Right-Wing Media Lash Out Over President Obama’s Call For Protections For Transgender Students

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Written by Nick Fernandez

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President Obama is expected to announce “a sweeping directive” that will instruct public school districts around the country “to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity” in order to prevent discrimination. Right-wing media figures are already lashing out at the initiative claiming it is driven by “a fringe movement of nutters” and peddling the myth that protections for transgender students will lead to the sexual assault of girls.

President Obama Will Announce “Sweeping Directive” Instructing Public Schools To Allow Transgender Students To Use Bathrooms That Match Gender Identity

NY Times: “The Obama Administration Is Planning To Issue A Sweeping Directive Telling Every Public School District To Allow Transgender Students To Use The Bathrooms That Match Their Gender Identity.” President Obama will announce a directive calling on every public school district across the country “to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.” According to The New York Times, “The declaration -- signed by Justice and Education department officials -- will describe what schools should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against.” From the Times’ May 12 article:

The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

A letter to school districts will go out Friday, adding to a highly charged debate over transgender rights in the middle of the administration’s legal fight with North Carolina over the issue. The declaration — signed by Justice and Education department officials — will describe what schools should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against.

It does not have the force of law, but it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid. [The New York Times, 5/12/16]

Right-Wing Media Characterize Anti-Discrimination Announcement As “Tyranny” That Will Lead To Assault Of “Your Daughters”

RedState: “The Decree Is That If You’re A 12 Year Old Girl, There May Be A Penis Next To You In The Bathroom. But Don’t You Dare Complain.” RedState’s Caleb Howe characterized Obama’s announcement as the president “exercising executive authority to enforce his will and a leftist vision on America.” Howe continued, saying the president’s announcement “is bald abuse of power” and lamented the “[n]aked bullying” of those opposed to protections of transgender students. From RedState’s May 12 article:

Bypassing the people, and the states, and the courts, President Obama is once again exercising executive authority to enforce his will and a leftist vision on America. Not under threat of law, but threat of cut funding. The New York Times reports tonight that the President will issue a “decree” ordering all public schools in the country to allow “transgender students” to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice.

[…]

So they cannot be required to use the bathroom of their genetic, physical gender, and moreover, cannot be required to use private or individual bathrooms which would avoid everyone’s discomfort. The decree is that if you’re a 12 year old girl, there may be a penis next to you in the bathroom. But don’t you dare complain.

Seriously, don’t bother to complain. The letter says your concerns don’t matter one bit. That’s not my interpretation, it literally says that. It states that schools are required to comply “even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns.” So, you know, tough luck.

[…]

This is bald abuse of power. Naked bullying, literally. But it doesn’t matter. What you think doesn’t matter. Not to the left, and not to President Obama. [RedState.com, 5/12/16]

Erick Erickson: “This Is A Fringe Movement Of Nutters Who The Obama Administration Has Decided Have Valid Legal Claims To Pee Where They Wish.” The Resurgent’s Erick Erickson argued that the fight for statutory protections for transgender people “is a fringe movement of nutters.” Calling transgender identity a “mental illness,” Erickson also suggested that because “boys will be boys … It will end badly,” implying the protections will lead to sexual assault of girls in bathrooms. From The Resurgent’s May 12 article:

The Obama Administration is ordering all public schools in the United States to allow boys to go to the girls’ bathroom and girls to go to the boys’ bathroom. While the percentage of Americans suffering the mental health disease of transgenderism is less than one percent of the nation, the Obama Administration has decided we are no longer allowed to note that it is a mental health issue.

Not only that, but the administration is doing this contradictory to the language of the transgender movement. That movement believes that gender and sex are two different things. It is the only way they can justify the pseudo-science they think proves they aren’t crazy. But the Civil Rights Act the Obama Administration is using to justify its expansive new order references “sex”, not gender.

Normal people realize that sex and gender are the same thing and gender is just a synonym for sex. But the entirety of transgenderism as something real demands that sex and gender be two different things. In their language, sex is what you are born as and gender is what you decide you are.

This is a fringe movement of nutters who the Obama Administration has decided have valid legal claims to pee where they wish. There is no uniform definition for the mental illness, so if you decide tomorrow to be of the opposite sex, you’d qualify.

We know that boys will be boys and we can see this to its logical and final conclusion. It will end badly. But the left will not care. [The Resurgent, 5/12/16]

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Obama Administration Declares Itself God-Baal, Redefines Reality By Targeting Children.” The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro argued that the announcement equated to the administration declaring itself God, and claimed they were “redefin[ing] reality by targeting children.” Shapiro called being transgender a “mental illness,” and suggested the administration was “using children as a propaganda tool.”

Last year, the Supreme Court declared itself God by asserting that no decent morality would prevent government from subsidizing two people of the same sex forming a legal relationship to have sex with one another. Today, the Obama administration went even further, declaring in their Infinite Wisdom that Genesis 5:2 had been officially revoked: all schools in America, says the Obama administration, must now allow “transgender people” into the bathroom of their chosen gender identity, or face the loss of federal funding or the threat of lawsuit. If Billy wants to shower next to Jane, all he has to do is call himself a girl – and if you deny him his identity, you are a bigot who must be sued or fined by the feds.

[...]

This is Orwellian Newspeak. Young girls would presumably like to enjoy an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence – and the same Obama administration proclaiming transgender bathrooms the law of the land says that young men must be taught not to enter into a “rape culture.” Yet if a boy says he’s a girl, we’re supposed to let him right on in to stare at the 15-year-old naked girls showering in the locker room, and to expose himself to them. The evil of using children as a propaganda tool is incredible, too. Why not begin with federal facilities? Because the left tries to use supposedly victimized transgender children to gin up sympathy, even if that means endangering young girls on a far more frequent basis. Kids are mere pawns in the game to define reality.

There’s another problem, too: there’s no way to tell who is being honest about his/her mental illness, and who is lying to get into bathrooms. [The Daily Wire, 5/13/16]

Rush Limbaugh: Obama’s Actions Are “The Equivalent” Of “Suggesting That Men Should Have Visitation Rights To Girls’ Bathrooms.” Rush Limbaugh called allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with “the equivalent” of men having “visitation rights to girls’ bathrooms.” Limbaugh went on to claim Obama’s announcement “is being used as a smokescreen to distract us from all the things the regime is doing.” From the May 13 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Can somebody explain to me why transgender people have become so important to Barack Hussein O? I’m serious, from these edicts that transgender bathrooms now have to be built in public schools. How does it look, remember back when a bunch of people took their kids out of school to start teaching them at home? And remember how they were called a bunch of fruitcakes and extremists, and paranoid. And how do they look to you now? They look somewhat prescient, do they not? You look at what’s going on in the American public school system, but what is it with this transgender bill. I know that most of the story is that the gay movement has realized its agenda. So they’ve got to transfer that energy somewhere and transgender is it. I mean, I warned you of that way back in April of last year. And I’m going to remind you of that warning in. But, beyond all that what is this? I mean, these are really, really extreme actions. It’s the equivalent of asking or suggesting that men should have visitation rights to girls’ bathrooms. To go all out here and make this -- trying to claim it’s Title IX in one instance and then Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in another when it’s not even mentioned? Civil Rights Act and all the Title IX legislation, there's not a single reference to transgendered people. They’re less than one half of 1 percent of the population. So what's going on? Is all this is being used as a smokescreen to distract us from all the things the regime is doing? And do not doubt that one. Do not doubt this is designed to get all the social issues people all ratcheted up and loaded for bear, and energetic -- start writing pieces, going on TV to talk about it, while the regime is over here, unobserved, doing whatever it is that’s really on their minds. So is this just a distraction? Why impose this on school children? [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 5/13/16]

The Daily Caller’s Derek Hunter: “In 2016 The US Government Favors Illegal Aliens Over Citizens And People Who Believe They’re A Different Gender Than Science Show Them To Be.” In a series of tweets, The Daily Caller’s Derek Hunter blasted the expected announcement from President Obama:

[Twitter.com, 5/12/16, Twitter.com, 5/12/16, Twitter.com, 5/12/16]

Mark Levin: “Obama’s Tyranny Proceeds.”

[Twitter.com, 5/12/16]

NY Post’s Seth Mandel: “Obama Admin Is Decidedly In The [Creepy Gov’t] Camp.” In a series of tweets, The New York Post’s Seth Mandel preemptively criticized the president’s announcement:

[Twitter.com, 5/12/16, Twitter.com, 5/12/16, Twitter.com, 5/12/16]

Media Research Center’s Dan Gainor: “Obama Wants Your Daughters To Be Sexually Assaulted. But It’s OK Because He’s Liberal. #LGBT.”

[Twitter.com, 5/13/16]

The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney: “It’s Tempting To Believe Obama And His Party Are As Obsessed With Bathrooms As They Behave. But It’s Pure Cynicism.”

[Twitter.com, 5/13/16]

Research From 23 School Districts That Have Trans-Inclusive Policies Showed No Incidents Of Inappropriate Behavior

Seventeen School Districts Debunk “Bathroom Predator” Fears About Protections For Transgender Students. Seventeen school districts across the country, representing over 640,000 students, have implemented nondiscrimination protections allowing transgender students to use the facilities that correspond with their gender identity. None of them have experienced issues concerning inappropriate bathroom use. [Media Matters, 6/3/15]

Six California School Districts Report No Inappropriate Behavior After Implementing Protections For Transgender Students. Media Matters contacted officials from a number of California's largest school districts to determine if predictions about issues arising from providing protections for transgender students had proved accurate in the first month of a statewide school nondiscrimination law. None of the school districts reported incidents of harassment or inappropriate behavior as a result of the law. [Media Matters, 2/11/14]