pay attention to which bathroom a kid uses during the school day. Surely, there are more pressing issues. However, not only did President Obama issue guidelines on the matter suggesting that the teen use the facilities they prefer, but the Trump administration has seen fit to withdraw those guidelines. The person to decide where to do one's business is the one doing the business. If a child doesn't feel comfortable in one set of facilities, no one has the moral authority to force the use of those facilities.

High school is hard enough as it is. Second in awfulness only to junior high, it is a period of physical, social and emotional confusion for a huge segment of the human race. Those who are different from the "normal" kids (a minority in themselves) have an even harder time. The fact is that social pressure to conform is extreme. Those who cannot, or will not, conform find that school authorities don't protect and serve them as they do the conformists, and the rest of society isn't particularly helpful either.

So, the Obama administration issued guidelines in advance of a Supreme Court decision. Rollcall explained the case succinctly, "A transgender student from Virginia named Gavin Grimm is challenging his school districts policy on transgender bathroom use as violating a 1974 federal anti-discrimination law." It is nice to know that the school district is cranking our Rhodes scholars at such a pace that they can spend time worrying about where the students relieve themselves. Gavin Grimm shouldn't have to sue in court -- the school shouldn't have a policy on such a private matter.

Yet, there the matter lay until the Trump administration reversed the guidelines yesterday. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stated, "This is an issue best solved at the state and local level. Schools, communities, and families can find -- and in many cases have found -- solutions that protect all students." There is no issue for schools, communities and families to address. It is none of their business.

The right worries that, if teens were allowed to go where they wished, rape in the bathroom would become the norm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Transgender individuals are almost without exception the victims of violence rather than initiators of it (this journal approves of violent self-defense). Moreover, it suggests that the kids are ill-behaved barbarians.

What is most telling is that the entire fight is about minors, people who don't have the same rights as others by virtue of their age. Most high school kids can't vote. Few, if any, have the kind of money needed to buy the attention of a politician with a campaign donation. Most schools have policies about student protest that includes suspension and expulsion if the kids complain. In short, they don't have any tools to fight back.

What is especially ludicrous is that the guidelines that were issued and then revoked have no legal force. They are just guidelines. Under Title IX, schools have to provide equal educational opportunities to everyone. The Trump administration was at pains to remind everyone of this fact when revoking the Obama suggestions.

Yet, the message is clear. Other people will decide where the kids relieve themselves. Another message is equally clear, for those who don't fit in. The people who have made life difficult are authorized to continue doing so.

© Copyright 2017 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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