Kerby Anderson

A group of 51 families whose children attend in Illinois have filed a federal lawsuit over transgender access to bathrooms and locker rooms. They did so because the Obama Department of Education has threatened to pull $6 million in federal funding unless the school officials allow a transgender boy to change in the girls’ locker room instead of in a separate facility.

The issue began when Student A filed a complaint with the Education Department. He was born a male but now identifies as a female, and has been accommodated in many ways by the school district. This included changing the student’s name on official records, allowing the student on the girls’ sports teams, and even granting student access to the girls’ bathrooms. The school district drew the line at providing the student unrestricted access to the girls’ locker rooms. Instead, they provided a separate facility down the hall. But that was not enough for Student A.

At issue is whether what the school district violated Title IX of the U.S. code. The Education Department essentially has redefined the word “sex.” Schools are not to discriminate against anyone on the basis of sex. Decades ago, everyone knew what that meant: boy and girls.

Now we are told that sex in the law is the same as “gender identity.” I don’t think that it is, but let’s have a debate about that in Congress. It is the job of the legislature, not the Obama Education Department, to make these types of changes in the law.

The lawsuit explains that the girls in the locker room do not want to see a “male in a state of undress.” It goes on to explain that they are also “afraid of being seen by, and being forced to share intimate spaces with, a male while they are in various states of undress.”

The Obama Education Department is essentially saying that either you allow this assault on student privacy and traditional values or lose $6 million in federal funds. School districts should not have to make this choice.