Fox & Friends mocked students pushing for gender-neutral, uniform graduation robes in Maryland schools as the “P.C. police.”

Students in Montgomery County, Maryland, are pushing for district schools to switch from a gendered dual-color scheme to single-color robes for all graduates. According to The Washington Post, the effort started at James Hubert Blake High School after the school's gay-straight alliance became aware that four students at another county high school were barred from wearing the color robe that conformed with their gender identity:

The student group believed single-color robes were the best way to go for many of their peers, including those who are transgender or questioning their gender identity.

So they wrote to the principals last June, noting that colleges use robes in one color as well as practical benefits of a change: Same-color robes make it easier for staff to organize students and for families watching the ceremony to follow along. Girls would no longer have to buy white outfits to wear beneath white robes, and more families would be able to pass down robes from child to child.

On the June 10 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade teased a segment on the school's decision to adopt uniform graduation robes for all students by saying “I believe there's way too many gender-bending stories in the news right now”:

Later in the show, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck introduced a segment on the graduation robes by claiming “the P.C. police are on patrol in Maryland schools, and this time mandating that graduation robes be gender-neutral.” Hasselbeck spoke to Julie Gunlock, the Culture of Alarmism Director of the conservative Independent Women's Forum, who asserted that students should worry about “real hardship in the world” like ISIS: 

GUNLOCK: I do think it's also important that educators and parents teach kids about real hardship in the world, I mean, in ISIS-controlled Iraq, you have women that are being raped and mutilated and murdered. Homosexuals are being thrown off rooftops; Christians are being hunted down and executed. This seems to me the real issues we should be concerned about -- not having to wear a color that conflicts with your own identity for one hour.

Blake High School's Allies 4 Equality explained the significance of gender-neutral robes in a letter to county principals: “Graduation is a day of celebration. People don't feel like they can celebrate if they feel pressured to accept gender roles that make them uncomfortable. Some in the community may protest that two colors of robes is a tradition. Our concern is that this tradition is hurtful to some students, who may not have the courage to speak out about it.”